Russian forces have intensified attacks along Ukraine’s front lines as the US votes in a presidential election that could determine the outcome of the war.

Moscow’s forces have advanced into Kurakhove, a front-line town that serves as an important logistics hub in the region of Donetsk, according to military bloggers.

Russian troops may have advanced up to six miles in some parts of the region in the last week, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

Russia is believed to have captured more Ukrainian territory in October than in any other month for more than two years, analysts have said, despite the war becoming an attritional grind.

In Kyiv, a former official told The Telegraph that Russian forces had intensified attacks on the front line ahead of the US election.

“Biden was unfortunately terrible at deterrence,” Oleksandr Danylyuk, who was finance minister until 2018, said. “That is why it’s reasonable for the Russians to use the last weeks of his presidency to get as much as they can.”