Trump-Putin in a high-stakes summit
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
9 minutes ago
- CTV News
What is at stake in the meeting between Trump, Putin?
Watch CTV's Mike Le Couteur on what to expect from the U.S.-Russia summit as both leaders travel to Alaska to meet.
CBC
10 minutes ago
- CBC
How much is Russia advancing in Ukraine's east?
Social Sharing Days before the leaders of Russia and the U.S. hold a summit meeting Friday in Alaska, Moscow's forces breached Ukrainian lines in a series of infiltrations in the country's industrial heartland of Donetsk. This week's advances amount to only a limited success for Russia, analysts say, since it still needs to consolidate its gains before achieving a true breakthrough. Still, it's a potentially dangerous moment for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely try to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to pressure Ukraine by arguing the 3½-year-old war is going badly for Kyiv, said Mykola Bieleskov, a senior analyst at CBA Initiatives Center. "The key risk for Ukraine is that the Kremlin will try to turn certain local gains on the battlefield into strategic victories at the negotiating table," he said. WATCH l Putin's sense of urgency questioned ahead of summit: Here's what to expect ahead of the Trump, Putin summit in Alaska | Hanomansing Tonight 13 hours ago Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30 per cent of the Donetsk region that Kyiv still controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the Ukrainian leader categorically rejected. Zelenskyy has lamented, ahead of the summit he has not been invited to attend, information "especially in the American information space, suggesting that Russia is moving forward and Ukraine is losing ground." Ukraine can't match Russian manpower After years of fighting, Russia still does not fully control all of the Donetsk region, which it illegally annexed in 2022, along with the Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Attention has been focused on Pokrovsk — a key highway and rail junction that once was home to about 60,000 and now is partially encircled — but Russian forces have been probing for weaknesses north of the city, according to battlefield analysis site DeepState. The forces found a gap east of the coal-mining town of Dobropillia and advanced about 10 kilometres. Small groups of Russian troops are slipping past the first defensive line, hiding and trying to build up their forces, said Dmytro Trehubov, spokesperson for Ukraine's "Dnipro" operational-strategic group. Ukraine's military has been repelling these attempts, he said, although DeepState said the situation has not been stabilized. Analysts described the breach near Dobropillia as a localized crisis that could escalate if the Russians are not neutralized and their main forces can widen the gap. Ukrainian forces have tried to plug the gaps by extensive use of first-person-view drones — remotely piloted devices loaded with explosives that allow operators to see targets before striking. These FPVs have turned areas up to 20 kilometres from the front into deadly zones on both sides of the line. But because the Russians attack with small groups, it's hard to counter with drones alone. With tactics and technology roughly equal on both sides, the Russians' superior manpower works to their advantage, said Bielieskov, the Kyiv-based analyst. "They have no regard for human life. Very often, most of those they send are on a one-way mission," he said. WATCH l Ukraine may have to confront difficult choices after summit: The Breakdown | What Russia wants + Nitazene smuggling 2 days ago Looking to block supply routes Ukraine's military said Thursday additional troops have been moved to affected areas, with battle-hardened forces like the Azov brigade being deployed to the sector. However, the DeepState map doesn't show any changes in favour of the Ukrainian army. Russia is focused on expanding the breach of the front line into a corridor to support its ground forces, Bieleskov said. The strategy avoids direct assaults on heavily fortified urban centres, instead pushing through open terrain where Ukraine's troop shortages and large settlements make defence harder. If successful, such a move could bypass Russia's need to storm Kostiantynivka — once a city of more than 67,000 people and now significantly ruined and on the verge of falling. That would complicate defending the region's last big cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka, posing a serious challenge for Ukraine's military. Cmdr. Serhii Filimonov of the "Da Vinci Wolves" battalion of the 59th brigade, warned that Kostiantynivka could fall without a fight if Russia severs supply routes. With few major roads, maintaining logistics for the large number of Ukrainian forces in the area would become "extremely difficult," Filimonov said. Russian claims and control Russia controls nearly 114,500 square kilometres of Ukraine, including Crimea, and a major chunk of territory in the east and southeast of the country, according to open source maps of the battlefield. Ukraine does not control any internationally recognized Russian territory, although it has raised havoc in its Kursk region with repeated attacks, though those have waned in recent weeks. Moscow says Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — the latter home to a nuclear power plant Russia now controls — are now parts of Russia. They had been recognized by Moscow as part of Ukraine as the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 Ukraine has repeatedly said it will never recognize Russian occupation of its land, and most countries recognize Ukraine's territory within its 1991 borders. Russian forces in 2014 took control of Crimea, which juts out into the Black Sea off southern Ukraine, and after a disputed referendum on joining Russia, Moscow absorbed the region into Russia. Its area is about 27,000 square kilometres. Crimea was absorbed into the Russian empire by Catherine the Great in the 18th century. Beginning in 1954, it was considered part of Ukraine, then a Soviet Union republic. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 2014 the annexation illegal and recognized Crimea as part of Ukraine, though Syria, North Korea and Nicaragua recognize it as part of Russia. Russia controls about 88 per cent of the Donbas of eastern Ukraine, including all of the Luhansk region and 75 per cent of the Donetsk region. Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions broke away from Ukrainian government control in 2014 and proclaimed themselves independent "people's republics." Putin in 2022 recognized them as independent states. Russian forces control about 74 per cent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of southeastern Ukraine. Putin in 2024 said that he would be willing to agree to peace if Ukraine withdrew from all regions claimed but not fully controlled by Russia. He is also adamantly opposed to Ukraine joining NATO. Russia also controls small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine.
CBC
26 minutes ago
- CBC
Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. The meeting is considered a potential breakthrough after weeks of frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting.
