Russian troops break through the defense in Donetsk in front of Trump-Tutin summit

Russian troops break through the defense in Donetsk in front of Trump-Tutin summit

In Ukraine, small groups of Russian troops have parts of the defense forces in Оst-donetsk Broken as local officials and surveillance organizations report. This complicates the situation in Kyiv, since Russia tries to surround the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.

Russian offensive towards Dobropillia

According to the Ukrainian combat monitoring group Deepstate, the Russian armed forces reported a move towards Dobropillia on Tuesday. The city is about 20 kilometers north of Pokrovsk, which has been the focus of the Kremlin for months.

Infiltration of Ukrainian defense

Ukrainian civil servants admitted that their defense near Dobropillia was infiltrated by Russian troops, but emphasized that it was only small troop parts and this did not mean that Russia has taken control of the area.

Preparation for the meeting between Putin and Trump

Although Russia has been trying to penetrate Pokrovsk for more than a year, the new advance this week could be the attempt that as much territory as possible before the planned meeting to secure between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US colleague Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday.

Putin's strategy and the warnings from Ukraine

In this meeting, Putin, possibly to secure what Russia could not achieve with military violence, will be trying to give the impression that Russia's push in Donetsk is inevitable. Although there are ambiguities about Putin's alleged conditions for an armistice in Ukraine, most reports emphasize that the Russian president will demand that the Ukrainian armed forces retire from all parts of the Donetsk region that they still hold.

However, Ukrainian civil servants warned that their grip on the front line after months of gradual territorial profits by Russia, due to Moscow superior manpower, becomes looser.

Alarming situation on the front

Lt. Col. Bohdan Krotevych, a former chief of staff of the 12th special unit of the elite brigade Azov of Ukraine, directed a rare public warning to President Wolodymyr Selenskyj on the dwindling defense forces in Ukraine.

"Mr. President, I honestly don't know what is told, but I inform you that the situation (near Pokrovsk) is a complete chaos without exaggeration," wrote Krotevych on X.

"The front line practically no longer exists," he added.

New warfare and tactics

A commander near Pokrovsk, who wanted to remain anonymous, told CNN that the defense of Ukraine in the region mainly consists of two-man positions, which are only supplied with drones. Instead of two front ski jumps, there are now a number of mostly hidden, isolated and small outposts, where the infantry secretly tries to keep the area without being discovered by enemy drones.

This new form of confrontation plays in the maps of Russia, which has a larger manpower, and enables troops to move forward in small groups, ready to meet losses when they are met with resistance or to strengthen success.

In advance and possible consequences

"The enemy tries to use the tactics of the 'a thousand cuts'," Valentin Manko, the commander of the Ukrainian storm troops, told CNN. "Three small groups of several men hatched through our positions (near Dobropillia). They have caused some damage," he said. "Some of them were destroyed, others were captured."

Reactions and outlook

The regional command of the Ukrainian soil forces in Donetsk claimed that many of the groups that enter the Ukrainian lines of defense will soon be switched off. "The enemy soldiers who penetrate between the positions of our units are hit by Ukrainian soldiers and are faced with safe death," it said.

Viktor Tregubov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces in the neighboring Dnipro region, made it clear that these infiltrations "do not mean that Russia has taken control of this area". "What actually happened that a small Russian group - maybe five to ten people - managed to get through," he emphasized.

Future challenges for Ukraine

Kiev's concern, however, is that Russia could use so many of these small groups that it will eventually be able to consolidate its profits behind Ukraine's patchwork defense, even if many of these groups are intercepted.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Think Tank based in Washington, said on Tuesday that it was "premature" to describe the Russian push near Dobropillia as "surgical", although Russian armed forces are very likely to develop their tactical progress in the coming days in an operational breakthrough.

Bohdan Miroshnikov, a Ukrainian military blogger, commented more pessimistic and said the situation in the region "gradually closer to the point where Pokrovsk ... can no longer be saved". "This point has not yet been reached for the moment. The critical moment has not yet come. But unfortunately everything is currently going in this direction," he wrote on Telegram.