“Lobkove is ours,” Rogov said.

He added that Russian forces had fired at Ukrainian positions with “tanks, mortar and artillery” in a dozen villages in the region.

03:33

Russian man who fled Putin’s draft stuck at South Korean airport for over 2 months

Russian man who fled Putin’s draft stuck at South Korean airport for over 2 months

The Ukrainian army said on Friday that “more than 20 settlements” had been attacked.

Rogov had announced a “local offensive” in the region – near the town of Orikhiv – a day earlier. He told the Russian state-run Tass news agency on Friday that this was “not yet the storming” of the town, which lies southeast of Zaporizhzhia, but that fighting had reached its suburbs.

“Hills have been taken that determine fire control over Orikhiv and other settlements,” he said.

The front in southern Ukraine has been considerably quieter recently than the east, with Moscow withdrawing from the major city of Kherson in November.

Russia said it had also captured a hamlet south of the eastern town of Bakhmut, now the epicentre of fighting between Kyiv and Moscow’s forces.

The defence ministry said pro-Russian separatist forces with artillery and aviation support had taken control of Klishchiivka in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Klishchiivka, which had an estimated population of around 500 people before Moscow sent troops to Ukraine, lies southwest of Bakhmut, suggesting Russian forces were attempting to encircle the town.

Russia launched its offensive to seize the industrial hub last year but has failed to make decisive gains, although capturing the Donetsk region is now Russia’s primary aim of the conflict.

The defence ministry and mercenary group Wagner said last week they had wrested control of Soledar in Donetsk, Moscow’s first claim of victory after months of battlefield setbacks.

Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk are two of four Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in September were annexed and part of Russia.

The Kremlin has vowed to use all available means to push Ukraine forces from them.

A UN spokesperson said a three-truck convoy brought aid to around 800 people close to Soledar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Friday, the first such delivery to the area by the global body as it seeks to step up front-line aid in the war.

The supplies of food, water, hygiene and medicines were being offloaded on Friday morning in areas controlled by the Ukrainian government, Jens Laerke from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said.

He did not give an exact location, in an area that has been subject to intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces, but said the vehicles departed from Dnipro.

“People there are in dire need of aid so we are indeed happy this convoy has reached [them],” Laerke added.

He gave no details of how Ocha was able to ensure the safety of the UN convoy, saying only that the parties to the conflict were notified in advance. He said Ocha was seeking to increase the number of aid convoys close to the front lines and that more were expected in the days ahead.

Also on Friday, the UK vowed to help Ukraine “pursue criminal accountability for Russia’s illegal invasion”, as international support grows for a special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly branded Moscow’s renewed military assault on its neighbour, launched last February, “an outrageous violation of the rules-based international order”.

He said London had accepted an invitation from Kyiv to join “a core group of like-minded partners” seeking legal accountability, with a new “hybrid” tribunal among the potential options to be assessed.

“Alongside other international partners invited by Ukraine, the UK will shape thinking on how to ensure criminal accountability for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” his department said.

“This includes assessing the feasibility of a new ‘hybrid’ tribunal.”

A specialised court could be integrated into Ukraine’s national justice system but have foreign elements, such as international prosecutors and judges and foreign funding.

The idea first emerged late last year and won the backing of German Foreign Minister Anna Baerbock on Monday during a visit to The Hague, which hosts the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It would get around the fact that the ICC cannot prosecute Russia for the “leadership” crime of aggression, because Russia does not recognise the court.

The ICC has nonetheless launched an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, because Kyiv has accepted its jurisdiction.

But there are growing Western calls for a better mechanism to target Russia’s civilian and military leadership for ordering and overseeing the invasion.

“The atrocities we’ve witnessed in Ukraine are diabolical … [and] must not go unpunished,” said Cleverly.

“That’s why the UK has accepted Ukraine’s invitation to join this coalition, bringing our legal expertise to the table to explore options to ensure Russia’s leaders are held to account fully.”

However, there are major hurdles before any proposed special court could even be created, let alone put Russian leaders on trial.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, who held talks with Baerbock on Monday, has opposed the creation of a special tribunal for Ukraine, fearing it could undermine his own probes into Russia’s war.

Meanwhile, broad international support would be seen as crucial to its formation, before the thorny issue of how to bring any suspects before it is tackled.

Russia has said any Ukraine tribunal would lack legitimacy, and would refuse to extradite suspects.

That announcement came as Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that countries backing Ukraine needed to focus not only on sending new weapons to Kyiv, but looking at ammunition for older systems and helping maintain them.

“We need also to remember that we need to not only focus on new platforms, but also to ensure that all the platforms which are already there can function as they should,” Stoltenberg said on the sidelines of a meeting of defence ministers on arming Ukraine.

Following Thursday’s announcement that Nato allies would provide Ukraine with heavier weapons, Germany’s new Defence Minister Boris Pistorius denied that Berlin was unilaterally blocking the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine and said the government would be ready to move quickly on the issue if there was consensus among allies.

“There are good reasons for the deliveries and there are good reasons against, and in view of the entire situation of a war that has been ongoing for almost one year, all pros and cons must be weighed very carefully,” Pistorius said.

“I’m very sure there will be a decision in the short term, but I don’t know how the decision will look”, Pistorius said later on Friday at a meeting of Ukraine Contact Group – a group of allies coordinating their military support for Ukraine – at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany.

Meanwhile, Russia’s neighbour Finland announced on Friday that it will more than double its previous aid to Ukraine by sending a new package worth €400 million (US$434 million) to the war-torn country.

The package is the 12th delivery from the Nordic EU country and compares to a total value of €190 million from the previous 11 packages combined.

The decision means Finland is now sending a total of €590 million in defence materiel to the embattled country.

The new package contains heavy artillery and ammunition, Finnish Defence Minister Mikko Savola said. Further specifics were not available.

Finland, along with neighbouring Sweden, has applied for membership of the Nato military alliance in the wake of Ukraine war. Finland’s border with Russia is about 1,340 kilometres (830 miles).