Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed battlefield gains on its eastern front against Russian forces as both sides sought military advantages ahead of Zelenskyy’s planned White House meeting with President Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian military on August 16 said it had driven Russian forces back about 2 kilometers along parts of the front lines near the major northeastern city of Sumy, site of a recent offensive by Kremlin troops seeking to capture more territory against the outgunned and outmanned Ukrainians.
“Ukrainian soldiers continue active combat actions to destroy the enemy and liberate our settlements,” Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram. “The advance of Ukrainian units ranges from 1 to 2.5 kilometers.”
“In particular, active actions are taking place in the areas of Oleksiivka and Yunakivka of the Sumy region,” it added.
Battlefield claims could not immediately be confirmed.
But Zelenskyy said he expected no letup in Russia’s offensive as the Kremlin also seeks to gain advantage amid a flurry of global diplomatic activity aimed at ending the all-out war that begin with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Based on the political and diplomatic situation around Ukraine and knowing Russia’s evil intensions, we predict the Russian army may try to increase pressure and strikes against Ukrainian positions in the coming days in order to create more favorable political circumstances for talks with global actors,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
“Of course, we will counteract — if necessary, even asymmetrically. I asked [Ukraine’s] commander-in-chief to communicate with combat commanders [that] Ukraine needs strong positions and really tangible opposition to the enemy,” he added.
Even as Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Alaska on August 15 to meet with Trump in a summit held under “Pursuing Peace” banners, the Kremlin kept up its air campaign against Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian officials said Moscow launched 85 Shahed-type attack drones and one Iskander-M ballistic missile in the hours following the summit. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a strike on a residential area killed one person and wounded another.
Separately, the Russian Defense Ministry reported intercepting 29 Ukrainian drones over six regions, including the Sea of Azov.
The battlefield maneuvering comes as Zelenskyy prepares to travel to Washington to meet with Trump on August 18 for talks on ways to end the war.
Writing on Telegram on August 16, Zelenskyy said he had had a “lengthy, substantive [phone] conversation” with Trump, and also with European allies, about the August 15 summit between Trump and Putin.
“I intend to discuss all details regarding ending the killings, ending the war, with President Trump in Washington on Monday. I am grateful for the invitation,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump’s face-to-face summit with Putin — which helped to ease the Kremlin leader’s international isolation — did little to calm the fears in Kyiv and EU capitals over a potential agreement between the two that could endanger Ukraine’s security or sovereignty or encourage Russian aggression.
The summit ended without an agreement on a cease-fire and with neither leader taking questions from reporters during a brief news conference.
The following day, Trump said Kyiv should strike a deal with Moscow to end the war because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.”
Multiple news organizations quoted unnamed sources as saying Trump told Zelenskyy that Putin had offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv ceded to Russia all of its Donetsk region.
Zelenskyy has long rejected ceding any sovereign territory — a view shared by much of Kyiv’s European allies.
“International law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on August 10.
Russia seized control of the Crimean Peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014 and now occupies about one-fifth of the country, including almost all of the Luhansk region and substantial parts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson regions, the entirety of which Moscow now baselessly claims belong to Russia.
Trump — in apparent agreement with Putin — also dropped demands for an immediate cease-fire and said a peace deal should be sought without the need for a prior truce. Until now, Trump — along with Kyiv and its European allies — has called for a cease-fire, with Trump even threatening Russia with new sanctions and tariffs if it did not immediately agree to one.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere cease-fire agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“President Zelenskyy will be coming to DC, the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin,” Trump wrote.
In a posting on X, Zelenskyy assailed the Kremlin’s refusal to accept a cease-fire, without mentioning Trump’s remarks concerning the possibilities of a truce.
“We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a cease-fire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing,” he wrote.
“This complicates the situation. If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater [goals] — peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades.”
