Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv ‘pushes Russian forces back’ hours after Putin asks Trump for Donetsk surrender
The Ukrainian military has claimed to have pushed Russia’s forces back by about 1.2 miles on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine.
“Ukrainian soldiers continue active combat actions to destroy the enemy and liberate our settlements,” the Ukrainian general staff said. It added that fighting was raging near the villages of Oleksiivka and Yunakivka, which lie 5km and 7km from the Russian border, respectively.
It comes as Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine surrender the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces as one condition for ending the war.
The Russian leader told Donald Trump that he would be prepared to stop fighting on the rest of the frontline if Ukraine gave in to the demand and addressed the “root causes of the conflict”.
The concessions were discussed at the highly anticipated summit of the two leaders in Alaska on Friday, which ended with no peace deal despite nearly three hours of talks. Sources very close to the meeting told The Independent the dramatic move appears to have been endorsed by Mr Trump as a means to bring an end to the war.
Volodymyr Zelensky is due to head to Washington DC on Monday to meet Trump, after the US President hailed his meeting with the Russian leader as “very successful”.
