On the front lines in eastern Ukraine, peace feels far away
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Russian soldiers disguised in civilian clothes infiltrating front-line city
Credit: 25th Separate Airborne Brigade (supplied) A photograph shared in a group chat shows two men dressed in civilian clothing walking out of a house in downtown Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine. 'Watch out, these are Russians,' the message reads, in a warning to other members of Ukraine's 25th Separate Airborne Brigade. For weeks now, these war-battered Ukrainian soldiers stationed in the city have not only been attacked by Russian drones but also Vladimir Putin's troops disguised as civilians. Russian forces are using this new tactic to infiltrate Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub, and attack Ukrainian soldiers from within, The Telegraph can reveal. It's part of Russia's race to seize the city and as much Ukrainian territory as its forces will allow ahead of Putin's peace talks with Donald Trump, the US president, on Friday. The Telegraph revealed Ukraine could agree to cede territory already held by Russia as part of a European-backed plan for peace. This would mean freezing the front line as part of Mr Trump's settlement and handing Russia de-facto control of the territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea. And Russia's efforts to take as much land as possible are ramping up. Sabotage and reconnaissance units have driven through exposed defences near Dobropillia in Donetsk, marching as far as six miles behind the front line in just 48 hours, battlefield reports say. Their aim is to cut off Pokrovsk and the city of Kramatorsk, another vital stronghold in the Donbas still under Ukraine's control. Yet defiant Ukrainian soldiers are refusing to give up their fight in Pokrovsk, the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. It's here that Russian troops are hiding in plain clothes among the population, Illia Petryna, a deputy commander, told The Telegraph. 'We witnessed Russians change from their military clothes, even changing into our uniforms. We find Russian military clothes in areas where we know they were,' he says. The brigade has even intercepted Russian radio chatter in which Russian soldiers discuss these disguises. According to Petryna, their main task is to attack infantry groups or light-armoured vehicles and disrupt Ukraine's logistics. Their secondary task is to communicate with locals and spread disinformation. 'They tell them that there are already 500 Russians who have entered Pokrovsk, to convince them not to help Ukrainians any more,' he says. At least 28 Russian soldiers were identified in the latter half of last month. Petryna says the wave of saboteurs was first detected on July 18 when poor weather limited Ukraine's drone operations and gave Russian troops an opportunity to slip into the city undetected. The saboteurs moved in groups of three or four, occupying abandoned homes and wearing whatever civilian clothing they could find. In one case, a Russian soldier, the last survivor of his unit, was found wearing a Ukrposhta T-shirt, the uniform of Ukraine's state postal service. In a video shown to The Telegraph, a mobile phone recovered from a Russian soldier displays a map of what appears to be Pokrovsk. The map is marked with colour-coded numbers and roads, routes and safe passages used by Russian troops to infiltrate the city. 'We found a route they were using to enter the city,' says Petryna. 'An assault brigade was ordered in and the entrance was closed.' As Ukrainian forces moved along that route, they began finding discarded uniforms in houses. 'That is when we started filtration among civilians,' he says. The filtration process lasted nine days. Ukrainian soldiers went house to house along known infiltration routes, speaking to residents to determine friend from foe. In one building, Petryna says they engaged with Russian troops. Ukrainian forces killed the entire unit by throwing grenades into the basement where they were hiding. Upstairs, they found their discarded Russian uniforms strewn about the rooms. Civilians in Pokrovsk have been helping Ukrainian forces identify the saboteurs. One video shows two elderly residents pointing a Ukrainian drone towards a house where Russian soldiers were hiding. The woman, balanced on her walking stick as she opened the gate for the drone to pass through and kill the troops inside. But their presence can also complicate matters and there are cases where Ukrainian soldiers are unsure who is friend or foe. 'It is very difficult,' says Petryna, recounting a case where a mysterious antenna appeared on the roof of a building. 'Our drones started to fly around this building. [thinking Russians may be hiding there], and first it was a man who came out, and then he showed his wife and his kid.' Because Ukraine does not enforce evacuations from embattled towns, soldiers must constantly decide who is a civilian and who may be an enemy in disguise. This uncertainty also limits the weaponry they can use, often forcing reliance on drones instead of artillery. In addition to carrying out sabotage, Petryna believes Russian soldiers wear civilian clothes out of fear and in the hope of going undetected. He says the brigade has intercepted radio chatter in which Russian troops questioned their purpose. 