Kyiv: Small groups of Russian troops have pierced parts of Ukraine’s defences in its eastern Donetsk region, according to local officials, as Russia appears to be making an 11th-hour dash to snatch as much territory as possible ahead of the planned meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump on Friday.
Russian forces are making a push towards Dobropillia, the Ukrainian battlefield monitoring group DeepState reported Tuesday.
The town is around 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the key strategic city of Pokrovsk, which has been in the Kremlin’s crosshairs for more than a year, reports CNN.
“Groups of Russians have advanced about 10 kilometres (6 miles) in several places. All of them have no equipment, only weapons in their hands. Some have already been found, partially destroyed, partially captured,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a briefing Tuesday.
“The task of this advance is clear to us… Russia is trying to create the distorted perception ahead of the Putin-Trump meeting “that Russia is moving forward, advancing, and Ukraine is losing,” Zelensky said.
Ukrainian officials conceded that their defences near Dobropillia had been infiltrated by clusters of Russian forces, but stressed that this involved small numbers of troops and did not mean Russia had taken control of territory.
Elsewhere in the area, Ukraine’s military warned of “heavy defensive battles against superior enemy forces”.
“They are preparing for an offensive operation, we believe, in three directions. The main directions are Zaporizhzhia, Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka,” Zelensky said, emphasizing that Russia’s troop buildup is happening just before Trump and Putin sit down in Alaska on Friday.
“We believe that they will do everything to prepare for offensive actions after the 15th. We believe that they will be ready with these brigades by September,” the Ukrainian president added.
