(Kyiv) The Russian army claimed on Saturday taking two localities in eastern Ukraine, while Kyiv claimed to repel a recent breakthrough led by Moscow, shortly before the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
On the front, the Ukrainian army, less numerous and less well equipped, has been on the defensive for months against Russian troops which regularly nibble on the ground.
The Russian army said on Saturday that it has conquered the Ukrainian locality of Kolodiazi, in the north of the Donetsk region, as well as that of Voroné, in the Dnipropetrovsk (Center-East) region recently affected by the Kremlin forces.
Kyiv and Ukrainian military analysts from the Deepstate site, close to the army, did not confirm these advances.
At the start of the week, Russian troops also carried out a breakthrough west of Dobropillia and northeast of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, near a road connecting important cities in the region and therefore strategic for Ukrainian logistics.
Ukraine then announced the sending of reinforcements in this sector and claimed on Friday the resumption of six villages.
“For the second consecutive day, we have achieved success in extremely difficult sectors in the direction of Dobropillia and Pokrovsk,” President Volodyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
“The destruction of the occupants who had tried to infiltrate in depth in our positions continues,” he said on his social networks, saying that Kyiv had made a “large” number of prisoners.
He also reaffirmed that Kyiv soon anticipated possible new Russian attacks, Moscow seeking in this way to strengthen his “political” position during diplomatic negotiations, according to the Ukrainian president.
PHOTO ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO, REUTERS
Workers withdraw the debris from a building damaged by night bombings, which the local authorities installed by Russia described as a Ukrainian military strike on August 16 in Donetsk.
The eagerly awaited meeting on Friday in Alaska between Russian presidents, Vladimir Putin, and American, Donald Trump, did not lead to a cease-fire as Kyiv and his European allies hoped.
In addition, according to Kyiv, the Russian army launched 85 drones and a missile on Ukraine on the night of Friday to Saturday, when the Trump-Putin summit was held in Alaska.
The Ukrainian air forces, in a statement on Telegram, said it had shot 61 of these drones, including “Shahed” (Iranian) and lure drones.
According to this source, the Soumy (Northeast), Donetsk (East), Cherniguiv (North) and Dnipropetrovsk (Center-East) regions were attacked.
Russian drone and missile bombings affect Ukraine almost every night, regularly killing and injured.
Kyiv asks his allies to provide him with more anti-aircraft defense systems to postpone these attacks.
The war launched by the Russian Invasion on a large scale of Ukraine in February 2022 has been the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. She made tens of thousands of deaths at least, even hundreds of thousands.