'They started to ask themselves, 'Why are we here? We do not understand what the task is.'' While some reports suggest the saboteurs could be Russian Diversion and Reconnaissance groups (DRG), a type of special forces, Deputy Commander Petryna says the soldiers found in Pokrovsk are regular infantry, a platoon of about 30 men, split into smaller groups of three or four. 'We are sure they will not send their special forces into Pokrovsk on these assignments because it is almost 100 per cent death,' he says. According to Petryna, these soldiers are used as cannon fodder, sometimes sent into the city as punishment and as a cheap way to gather intelligence on Ukrainian positions. The Ukrainian deputy commander says he heard of one DRG operating in the nearby town of Rodynske, but that group has since been eliminated. 'It is very difficult to hold the defence all up and down the front, especially when the weather is bad. We have found some spaces where they [Russian soldiers] just jump in.' Russian DRG units have been confirmed operating in the wider area. This week, they achieved a major breakthrough north-east of Pokrovsk. Russian assault units followed soon afterwards, establishing positions seven kilometres deep into Ukrainian lines. The breakthrough occurred in fewer than 48 hours. On Tuesday, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's commander in chief of the armed forces, deployed additional troops to Pokrovsk to eliminate saboteur groups in the city. 'The enemy is using its numerical superiority and, despite suffering heavy personnel losses, is trying to infiltrate our front line in small groups,' said Andrii Kovaliov, spokesman for the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine. For now, Pokrovsk hangs in the balance. Depending on the outcome of Friday's meeting in Alaska between the US and Russia, if Ukraine cannot hold the Donetsk region through diplomacy, Russia may take it by force. It's capture would help secure the entirety of the Donetsk region and boost momentum at a time when the Kremlin is making slow but consistent gains on the battlefield. For those in Ukraine's front-line cities, they will fear that by the time Mr Trump sits down with Putin and any form of peace is agreed, their homes could have already taken by advancing Russian troops. 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Russia says its demands are unchanged: full Ukrainian withdrawal from regions that Moscow claims
By Dmitry Antonov MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Wednesday that its stance on ending the war in Ukraine has not changed since President Vladimir Putin set out his conditions last year: the full withdrawal of Kyiv's forces from key Ukrainian regions and the abandonment of its NATO ambitions. Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are due to meet on Friday in Alaska, the first U.S.-Russian summit since 2021, to discuss efforts to end the war. Trump has said both sides will have to swap some of the land they currently hold to make this happen. Russia currently controls 19% of Ukraine including all of Crimea, all of Luhansk, more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. After reports by some media that Washington understood Putin was ready to compromise on his territorial demands, the Russian Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesperson, Alexei Fadeev, was asked by reporters if Russia's position had changed or not. "Russia's position remains unchanged, and it was voiced in this very hall just over a year ago, on June 14, 2024," Fadeev said, referring to a speech Putin delivered then at the foreign ministry. At that time, in his fullest public remarks so far about the shape of a possible settlement, the Kremlin chief set out demands including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the parts of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that they still control. Putin also said that Kyiv would have to officially notify Moscow that it was abandoning its plans to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance, and that it intended to remain neutral and non-aligned. In addition, Putin said that the rights and freedoms of Russian-speakers in Ukraine would have to be ensured, and the "realities" that Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson were now part of Russia. Putin has said his conditions would also have to be reflected in international agreements. At the time of his 2024 speech, Ukraine rejected his demands as tantamount to an absurd ultimatum. Ukraine has repeatedly said it will never recognise Russian occupation of its land, and most countries recognise Ukraine's territory within its 1991 borders. Based on the current frontlines, Putin's demand would entail Ukraine ceding an additional 21,000 sq km (8,100 sq miles) to Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Russia must agree to a ceasefire before territorial issues are discussed. He would reject any Russian proposal that Ukraine pull its troops from the eastern Donbas region and cede its defensive lines. Solve the daily Crossword
