RUSSIAN forces claimed some battlefield success today, though Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine struggled to gain momentum almost a year after it began, while Ukrainian officials spoke of the country’s forces needing another few months before they can stage their own offensive.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its troops had broken through two Ukrainian defensive lines in the eastern Lugansk region and pushed back Ukrainian troops some two miles, forcing them to leave behind equipment and the bodies of those killed.

It was not possible to independently verify Moscow’s claim. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

Russian artillery, drones and missiles have been relentlessly pounding Ukrainian-held eastern areas for months, indiscriminately hitting civilian targets and wreaking destruction, as the war largely slowed to a grinding stalemate in the winter.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said his country’s forces would need “a few months” to learn how to use new Western weapons before they can try to push the Russians out of the country.

The Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which together make up the industrial Donbass region bordering Russia, continue to bear the brunt of the invaders’ bombardments as Moscow reportedly moves more troops into the area.

In Lugansk, the number of Russian ground and air attacks is “growing every day,” Governor Serhii Haidai said on Ukrainian television.

“The Russians were able to transfer new forces for the offensive and now they are trying to overwhelm us with sheer human mass,” Mr Haidai said.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said that one town had come under “non-stop” fire from multiple rocket launchers for over three hours on Tuesday, damaging at least 12 residential buildings.

At least 12 civilians were wounded when Russian forces struck a five-story block of flats in the city of Pokrovsk, Mr Kyrylenko said. At least two others remained trapped under the rubble.