Russia Claims New Gains in Donetsk as Trump Pushes for Putin-Zelensky Meeting
by Emmitt Barry, with reporting from Washington D.C. Bureau Staff
(Worthy News) – Russian forces on Saturday claimed control over two additional settlements in Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk region, as the Kremlin pressed its slow but steady advance in the east. At the same time, President Donald Trump renewed efforts to broker a direct meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced its troops had captured the villages of Kleban-Byk, northwest of Toretsk, and Seredne, near the Kharkiv regional border. The claims came a day after Moscow said its forces had seized three other villages, including Katerynivka and Rusyn Yar, located on a strategic corridor leading toward Kramatorsk, home to a key Ukrainian logistics hub.
Ukraine has not confirmed the Russian gains, though its General Staff reported heavy fighting near Katerynivka. Kyiv’s military, meanwhile, said its forces recaptured the settlement of Zeleny Gai in Donetsk, which Russia had claimed last month, and also liberated a village on the western edge of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency said it had conducted joint operations with frontline units to blunt Russia’s advances in Donetsk and prevent further incursions into Dnipropetrovsk.
Escalating Drone Strikes
The battlefield developments came amid another overnight exchange of drone attacks. Ukraine said it shot down or intercepted nearly three dozen of the more than 50 drones launched by Russia early Saturday. Air raid sirens were reported across Zaporizhzhya, Chernihiv, Sumy, Donetsk, and Kharkiv regions. Russia, in turn, accused Ukraine of striking targets inside its territory with drones, claiming most were intercepted.
In Russia’s Rostov region, a fire continued to burn for a third day at the Novoshakhtynsk Oil Refinery following a Ukrainian drone strike. The blaze forced officials in the city of Krasny Sulin to shut down water supplies for 35,000 residents to divert resources toward extinguishing the fire. Authorities gave no timetable for restoration.
Diplomatic Stalemate
The renewed fighting and bombardments underscored the faltering state of diplomatic efforts following last week’s Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Hopes for progress have dimmed, with Moscow insisting Ukraine surrender additional territory in Donbas while proposing a freeze along other parts of the front line.
President Trump, who has cast himself as the key mediator, expressed both optimism and frustration over his latest phone call with Putin.
“Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and then I get very angry about it. I think we’re going to get the war done. It’s tough.”
Trump has pressed Putin to meet Zelensky face-to-face for the first time since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But the Kremlin has balked, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov questioning Zelensky’s legitimacy and dismissing U.S.-led peace initiatives as a “road to nowhere.”
Zelensky said on Friday that he remained ready to meet Putin “in any format” and had relayed that message to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who urged renewed summit efforts.
U.S. Pressure Builds
The White House signaled that new sanctions against Moscow were back under consideration as frustration grows over Russia’s continued strikes on civilian targets, including an American-owned electronics plant in western Ukraine last week.
“There could be very big consequences if Russia doesn’t agree soon,” Trump warned. “This has to end. We’ll either have a deal or we won’t, but people can’t keep dying.”
Trump acknowledged “big personality conflicts” between Putin and Zelensky were complicating talks but said he was prepared to intervene more directly if necessary.
“I may be there, I may not,” Trump said of a possible summit. “But ultimately, it is between them. And when that happens, I think we’ll get it in.”
For now, however, the war grinds on with little sign of compromise — as Russia pushes deeper into Donetsk and Ukraine fights to claw back ground village by village.
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