Loss of face for Donald Trump? Russian forces capture more territories hours after Putin's Alaska meet

Russian forces said on Saturday they had captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine while Kyiv said it was pushing back a rapid Russian advance that had pierced through its defences. In Russia, Kursk region governor Alexander Khinshtein said a Ukrainian drone attack in the district of Rylsk had killed two people in their car -- a 52-year-old man and his 13-year-old son.

The latest developments in the war came hours after US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks on ending the conflict, with few visible results.

The Ukrainian army, smaller and less equipped than Russia's, has been on the defensive for months as Russian forces advance slowly but steadily. Russia's defence ministry said its troops had taken the village of Kolodyazi in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and the village of Vorone in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.


Kyiv and Ukrainian military analysts from the website Deepstate did not confirm the advances.

Russian troops earlier this week broke through Ukrainian lines in one part of the Donetsk region near the town of Dobropillia, close to an important road connecting key cities in the area.

Ukraine said it sent reinforcements and claimed Friday to have re-taken six villages. Zelensky also repeated his warnings about possible further Russian attacks "in the coming days".

Russia has pushed into Ukrainian territory for almost 3.5 years, occupying large swathes of the east and south of the country. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched by Putin in February 2022, has killed thousands.

Russia launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv said Saturday, hours after the Putin-Trump talks in Alaska. The highly anticipated meeting in the remote US state ended with no breakthrough in halting Russia's more than three-year-long Ukraine invasion.

Ukraine's air force said Moscow had "attacked with an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 85 Shahed-type" drones, while also attacking "frontline areas" in four regions.

In its daily report, the air force said the attacks took place "on the night of August 16" and starting in the evening of August 15 -- when Putin and Trump held their negotiations. Kyiv said its air defences shot down 61 of the drones.

FAQs

Q1. What were the results or outcomes of Trump-Putin Alaska summit?
A1. No ceasefire or peace agreement reached: Despite hopes for a breakthrough, the summit concluded without a ceasefire or substantive deal on ending the war in Ukraine.

Q2. What was significant or symbolic about holding the Trump–Putin meeting in Alaska?
A2. Alaska—once part of Russia and now a U.S. state—carries deep historical resonance, underscoring the geographic proximity and intertwined past of the two nations. Its choice as the venue adds symbolic weight often used in teaching geography and international relations.