THE Russian invasion of Ukraine has been advancing at an incredibly slow pace – with Kyiv’s “dronegrinder” warfare miring Putin’s summer offensive.

The rate at which Moscow is capturing land has been dubbed “slower than a snail” – all while the human cost of Russian casualties is sky high.

After 448 days of fighting inside Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, the Russians reportedly only managed to take control of 50 per cent of the city.

Which means the troops, on average, are only able to take 0.00629 square miles of land per day – which is a painfully low conversion rate.

Even snails, which have a speed of 0.03 miles per hour, can cover more land than what the Russians have gained in the region.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has ramped up its defences as it seeks to thwart Vladimir Putin’s final killer summer offensive, which military analysts say could start as early as July.

Ukraine’s fierce resistance forced Russian troops to stop in the Sumy region’s border area, Kyiv’s military Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky revealed.

The military boss said that the Ukrainian armed forces managed to tie down a 50,000-strong force and stabilise the frontlines “as of this week”.

It comes after Putin cemented his territorial ambitions by proclaiming “all of Ukraine” belonged to Russia and threatening to seize Sumy.

Syrsky added: “In the Pivnichnoslobozhanskyi and Kursk sectors, we’ve managed to tie down about 50,000 Russian troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades.”

Some 125,000 Russian soldiers are reportedly massing along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence.

Ukrainians have now tasked a special defence group to strengthen fortifications near the frontlines, build anti-drone corridors and “kill zones”

Though the Russian forces recently seized Andriivka (north of Sumy City) and advanced southeast of Oleksiivka, according to the ISW assessment.

Putin’s battlefield casualties have soared past the bloody one million milestone after 40 months of meatgrinder war. 

Ukraine’s fierce resistance forced Russia to pay a mighty toll for every inch of land it has taken, and its advances remain painfully slow.

The staggering milestone includes troops who have been killed or wounded so severely that they cannot fight on.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, one million Russian military troops have been put out of action since February 24, 2022, with 628,000 of those casualties occurring in the last six months.

Burning through a million troops has won Putin just 20 per cent of Ukraine’s total territory – mainly in southern and eastern areas – which is a humiliating conversion rate.

A defiant Ukraine stunned the world with its new-age drone warfare, which now kills more Russians than conventional battlefield techniques, such as artillery firing and battle tanks.

One-way attack drones now account for almost 80 per cent of all the casualties in the war, with experts now dubbing it a “dronegrinder” war.

Inside Operation Spiderweb

By James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter

UKRAINE’S shock sleeper drone blitz on Russia’s bomber fleet has delivered a hammer blow to Vladimir Putin’s nuclear arsenal.

The SAS-style strike against four airfields deep inside Russia is reminiscent of the most daring raids of the WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis.

Volodymyr Zelensky oversaw Operation Spiderweb – much like Winston Churchill did as Britain struck deep behind enemy lines.

Putin’s doomsday bomber fleet is now crippled with 41, or a third, of his most prized aircraft lying in smouldering wrecks on tarmac.

Ukraine said the sneak attack was worth $7bn (£5.2bn) in damage to Russia – caused by only 117 cheaply made drones.

Ukraine’s spies spent 18 months putting the plan into action and struck on the eve of fresh peace talks in Istanbul.

The drones and the containers were smuggled into Russia separately and were pieced together right under Vlad’s nose.

Clueless lorry drivers then parked the containers next to Russian airbases – where they sat and waited in plain sight.

Then, on the morning of June 1, the fleet of flying bombs rose over the far reaches of Russia – and the most daring military operation of the war began.

Nondescript shipping containers parked in laybys and verges had attracted little attention – before their lids blew open and the drone swarms poured out.

The craft buzzed as they took off into the air and only had to travel a short distance to their valuable targets.

Each of the 117 drones had their own dedicated pilot and Russia had little defences to protect their bases and stop them.

Drones with cameras sent video back to HQ in Ukraine of the moment craft struck their targets and explosions ripped into the sky.

Thick black smoke climbed high, with civilians near the bases sending video of Ukraine’s successes around the world.

The furthest strike was Belaya Air Base – so far inside Russia that the closest neighbouring country is Mongolia.

Olenya Air Base near Finland and Ivanovo and Dyagilevo near Moscow were also struck in the country’s west.

IS PUTIN BLUFFING?

Some senior commanders in Ukraine believe the Russian attack on Sumy could be a feint and that Moscow is actually preparing to attack further south to push further into the Donbas.

If so, Russia is likely to attack through three areas near each other in the Donbas – Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk.

Vlad already controls more than 95 per cent of Luhansk, but capturing Donetsk would cement his control over the Donbas region and achieve a war aim, albeit a scaled-down one.

The Donbas is an important industrial and mining area – and some 200,000 to 300,000 people still live in four cities controlled by Ukraine.

Moscow’s military planners will be weighing up whether they want to fight through the cities like they did in Bakhmut or encircle them by going around through farmland.

Kramatorsk is the closest city to the front line and is under constant attack by Russia.

Brutal fighting is going on in the city – with a recent kamikaze drone strike that managed to get inside an armoured vehicle carrying Ukrainian soldiers.

Russia has an opportunity to conduct a pincer movement around Kostiantynivka with its soldiers controlling land to the east and west of the city.

Instead of attacking the city directly, the could bypass it and attack Druzhkivka behind it – thereby cutting Kostiantynivka and any Ukrainian soldiers still there off.

In nearby Pokrovsk, Russia already has a salient, a bulge, out from the front line after a previous advance.

The Pokrovsk front line is also very near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast – a region of Ukraine the Kremlin hasn’t yet officially claimed.

A successful breakthrough there might mean Putin can actually expand his war goals.

THE SOVIET RHETORIC

It comes after Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people”.

He declared: “In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours.

“There is a saying: wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours,” he added.

The narrative is central to Putin’s rhetoric, which he has used to justify his invasion of Ukraine.

He reiterated his demand that Kyiv accept the realities of Moscow’s territorial gains and abandon plans to join Nato.

Putin said: “We aren’t seeking Ukraine’s surrender, we want them to recognise the realities on the ground,” adding that Moscow has repeatedly warned Kyiv to make a deal.

Asked about Moscow’s goals in Ukraine, Putin threatened to take Sumy – a key Ukrainian city – as part of the creation of a “buffer zone”.

He repeated that Moscow was “advancing on all fronts” and that his troops had penetrated up to seven miles into the Sumy region.

Putin said: “We have to create a security zone along the border.

“We have no objective to take Sumy, but in principle I do not rule it out… They pose a constant threat to us, constantly shelling the border areas.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described Putin’s comments as “deranged” and called for Kyiv’s allies to slap “devastating sanctions” on Russia.