Ukraine struggles to contain Russian summer advances as US aid stalls
In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas either side of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, which both sit on crossroads running to the frontline from larger cities in Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Russia's advances on the front are matched by an intensification of drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities, following signs that Washington's support for Ukraine's war effort is faltering.
So far, the efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump have failed to achieve a ceasefire in the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in 2022.
One of the aims of the Russian offensive is to occupy the rest of the Donetsk region. Now, they are using small assault groups, light vehicles, and drones to push towards the neighbouring region, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces.
"There are constant attacks with the intent of breaking through" to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region at any cost, Trehubov said in written comments to Reuters.
Russia now has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, which it has been trying to seize since early last year, Ukraine's top armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week, describing dozens of battles in the area every day.
A decision by Washington to halt some deliveries of various weapons including precision rocket artillery to Kyiv will worsen the situation on the ground for Ukraine's forces, said Jack Watling, a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank.
"The loss of these supplies will significantly degrade Ukraine's ability to strike Russian forces beyond 30 km (19 miles) from the front line and therefore allow Russia to improve its logistics," Watling said.
Ukrainian blog DeepState, which uses open-source data to map the frontline, said the Russian military in June had seized 556 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, which it said was the largest monthly loss of ground since November.
Russian forces, which have numerical superiority, cut the main road linking Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in May, complicating Ukrainian movements and resupply efforts.
"The Russian advance is being contained, but their crossing of the Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway is a strategic and logistical setback," Trehubov said.
Heavy Russian losses have prevented Russian advances toward Kostiantynivka via Chasiv Yar, or along the western Pokrovsk front. "Now they are attempting (to advance) further away from populated areas," Trehubov said.
DeepState also reported that Russian advances in June near Pokrovsk and nearby Novopavlivka accounted for more than half of all Russian gains along the entire frontline in all of Ukraine.
Trehubov said Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka remain Ukrainian logistical hubs, despite setbacks and drone activity which make some defensive fortifications less effective.
"(Drones) hinder logistics for both sides but don't make it impossible. Drones after all are not invulnerable," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Global moral consensus is just wishful thinking
In his opinion piece (From Gaza to Ukraine, peace always seems just out of reach – and the reason isn't only political, 20 July), Simon Tisdall says 'ending major conflicts, and easing the suffering of millions, is a moral imperative that demands a determined collective response from all concerned. That way lies peace. That way lies salvation'. If that is really the case then all hope is lost. There already is a 'determined collective response' from all concerned, which is a pledge to fight to the bitter end, whatever the cost to their victims in lives or suffering. For Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, freedom from moral constraints, incorporating manifestly immoral behaviour and open contempt for international law, is an existential necessity. To expect either of them to abandon the territorial ambitions on which they have staked their political futures lies somewhere between naivety and sheer wishful thinking. Given that, all talk of 'moral imperatives', without enforceable international law when their noble aspirations are breached, is no more than impotent bleating from the sidelines. The treaty to establish the international criminal court in 1998 failed to sign up China, India or the Gulf states. Indeed the map of those countries that have ratified the ICC looks suspiciously like the former Commonwealth, with the addition of South America. More significant are those countries who signed up to the treaty, but which have refused to ratify it, for various stated reasons, but ineluctably because their current politicians need immunity from its rulings – the former superpowers US and Russia, and Israel. None of their leaders could survive in office if they were made internationally accountable to enforceable laws with a clear moral basis. Sadly but paradoxically, the only people with the political and military clout to bring the war criminals to justice in the name of morality turn out to be the ones perpetuating the war crimes. Alex WatsonStroud, Gloucestershire Simon Tisdall rightly argues that peace remains elusive not just due to geopolitics, but a collapse in global moral consensus. Yet we must ask: has that consensus ever truly been global – or has it been curated through western lenses? Britain recently announced an inquiry into violent policing at Orgreave in 1984 and the subsequent collapsed prosecution of 95 miners, but still refuses to apologise for Jallianwala Bagh, where hundreds of unarmed Indians were massacred under imperial command in 1919. Where is the moral clarity? Tisdall speaks of the 'rules-based international order'. But when Donald Trump bombed Iranian nuclear sites – installations once fostered by Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace programme – where were the rules? Would the same be done to Pakistan or China? The west routinely turns a blind eye when its allies commit horrors. Yes, Russians ignore Ukraine. But did the UK not join the US in Iraq, a war based on phantom weapons of mass destruction? Have we ever truly atoned for the destruction of Falluja, or the millions displaced in Afghanistan? I agree that peace demands moral revitalisation. But that renewal must begin at home: in Washington, London, Paris. A world that arms first and negotiates never cannot preach morality. Diplomacy has been replaced by drone strikes, and summits by air raids. The UN has become a mute witness, bypassed by the very powers that once built it. Until we stop dividing the world into 'worthy victims' and 'collateral damage', there will be no peace. There is no lesser life. And there is no moral order unless it applies to all. Let truth precede justice. And only then will peace KalyanasundaramChennai, India Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Drones hit Russian electronic warfare plant and disrupt railway and air travel
