Russia Launches Surprise Offensive Days Before Putin To Meet With Trump

Townhall 

Just days before President Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, Russia launched a surprise offensive into eastern Ukraine. Their goal is to gain as much territory as possible before negotiations, so the Russians have more to bargain with. Trump has said that territory exchanges will not only be necessary, but will occur over current front lines, including captured Ukrainian territory.

Near the Ukrainian city of Dobropillya, Russian forces punched several miles into the front lines. A rare breakthrough in a war where Ukraine's fortified defenses have mostly held and Moscow has failed to expand beyond the roughly 20 percent of Ukraine it’s occupied for most of its 3½ year invasion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Ukrainian military has begun a counterattack against small Russian units that had slipped through the first defensive line and bypassed a fortified line. Another similar breach elsewhere on the front was repelled last week.

The question now is whether Russia can expand the breach and push deeper into territory where defenses are less developed. Success would allow Moscow to exert greater pressure in eastern Donetsk, a central objective for the Kremlin.

President Trump, in recent weeks, has expressed increasing frustration with the President of Russia, who continues to talk about peace, but continues launching new offensives or drone attacks. Initially, the President was most focused on the Ukrainian President in negotiations and ensuring that money would not be given to Ukraine for free. Zelensky has since bent to Trump's demands. The question is now whether he can get Putin to do the same.