Russia’s ‘cauldron’ tactic may be tipping Donbas battle in its favour

Analysis: smaller encirclements that are pounded with artillery are forcing exhausted Ukrainian forces to yield

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

After several weeks of deadlock, Russia's military appears to have found a way to advance in the Donbas - pounding it with such intense, unsophisticated artillery that Ukraine's exhausted defenders are having to yield.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy rarely gives casualty figures but Ukraine's president said last Sunday that 50 to 100 Ukrainian troops die on Donbas frontlines each day", meaning perhaps 3,000 a month in the grisly war of attrition.