Putin convinced he's winning in Ukraine ahead of talks with Trump – Bloomberg
Photo: Vladimir Putin (Getty Images)
Russian president Vladimir Putin is getting ready for a summit with US leader Donald Trump scheduled for Friday in Alaska, reports Bloomberg.
According to the media, the Kremlin expects to use military successes in eastern Ukraine to achieve significant concessions in the negotiations.
Putin seems to be feeling confident after the summer offensive, during which Russian troops allegedly broke through the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defense in the Dobropillia area of the Donetsk region.
Monitoring projects reported that Russian forces are trying to reach the highway that connects the city with Kramatorsk.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that only a few Russian subversive groups had broken through the defense and assured that Ukrainian forces were regaining control of their positions.
But he acknowledged the difficult situation in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
According to him, Russia could deploy up to 30,000 troops from the north of the Sumy region to the south by the end of August.
According to Bloomberg sources, Moscow insists that Kyiv withdraw its troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and agree to fix the front line, leaving parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions under Russian control.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would not give up a single square kilometer of territory.
Earlier today, the spokesperson for the Dnipro military unit, Viktor Trehubov, emphasized that Russian troops advancing near Dobropillia in the Pokrovsk sector are being detected and eliminated by Ukrainian defense forces.
Trump on possible territory swap
US President Donald Trump has admitted the possibility of a territorial swap between Russia and Ukraine during upcoming negotiations.
According to him, the situation in eastern Ukraine remains complicated, but a scenario is being discussed in which some territories could return to Kyiv's control, as well as a possible mutual exchange of land for the benefit of both sides.
Trump announced that he would meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin on August 15 in Alaska.
Zelenskyy has already stated that Ukraine will not cede any of its territory to Russia, emphasizing that the issue of territories cannot be separated from the country's security guarantees.
