Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces advance in Zaporizhzhia as Hungary says Ukraine has ‘no chance’ of winning
Vladimir Putin’s forces made significant advances in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, capturing two settlements.
The Russian defence ministry said troops had seized Rivnopillya, which puts the southern town of Huliaipole in danger of being the target of Russian pincer movements. It said Russian forces had also taken Mala Tokmachka, just 9km from Orikhiv.
Ukraine has not commented. Its top general warned last week of worsening fighting along parts of the Zaporizhzhia front, including around Huliaipole, and Kyiv has acknowledged pulling back from several villages in the area.
Meanwhile, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said Ukraine has “no chance” of winning against Russia and denounced Europe’s financial support to Ukraine as “just crazy”.
“We have burned already €185bn, and … our intention is to to burn even more. So we finance a country which has no chance to win the war,” Orbán said told Mathias Döpfner, CEO of German media group Axel Springer.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is in France today to seal deals on the supply of air-defence capabilities, warplanes and missiles.