Ukraine's drone forces were on the attack against Russian strategic targets on Saturday and into Sunday. Drones hit the Signal radio and electronic warfare equipment plant in the Stavropol region, an official from Ukraine's SBU security service told Reuters. Two facilities at the Signal plant in the city of Stavropol, about 540km (335 miles) from the Ukrainian border, were damaged. Videos online showed an explosion and a large column of dark smoke rising into the sky. The plant was one of Russia's leading producers of electronic warfare equipment, including radar, radio navigation equipment, and remote control radio equipment, the official said. 'Each such attack stops production processes and reduces the enemy's military potential. This work will continue.' Russia's civil aviation authority said it again had to shut down an airport as Ukrainian drones attacked. Rosaviatsia said it suspended flights soon after midnight on Sunday at the airport serving the city of Volgograd, which is the administrative centre of the broader Volgograd region. Ukrainian drones also hit a railway power supply in the Volgograd region, the administration of the region in Russia's south said on Sunday. Air raid alerts were introduced in several other regions in Russia's west and south, warning of Ukrainian drone attacks, according to posts by regional officials. Drones again targeted Moscow, said the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, and an industrial facility in the Penza oblast south-east of the capital, according to the region's governor, Oleg Melnichenko. In the Rostov region, officials said Ukrainian drones killed two people. Ukraine's regions of Dnipro in the south and Sumy in the north-east came under combined rocket and drone attack into Saturday, local officials reported. The head of the Dnipro regional administration, Serhii Lysak, said at least two people died and five were wounded. In the city of Dnipro, a multi-storey building and business were damaged and outside the city a fire engulfed a shopping centre. In Sumy, the military administration said three people were injured. Russian drones hit a central square in Sumy city, and damaged the building of the regional administration. Kharkiv sustained an intense aerial bombardment with Ukraine's state emergency service reporting six people were hurt, including four rescuers wounded in a 'double tap' where a second attack targeted emergency workers trying to help the victims of the first. According to Ukraine's air force, Russia launched 208 drones and 27 missiles overnight into Saturday. It said according to preliminary data, air defences and electronic warfare took down or intercepted 183 drones and 17 missiles, but hits from 10 missiles and 25 drones were recorded in nine locations. Russia's defence ministry claimed its forces had captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine: Zelenyi Hai in the Donetsk region and Maliivka just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region. The Ukrainian military's general staff mentioned Zelenyi Hai as one of several frontline areas that had come under Russian attack 11 times over the past 24 hours. It said Maliivka was one of several villages where 10 Russian attacks had been halted. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had identified Pokrovsk as an area requiring 'special attention' due to constant attack. A military spokesperson, Viktor Trehubov, told national television that Russian forces were attacking Pokrovsk in 'a small torrent … that simply does not stop'. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had recorded 'successful actions' in Sumy. The Reuters news agency, which reported on the developments, could not independently confirm battlefield accounts from either side. Russia's defence ministry on Saturday claimed that it struck military facilities in Ukraine that 'manufacture components for missile weapons, as well as produce ammunition and explosives'. The claim could not be independently verified. Zelenskyy posted that that 'there can be absolutely no silence in response to such strikes, and Ukrainian long-range drones ensure this. Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, Russian airports must feel that the Russian war has real consequences for them.' An Indian firm that shipped $1.4m worth of an explosive compound with military uses to Russia said on Saturday that it complies with Indian rules and the substance was for civilian industrial purposes. A Reuters investigation found that HMX, also called octogen, was sent to two Russian explosives manufacturers despite the threat of international sanctions. Ukraine's drones have attacked the factory of one of the Russian companies after security services linked it to Russia's military. The Indian company involved emailed Reuters saying its shipment was 'for industrial activity and it's a civil explosive'. The US government has identified HMX as 'critical for Russia's war effort'. It is widely used in missile and torpedo warheads, rocket motors, exploding projectiles and plastic-bonded explosives for advanced military systems, according to the Pentagon's Defense Technical Information Center and related defense research programmes. The compound also has some limited civilian applications in mining and other industrial activities.
