Russian forces in recent days have pushed several miles into Ukrainian-held territory, putting pressure on Kyiv days before a planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russian forces are now closing in on the town of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region.
Dobropillia sits roughly 14 miles north of the town of Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian transit hub, the capture of which remains a longstanding Russian objective.
On Aug. 12, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Russian forces had recently advanced at least six miles in the direction of Dobropillia.
“Some have already been found, partly destroyed, partly captured,” he said. “We will find and destroy the rest in the near future.”
Zelenskyy cast the Russian advance as an effort by Moscow to shape the outcome of the upcoming Trump–Putin summit by creating the impression that Russian forces are “moving forward and Ukraine is losing.”
DeepState, a Ukrainian blog that tracks battlefield developments, painted a grimmer picture regarding the state of the Donetsk frontline.
“The enemy ... is following up on its successes in the direction of the Dobropillia-Kramatorsk highway,” DeepState reported on Aug. 11.
Russian forces, it added, had “identified weak points ... that they will exploit to make further advances.”
According to DeepState, the frontline situation “is developing quite chaotically, because the enemy, having found gaps in defenses, is infiltrating deep into the area.”
If the Russian advance continues at its current pace, it added, “Dobropillia will fall faster than Pokrovsk.”
The Telegram post included a frontline map showing a double-pronged Russian advance that had recently pushed six miles northward.
It remains unclear whether advancing Russian forces will be able to hold the freshly taken positions—or make additional inroads—in the face of expected Ukrainian counterattacks.
Writing on X, Krotevych said the situation along the Donetsk frontline was “getting worse every day.”
Moscow Restates Demands
On Aug. 13, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters that Moscow’s core conditions for ending the war remain unchanged.Articulated by Putin in June of last year, those conditions include the full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from four regions, including Donetsk, which Moscow claims to have annexed in 2022 and now views as Russian territory.
Moscow also demands pledges from Ukraine that it will never join or align itself with the Western NATO alliance.
Kyiv and its European allies, meanwhile, staunchly reject any territorial concessions to Russia.
On Aug. 9, Zelenskyy reiterated his longstanding position that Kyiv would never cede land to “the occupiers,” which, he said, would violate Ukraine’s constitution.
He also said any decisions reached at the Trump–Putin summit without Kyiv’s consent would be “stillborn” and would “not achieve anything.”