Ukraine said Tuesday it was engaged in ‘difficult’ battles with Russian forces after Moscow had made rapid advances in a narrow but important section of the front line in the country’s east.
The gains came just days before US President Donald Trump was to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska for talks on the war, the first meeting between a sitting US and Russian leader since 2021.
The Ukrainian army said it was engaged in ‘heavy’ battles with Russian forces attempting to penetrate its defences.
‘The situation is difficult and dynamic,’ it said in a statement.
A map published by Ukrainian battlefield monitor DeepState, which has close ties with Ukraine’s military, showed Russia had advanced around 10 kilometres (six miles) over around two days, deep into a narrow section of the eastern front line.
The corridor – now apparently under Russian control – threatens the town of Dobropillia, a mining hub that civilians are fleeing and that has come under Russian drone attacks.
It also further isolates the destroyed town of Kostiantynivka, one of the last large urban areas in the Donetsk region still held by Ukraine.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based observatory, said Russia was sending small sabotage groups forwards.
A Ukrainian National Guard serviceman of 3rd brigade runs through a tree line not far from the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, on Friday, August 8, 2025
Servicemen of 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops in a front line, near the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine August 5, 2025
It said it was ‘premature’ to call the Russian advances in around Dobropillia ‘an operational-level breakthrough’.
The military’s Operational-Tactical Group Donetsk, which oversees parts of the front in the industrial region, also said Russia was probing Ukrainian lines with small sabotage groups, describing battles as ‘complex, unpleasant and dynamic’.
Trump has described his summit with Putin on Friday as a chance to check the Russian leader’s ideas for ending the war.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky warned ahead of the talks that Moscow was laying the groundwork for further attacks, after Trump said on Monday that both sides would have to swap territory for peace.
European leaders have meanwhile sought to ensure respect for Kyiv’s interests.
‘We see that the Russian army is not preparing to end the war. On the contrary, they are making movements that indicate preparations for new offensive operations,’ Zelensky said in a statement on social media.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has made costly but incremental gains across the sprawling front in recent months and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions while still fighting to control them.
Ukrainian police meanwhile said that Russian attacks in the past hours had killed three people and wounded 12 others, including a child.
A serviceman of 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces checks the sky to look out for Russian combat drones, near the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine August 5, 2025
Ukrainian service members of the 25th Sicheslav Airborne Brigade fire a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system towards Russian troops near the frontline town of Pokrovs, in Donetsk region, Ukraine April 19, 2025
Ukraine’s military said it had sent in reserves near the cities of Pokrovsk and Dobropillia to block advances by small groups of Russian troops.
In a statement, the General Staff said some of the groups attempting to bypass Ukraine’s defensive lines in the area had already been destroyed, and that others were being engaged by Ukrainian forces.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
