United States President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts to carry peace to Ukraine remained stalled throughout the previous week, as Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to satisfy with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine’s allies, however, started to commit to offer troops, {hardware} and air cowl within the occasion of a ceasefire. European allies agreed on the necessity for a NATO Article 5-type defence clause that might set off their entry into the conflict ought to Russia renew hostilities.
Towards this diplomatic background, Russia’s assaults on Ukraine raged on with offensives that threatened the northeast metropolis of Kupiansk.
On Thursday, Moscow’s troops attacked Kyiv, killing a minimum of 14 – a lethal assault virtually a month after one other bloody offensive within the Ukrainian capital that killed 32, together with 5 youngsters and a pregnant lady.
Ukraine responded this week with a defence that rolled again some Russian positive factors within the japanese Donetsk area and dealt additional harm to Russia’s already wounded oil refining trade, essential to its conflict effort.
Peace distant as battles rage
On Friday, Russia’s prime diplomat Sergey Lavrov instructed NBC Information that Putin was not prepared to satisfy with Zelenskyy – one thing Trump has pitched – as he blamed Ukraine for hindering a peace course of.
“There are a number of ideas which Washington believes should be accepted, together with no NATO membership, together with the dialogue of territorial points, and Zelenskyy stated no to every thing,” Lavrov claimed.
In the meantime, British defence intelligence assessed that based mostly on present charges of progress, Russia would want about 4 and half years to finish the conquest of the 4 oblasts – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
Russian forces deepened their penetration of Kupiansk, a metropolis on elevated floor on the west financial institution of the Oskil River, in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv area.
Geolocated footage confirmed they’d superior throughout the metropolis on August 24. On Tuesday, Russian navy analyst Andrey Marochko stated they’d reached Komsomol Park, about 3km (2 miles) from its northern outskirts, saying “the enemy’s place within the metropolis has deteriorated,” although Russian navy reporters stated town was a gray zone.
Deep State Map, a Ukrainian front-line map compiling open-source info, instructed that on Sunday, Russian forces additionally prolonged their encirclement of Kupiansk from the west and started to infiltrate its western suburbs.
The hassle to grab town started in late June. They entered Kupyansk’s northern extremities on August 5, and, based on some experiences, captured settlements instantly to its west.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive in August and September 2022 had pushed Russian forces east of the Oskil River. They started to claw their means again final yr and have recaptured a fraction of their conquests in Kharkiv.
The guts of the combat throughout the 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) entrance stays Donetsk, the place Russia goals to grab the “fortress belt” of closely defended cities – from north to south: Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhivka and Kostiantynivka.
Andrey Marochko, a Russian navy knowledgeable, on Saturday claimed Russian forces had “established a foothold” on the outskirts of Kostiantynivka (Konstantinovka to Russians), the southernmost of the 4 cities.
Two days later, Denis Pushilin, the Russian occupation governor of Donetsk, additionally stated there had been clashes on the outskirts of town. However Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated clashes have been going down close to town and didn’t affirm troops had entered it.
The ministry stated its forces had seized three settlements in Donetsk on Saturday and two in neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk on Sunday and Monday.
Ukraine scored successes, too. Commander in chief Oleksandr Syrskii stated his troops had cleared Russian invaders from Volodymyrivka. Army analyst Konstantin Mashovets stated Ukrainian forces had pushed Russian troops out of Nove Shakhove, Zapovidne and Kucheriv Yar.
All 4 villages lie east of Dobropillya, and these weekend operations have been the continuation of a profitable counterattack in mid-August, which stymied a Russian effort to grab Dobropillya.
The Russian push for Dobropillya was a variation on months-long efforts to encompass Pokrovsk. Mashovets stated their failure had reset Russian techniques to an unique plan of attacking Pokrovsk instantly – a expensive and to this point failed enterprise.
Operations within the air
Russia continued to assail Ukraine’s cities with simply greater than 1,000 drones and 41 missiles between August 21-27. Ukraine stopped 87 p.c of the drones and three-quarters of the missiles.
Whereas holding its line of defence, Ukraine counterattacked Russia instantly with profitable strikes in opposition to vitality infrastructure, designed to disrupt provides to the entrance line and to disrupt Russia’s conflict economic system.
On August 22, Ukraine struck the Unecha oil pumping station, which pressurises the Druzhba oil pipeline supplying Russian allies Slovakia and Hungary. Russian authorities stated the harm would droop pipeline deliveries for days.
A day later, Russia stated it downed 17 Ukrainian drones in a single day.
Flights have been cancelled in Tambov and Ulyanovsk, east and southeast of Moscow, after a drone was downed headed for town. Different airports additionally suspended operations.
On Sunday, Russians within the Samara area woke to a broken refinery in Syrzan, whereas the Leningrad, a fuel processing complicated owned by Novatek on the Baltic Sea, was broken. Footage posted on-line confirmed a hearth at Novatek’s Ust-Luga gas export terminal.
A separate strike 60km (37 miles) from the Ukrainian border compelled the Kursk nuclear energy plant to decrease its output of electrical energy, after a drone broken a transformer.
On Monday, footage posted by Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Middle for Countering Disinformation, confirmed the Novoshakhtinsk refinery struck on August 21 nonetheless on fireplace for a fifth straight day. Satellite tv for pc imagery confirmed that six storage tanks on the facility had been destroyed.
In keeping with the Reuters information company’s calculations, Ukrainian assaults on 10 vegetation in latest days have disrupted a minimum of 17 p.c of Russia’s refinery capability, amounting to 1.1 million barrels per day.
Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Ukraine’s strikes had brought about petrol shortages and raised common unleaded and premium gasoline costs.
The Moscow Occasions estimated that common unleaded gasoline has risen by 38 p.c this yr, and premium by 49 p.c.
Ukraine has additionally been placing Russia’s weapons stockpiles and provide routes. UK Defence Intelligence on August 22 confirmed the latest sinking of the Olya-4 with a satellite tv for pc picture. It stated the vessel “often” crossed the Caspian Sea ferrying Iranian conflict materiel to Russia.
Ukraine has been working feverishly to broaden its vary, firepower and stockpile. On Monday, it unveiled a brand new antiship cruise missile, the Lengthy Neptune, a modified model of the R-360 Neptune, able to travelling 1,000km (620 miles)
Every week earlier, Ukraine unveiled the FP5, or Flamingo, a cruise missile with a 3,000km (1,860-mile) vary and a 1,150kg (2,535lb) payload of excessive explosives. Fireplace Level, a Ukrainian startup with European funding, at present builds one among these missiles per day, and hopes to achieve seven a day by October.
Ukraine’s causes for wanting its personal functionality embrace the power to fireplace them with out restrictions.
Pentagon sources instructed the Wall Road Journal that the Trump administration has restricted the usage of long-range rocket artillery inside Russia. The ATACMS (Military Tactical Missile System) rockets, with a 300km (190-mile) vary, have been equipped to Ukraine after Russia introduced North Korean troopers to assist defend Kursk in the summertime of 2024. Trump reportedly forbade the usage of the rockets some months into this yr.
Ukraine’s Kovalenko denied the restriction had been reimposed.
