Ukrainian defenses face a challenge as Russian troops make gains ahead of Putin-Trump summit
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 US President Donald Trump to pressure Ukraine by arguing the 3 1/2-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.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that Kyiv still controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the Ukrainian leader categorically rejected.
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.
Infiltration by small groups of Russian forces
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 kilometers (6 miles).
Zelenskyy noted its clear significance to the summit: 'To create a certain information backdrop ahead of Putin's meeting with Trump, especially in the American information space, suggesting that Russia is moving forward and Ukraine is losing ground.'
Small groups of Russian troops are slipping past the first defensive line, hiding and trying to build up their forces, said Dmytro Trehubov, spokesman 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.
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