Zelenskyy: Fiercest fighting continues on Pokrovsk front and in Kursk and Sumy oblasts
Source: Zelenskyyʼs evening address
Quote from Zelenskyy: "The fiercest and most intense fighting continues on the Pokrovsk front, in the areas of the Kursk operation, and along the border in Sumy Oblast. Russian tactics remain the same everywhere: ignore losses and try to advance, storming our Ukrainian positions in an attempt to seize even a single metre, anything at all. But their potential is not infinite. That's why a certain level of Russian casualties – and our actions – should and do hinder their advance."
Details: The president also thanked the 117th Separate Heavy Mechanised Brigade, the 72nd Separate Mechanised Brigade, the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade and the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade, as well as each unit in Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts.
Background: On 9 June, the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group reported significant Russian pressure along the entire Pokrovsk front line, with more than 50 combat clashes per day.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
2 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Karoline Leavitt Says 'Perhaps' Trump Will Visit Russia in the Future
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked on Tuesday whether President Donald Trump has plans to travel to Russia sometime soon. The question came after Trump said twice this week that he will go to Russia for ceasefire talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This is a tragic emergency and it's embarrassing for me to be up here," Trump told reporters at a press briefing on Monday. "You know, I'm going to see Putin. I'm going to Russia on Friday." The president is not going to Russia on Friday but rather to Alaska to meet with Putin and discuss bringing an end to Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. Leavitt was asked about Trump's comments during Tuesday's White House press briefing. "The president said on the podium yesterday, twice, that he was planning to go to Russia," a reporter asked the White House press secretary. "Was that a verbal slip-up or does he actually plan to go to Russia?" Leavitt confirmed Trump's plans to go to Alaska but did not close the door to him visiting Putin in Russia down the road. "Perhaps there are plans in the future to travel to Russia and on Friday the president will be meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska, as you know," she said. This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
USA Today
31 minutes ago
- USA Today
Russian troops advance in Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin peace summit
Ahead of an Aug. 15 summit in Alaska between Trump and Putin, Russian troops continued their campaign to take full control of Ukraine's Donetsk region. MOSCOW, Aug. 12 (Reuters) - Small bands of Russian soldiers thrust deeper into eastern Ukraine on Tuesday ahead of a summit this week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, which European Union states fear could end in peace terms imposed on an unlawfully shrunken Ukraine. In one of the most extensive incursions so far this year, Russian troops advanced near the coal-mining town of Dobropillia, part of Putin's campaign to take full control of Ukraine's Donetsk region. Ukraine's military dispatched reserve troops, saying they were in difficult combat against small groups of advancing Russian soldiers. Trump has said any peace deal would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both" Russia and Ukraine, which has up to now depended on the U.S. as its main arms supplier. More: Trump says deal to halt Russia's war on Ukraine could include 'swapping' of territories Virtually all the territory in question is Ukrainian, alarming President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies. Zelenskyy and most of his European counterparts have said a lasting peace cannot be secured without Ukraine's voice in the negotiations, and must comply with international law and Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. They plan to call Trump on Aug. 13 to sway him ahead of his summit in Alaska on Aug. 15 with Putin, and they have praised the U.S. president's peace efforts, if not every idea he has floated for getting there. "An imitated rather than genuine peace will not hold for long and will only encourage Russia to seize even more territory," Zelenskyy said in a statement on Aug. 12 after a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has hosted previous talks between Ukrainian and Russian leaders. Russia advances in Eastern Ukraine Ukraine faces a shortage of soldiers after Russia invaded more than three years ago, easing the path for the latest Russian advances. "This breakthrough is like a gift to Putin and Trump during the negotiations," said Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, suggesting it could increase pressure on Ukraine to yield territory under any deal. Ukraine's military meanwhile said it had retaken two villages in the eastern region of Sumy on Aug. 11, part of a small reversal in more than a year of slow, attritional Russian gains in the southeast. More: Putin stalls. Trump changes his mind. Ukraine targets Moscow. Latest on the war. Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has mounted a new offensive this year in Sumy after Putin demanded a "buffer zone" there. Ukraine and its European allies fear that Trump, keen to claim credit for making peace and seal new business deals with Russia's government, will end up rewarding Putin for his 11 years spent in efforts to seize Ukrainian territory, the last three in open warfare. Europeans link Ukraine to their own security More: President Trump says Zelenskyy should not target Moscow with strikes European leaders have said Ukraine must be capable of defending itself if peace and security is to be guaranteed on the continent, and that they are ready to contribute further. "Ukraine cannot lose this war and nobody has the right to pressure Ukraine into making territorial or other concessions, or making decisions that smack of capitulation," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a government meeting. "I hope we can convince President Trump about the European position." Zelenskyy has said he and European leaders "all support President Trump's determination." Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin's principal ally in Europe, was the only leader not to join the EU's statement of unity, and mocked his counterparts. "The fact that the EU was left on the sidelines is sad enough as it is," he said. "The only thing that could make things worse is if we started providing instructions from the bench." Trump had been recently hardening his stance towards Russia, agreeing to send more U.S. weapons to Ukraine and threatening hefty trade tariffs on buyers of Russian oil in an ultimatum that has now lapsed. Even so, the prospect of Trump hosting Putin on U.S. soil for the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021 has revived fears that he might put narrow U.S. interests ahead of the security of European allies or broader geopolitics.
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
Russia Makes Battlefield Advance Ahead of Trump-Putin Summit
Russian troops have advanced deeper into eastern Ukraine in a surprise attack ahead of upcoming ceasefire negotiations between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian forces moved at least six miles deeper north into the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine by Tuesday, according to Reuters. The move by Russia appeared designed to give it leverage over Kyiv in any potential land swap agreements in the upcoming peace talks in Alaska this week. 'We see that the Russian army is not preparing to end the war. On the contrary, they are making movements that indicate preparations for new offensive operations,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday. The Russian military appeared to be moving near Dobropillia, a coal mining town, and is launching efforts to approach Kostyantynivka and Pokrovsk. Ukraine's military said on Tuesday that it had sent in reserves to block advances by small groups of Russian troops and was engaged in 'difficult' combat. Speaking last week ahead of his talks with Putin, Trump said that an eventual peace deal would likely include 'some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.' Putin has long called for Ukraine to give up territory captured by the Russian military in eastern Ukraine, including Crimea. Zelensky has fiercely rejected the idea of handing over Ukrainian territory to Russia, which is reportedly seeking to take over the eastern Donbas region and Crimea, the latter of which was illegally annexed by Russia more than a decade ago. 'Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,' Zelensky said in response to Trump's suggestion of land swaps. European leaders have stood firmly by the Ukrainian president, criticizing the Trump Administration for facilitating negotiations without the presence of Ukraine and for considering granting Putin's demand for more land. 'We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force,' a statement released on Saturday and signed by the leaders of France, Italy, the U.K., Germany, Poland, and Finland read. The White House is reportedly considering inviting Zelensky to the summit, though plans have not been finalized. The White House did not respond to TIME's request for comment about the matter on Monday. Trump vowed to help negotiate a peace deal between the Kremlin and Kyiv within the first 24 hours of his second presidential term, though he has faltered as Russian troops continue to launch strikes against Ukraine. Putin and Trump's Friday meeting in Alaska marks the first time the sitting presidents of Russia and the U.S. have met since 2021, and the first time these two in particular have met since 2019.
