Russian forces advance in Ukraine's east in lead-up to Trump-Putin talks
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said ahead of the Friday meeting in Alaska between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that Moscow was laying the groundwork for further attacks, not peace.
The Ukrainian army said there had been fighting around the village of Kucheriv Yar in the Donetsk region, acknowledging new and speedy Russian gains.
Ukraine's borders must not be changed by force, EU leaders say
03:07
The Ukrainian DeepState blog, which retains close connections with the military, showed Russian advances around 10 kilometres over around two days, punching deep into a narrow sliver of Ukraine on the front.
The corridor now apparently under Russian control threatens the town of Dobropillia, a mining hub that civilians are fleeing and that has been coming under Russian drone attacks.
It also further isolates the embattled and destroyed town of Kostiantynivka, which is one of the last large urban areas in the Donetsk region still held by Ukraine.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based observatory, said Russia was dispatching small sabotage groups forwards.
It said it was "premature" to call the Russian advances in the Dobropillia area "an operational-level breakthrough".
The Operational-Tactical Group Donetsk, which oversees parts of the front in the industrial region, also said Russia was probing Ukrainian lines with small sabotage groups, describing battles as "complex, unpleasant and dynamic".
Tatarigami_UA, a former Ukrainian army officer whose Frontelligence Insight analysis tracks the conflict, posted:
"In both 2014 and 2015, Russia launched major offensives ahead of negotiations to gain leverage. The current situation is serious, but far from the collapse some suggest."
Kyiv's military said earlier on Tuesday that Ukraine has retaken two villages in its eastern region of Sumy.
"It's tough. But we are holding back the enemy," Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, wrote on Facebook following a meeting on Tuesday with Zelensky and Ukraine's top brass.
"In the Sumy direction, we are conducting active operations and have some success advancing forward, liberating Ukrainian land."
'New offensive operations'
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said the Russians had been able to advance due to what he called "a partial collapse in the front" due to Ukraine's shortage of soldiers.
He said, without citing evidence, that Ukraine had redeployed elite forces to try to thwart the advance. Russia's Interfax news agency and Ukrainian war bloggers reported the same.
"This breakthrough is like a gift to Putin and Trump during the negotiations," Markov added, suggesting it could increase pressure on Kyiv to cede some land to prevent the Russian army eventually taking the rest of Donetsk by force.
Trump, who is scheduled to meet Putin on Friday, has described the summit as a "feel-out meeting" to gauge the Russian leader's ideas for ending the war in Ukraine.
Russian strikes pound Ukraine, Kyiv targets Moscow
01:35
Unconfirmed media reports say Putin has told Trump he wants Ukraine to hand over the part of the Donetsk region that Russia does not control.
European leaders meanwhile are rushing to ensure respect for Kyiv's interests.
"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," Zelensky said in a statement on social media.
Moscow's army, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has made costly but incremental gains across the sprawling front in recent months and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions while still fighting to control them.
Ukrainian police meanwhile said Tuesday that Russian attacks in the past hours had killed three people and wounded 12 others, including a child.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
'Alaska 2025 must not become Munich 1938 nor Yalta 1945'
We, representatives of global civil society, political refugees, democratic activists and advocates for peace and human rights, address this message to Europe's and the world's leaders with urgent concern. With deep apprehension, we observe the upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, scheduled for August 15 in Alaska. We fear that this meeting could result in a tactical short-term agreement that may cause irreparable damage to Ukraine, Europe and international security. Alaska 2025 must not become Munich 1938 [a reference to the agreements between Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and France, which led to the annexation of Czechoslovakia], nor Yalta 1945 [the conference where the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union decided the fate of Germany]. Our concerns include the possibility of concluding a deal that would legitimize Russia's illegal occupation of Ukrainian territories and recomposition of 1991 borders by force. We are also worried about the potential easing or lifting of sanctions against Putin's regime, allowing its return to international forums such as the G7, and participation in sports and cultural events, which would only serve to legitimize Putin's dictatorship. Additionally, we fear unprecedented pressure on Ukraine to force it into acceptance of an imposed and unfair agreement, and Putin's international campaign to support this disgraceful deal. We urge the leaders of European nations and the global community to ensure that no agreements are made without the direct participation and consent of Ukraine and Europe. It is crucial not to recognize or support any decisions that could lead to the legitimization of illegal occupation following a brutal aggression by Putin's regime. We must maintain and strengthen sanctions against the Russian regime until there is a complete cessation of aggression, the liberation of occupied territories, the release of all political prisoners and Ukrainian civilian and military captives and those responsible are brought to justice. Furthermore, we must prevent Russia's return to international organizations and events until it fulfills its obligations under international law.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Zelensky in London to meet PM ahead of US-Russia summit