The Sun
11 hours ago
- The Sun
Putin suddenly cancels Russia's naval parade after huge losses in Ukraine war as Trump ‘loses patience' with tyrant
VLADIMIR Putin has mysteriously cancelled his annual naval parade at the last-minute as Russia's war losses continue to mount. Ukraine has managed to destroy over a third of Russia's combat fleets in the Black Sea since Putin's invasion in 2022 as well as eliminating over a million soldiers. 9 9 9 9 Russia's event is often touted as an opportunity for Putin to show off his military might but Kremlin officials are yet to provide an explanation into why it has been axed. The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation first announced the cancellation online as they said: "The Kremlin can no longer pretend that the war doesn't affect Russia's home front. "The war impacts all areas of life in Russia, even symbolic and high-profile events like the navy parade. "Today, Russian warships cannot feel safe even on their own territory. "Against this backdrop, the news that Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, will be decommissioned and scrapped is especially telling." Work on the hulking aircraft carrier was suspended earlier this month with reports suggesting the vessel is doomed for the scrapheap. Ukraine has systematically laid waste to Putin's naval forces since 2022 in kamikaze drone and missile attacks. In 2024, Putin's newest and only remaining missile cruiser in the Black Sea was destroyed by Ukraine forces. The 'Zyklon' was taken out alongside the 266-M minesweeper, Kovrovets, in a devastating ATACMS missiles strike. Putin refuses to meet Zelensky to end war as tyrant's forces kill six in fresh blitz on residential area in Ukraine Its sinking was part of Ukraine's ongoing campaign targeting the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Last April, Ukraine's Navy said it had struck the salvage ship Kommuna - the oldest ship still serving in the Russian Navy. Ukraine's top brass say they have decimated 34 per cent of the Black Sea Fleet's 184 warships had been disabled. It is not the first time Putin has been forced to axe an annual Russian celebration due to the raging conflict. He was made to cancel midnight firework displays across Russia on New Year's Eve as a joyless consequence of his war. There were even claims that the war-wounded could be scared of the noise from fireworks. Despite facing crippling losses Putin has continued to launch deadly strikes on Ukrainian civilians in recent days as he continues to anger the US. America has accused Moscow of dragging out the war with their senseless attacks instead of agreeing to a peace deal. 9 9 9 US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Fox News on Saturday that President Donald Trump is now growing 'impatient' with Putin's delaying tactics. He said: "I think he is growing increasingly frustrated that despite having very good interaction with Vladimir Putin in phone calls, it never leads to anything. "The time has come for some action here, and I think the president has made that abundantly clear. "He's losing his patience, he is losing his willingness to continue to wait for the Russian side to do something here to bring an end to this war. "That wasn't his war, but he wants to see it come to an end." The US has been trying to force Putin to negotiate a deal with Trump issuing a blistering 50-day ultimatum to Russia earlier this month saying he must agree to a ceasefire of face crippling sanctions. He vented his frustration with the despot, declaring he was "disappointed" but "not done" with him. The US and Kyiv have also been pushing to get Vlad to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky in what would be the first meeting of the pair since Russia's illegal invasion. But the Kremlin was quick to dismiss both Western leaders as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov officially said a meeting won't take place unless a peace deal is ready to be finalised. This isn't likely to happen until the end of August at the earliest, he added. Hours after, Putin ordered his troops to unleash another deadly blitz on civilians. At least six Ukrainians were killed in the horror Russian strikes which targeted a high rise building and left a shopping mall up in flames. Kharkiv, Novodvoryansky, Dnipro and Kamianske were all targeted. 9 9
