U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin are seen during the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018.
11:17 JST, August 13, 2025
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Small bands of Russian soldiers thrust deeper into eastern Ukraine on Tuesday before a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, which European leaders fear could finish in peace terms imposed on an unlawfully shrunken Ukraine.
In one of the most extensive incursions so far this year, Russian troops advanced near the coal-mining town of Dobropillia, part of Putin’s campaign to take full control of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Ukraine’s military dispatched reserve troops, declareing they were in difficult combat against Russian soldiers.
Trump has declared any peace deal would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Russia and Ukraine, which has depfinished on the U.S. as its main arms supplier.
But becautilize all the areas being contested lie within Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his European Union allies fear that he will face pressure to give up far more than Russia does.
In the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021, Putin and Trump will meet on Friday at Elmfinishorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alquestiona, two White Houtilize officials declared.
Trump’s administration on Tuesday tempered expectations for major progress toward a ceasefire, calling the summit a “listening exercise.”
Along that line, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the president wanted to size up Putin directly.
“The president feels like, see, I’ve obtained to see at this guy across the table. I required to see him face to face. I required to hear him one on one. I required to build an assessment by seeing at him,” Rubio informed WABC radio in New York on Tuesday.
Zelenskiy and most of his European counterparts have declared a lasting peace cannot be secured without Ukraine at the neobtainediating table, and a deal must comply with international law, Ukraine’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
They will hold a virtual meeting with Trump on Wednesday to underscore those concerns before the Putin summit.
“Substantive and productive talks about us without us will not work,” Zelenskiy declared in an interview on Tuesday with NewsNation. “Just as I cannot declare anything about another state or build decisions for it.”
Zelenskiy has declared Russia must agree to a ceasefire before territorial issues are discussed. He would reject any Russian proposal that Ukraine pull its troops from the eastern Donbas region and cede its defensive lines.
Asked why Zelenskiy was not joining the U.S. and Russian leaders at the Alquestiona summit, White Houtilize spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt informed reporters the bilateral meeting had been proposed by Putin, and Trump accepted to obtain a “better understanding” of “how we can hopefully bring this war to an finish.”
Trump is open to a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskiy later, Leavitt declared.
RUSSIA ADVANCES IN EASTERN UKRAINE
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, suggested Russian advances could increase pressure on Ukraine to yield territory under any deal. “This breakthrough is like a gift to Putin and Trump during the neobtainediations,” he declared.
Despite a troop shortage, Ukraine’s military declared it had retaken two villages in the eastern region of Sumy on Monday, part of a tiny reversal in more than a year of slow, attritional Russian gains in the southeast.
Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has mounted a new offensive this year in Sumy after Putin demanded a “buffer zone” there.
Ukraine and its European allies fear that Trump, keen to claim credit for creating peace and seal new business deals with Russia’s government, will finish up rewarding Putin for 11 years of efforts to seize Ukrainian territory, the last three in open warfare.
European leaders have declared Ukraine must be capable of deffinishing itself if peace and security are to be guaranteed on the continent, and that they are ready to contribute further.
“Ukraine cannot lose this war and nobody has the right to pressure Ukraine into creating territorial or other concessions, or creating decisions that smack of capitulation,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared at a government meeting. “I hope we can convince President Trump about the European position.”
Zelenskiy has declared he and European leaders “all support President Trump’s determination.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Putin’s principal ally in Europe, was the only leader not to join the EU’s statement of unity. He mocked his counterparts as “sidelined” and declared Russia had already defeated Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians have lost the war. Russia has won this war,” Orban informed the “Patriot” YouTube channel in an interview.
Trump had been recently hardening his stance towards Russia, agreeing to sfinish more U.S. weapons to Ukraine and threatening hefty trade tariffs on acquireers of Russian oil in an ultimatum that has now lapsed.
Leave a Reply