From the front-line city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia in the south, there is little doubt that Russia is making advances. But, battlefield monitors suggest the picture is not quite so bleak for Ukraine as Trump and Putin suggest.

Amid U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal, Ukraine claims to be holding Russian forces at Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Ukrainian troops report "search & destroy" missions inside the city,

Pokrovsk, a city formerly home to around 60,000, is ground zero for Russia’s latest offensive in Moscow’s nearly three-year-old invasion of its neighbor.

Pressure is mounting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to take stronger action to show accountability in the face of a corruption scandal presenting the greatest threat to his government since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Russian forces are reportedly on the brink of capturing the strategic city of Pokrovsk, known as the gateway to Donetsk, as Ukraine struggles to hold defensive lines amid heavy assaults. Newly released footage from the Russian Defence Ministry shows soldiers walking freely through deserted streets in southern Pokrovsk,

Pokrovsk isn’t big or well known. Until Russia launched its full attack on Ukraine, it thrived as a mining and factory town in eastern Donetsk, about 60,000 lived there, linked tightly into regional transport routes.

Ukraine has bled for its sovereignty. Any final agreement must preserve it.

An overnight drone strike triggered a fire at the Shatura power plant supplying Moscow, as Russia and Ukraine step up attacks on energy infrastructure amid a peace plan pushed by the Trump administration.