Zelensky was to arrive at 9:30 am (0830 GMT) at Downing Street, the prime minister's office said, after Starmer on Wednesday maintained there was now a "viable" chance for a Ukraine ceasefire. US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin will meet Friday at an air base in the far-northern US state, the first time the Russian leader has been permitted on Western soil since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine which has killed tens of thousands of people. A stepped-up Russian offensive, and the fact Zelensky has not been invited to the Anchorage meeting Friday, have heightened fears that Trump and Putin could strike a deal that forces painful concessions on Ukraine. Near the front line Thursday, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia overnight into the early morning, wounding three people and sparking fires including at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd. Kyiv calls the strikes fair retaliation for Moscow's daily missile and drone barrages on its own civilians. With such high stakes, all sides were pushing hard in the hours before Friday's meeting. Three-way meeting? Zelensky, who has refused to surrender territory to Russia, spoke by telephone Wednesday with Trump, as did European leaders who voiced confidence afterward that the US leader would seek a ceasefire rather than concessions by Kyiv. Trump has sent mixed messages, saying that he could quickly organise a three-way summit afterward with both Zelensky and Putin but also warning of his impatience with Putin. "There may be no second meeting because, if I feel that it's not appropriate to have it because I didn't get the answers that we have to have, then we are not going to have a second meeting," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. But Trump added: "If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one," involving both Putin and Zelensky. Zelensky, after being berated by Trump at a February meeting in the White House, has publicly supported US diplomacy but has made clear his deep scepticism. "I have told my colleagues -- the US president and our European friends -- that Putin definitely does not want peace," Zelensky said. As the war rages on in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky was in Berlin Wednesday joining Chancellor Friedrich Merz on an online call with other European leaders, and the NATO and EU chiefs, to show a united stance against Russia. Starmer on Wednesday said Ukraine's military backers, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had drawn up workable military plans in case of a ceasefire but were also ready to add pressure on Russia through sanctions. "For three and a bit years this conflict has been going, we haven't got anywhere near... a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire," Starmer told Wednesday's meeting of European leaders. "Now we do have that chance, because of the work that the (US) president has put in," he said.
Euronews
4 hours ago
- Euronews
Is Russia really contesting US sovereignty over Alaska?
United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet face-to-face in a remote army base in the Alaskan capital of Anchorage on Friday for much-anticipated talks on Russia's war in Ukraine. The choice of venue is practical. Mainland Alaska and Russia are just 90 kilometres apart, while Alaska's Little Diomede Island lies fewer than 4 kilometres from Russia's Big Diomede Island in the Bering Strait. It means Putin will be able to travel for talks while avoiding the airspace of Western countries that could attempt to intercept his flight to enforce the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC). But the venue is not only practical, it's also symbolic. Alaska was once a fully-fledged Russian colony. In 1867, Russia's Tsar Alexander II sold Alaska to the US for $7.2 million, to help pay back high debts accrued during the Crimean war of 1853-1856. For the Kremlin, Alaska was not considered an economically significant part of its territory. Alaska was officially proclaimed the 49th US state in 1949, and is now the largest of the US' current 50 states. Putin will be the first Russian president to visit Anchorage. Choice of venue re-ignites imperialist narratives The Anchorage summit has reignited narratives that hail Alaska a 'historical' Russian land, with prominent Kremlin officials and allies quick to highlight the territory's Russian heritage and history. The theory that Russia will one day re-claim the US state as its own is not new, and has been peddled by several prominent Kremlin officials and allies in the past. Last year, Russian state TV propagandist Olga Skabeyeva referred to the US territory as 'our Alaska'. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, has joked on social media about going to war with the US over the territory. Kirill Dmitriev, a top Kremlin negotiator who also heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said last week that Alaska was a 'Russian American' and suggested the summit could trigger closer cooperation between Moscow and Washington in the Arctic. A 2022 billboard carrying the message 'Alaska is ours', which at that time sparked outrage among some US senators, has also resurfaced. No publicly available evidence Moscow has nullified 1867 sale of Alaska Speculation that Moscow is taking steps to regain the territory is also circulating widely. That speculation has been fuelled by Trump appearing to confuse Alaska for Russia in a press conference on Monday, when he said he would travel to 'Russia' to meet Putin despite having already confirmed Alaska as the venue. Some social media users have suggested that a 2022 Russian Supreme Court ruling nullified the 1867 sale of Alaska to the US. But Euroverify couldn't find any official court document to corroborate that claim. Other users have referenced a 2024 decree that purportedly declared the 1867 sale of Alaska illegal. That decree does exist. It's dated 18 January 2024 and allocates funds for the search, registration, and legal protection of Russia's historic overseas assets. We verified its contents and found it makes no reference to Alaska or any of Russia's historical claims to the territory. Analysts however do believe that the Kremlin could use the decree to re-open historical disputes, not only in Alaska but also in former Russian territories.
