Ukraine says eastern front stabilised after recent Russian thrust

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian troops have stabilised the battlefield in an area of eastern Ukraine where Russian forces had made a sudden push this week to pierce Ukrainian defences, the regional governor said on Thursday.

Ukraine said small groups of Russian infantry had thrust some 10 kilometres (six miles) toward its main defensive line near the town of Dobropillia, raising fears of a wider breakthrough that would further threaten key cities.

The advance, just days before Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were due to meet in Alaska, appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv to give up land in pursuit of peace three-and-a-half years into Russia's invasion of its neighbour.

"The situation in the Dobropillia sector has stabilised," Vadym Filashkin, governor of the embattled Donetsk region, wrote the Telegram messaging app. "Thanks to the heroic efforts of our Defence Forces, the front line is reliably holding."

Kyiv's military, which has played down the scale of the Russian thrust, had dispatched extra forces to the area including units of the battle-hardened Azov Corps.

General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovalyov, in comments to the Interfax Ukraine news agency, echoed Filashkin's statement and credited Azov forces with inflicting heavy enemy casualties.

The Russian thrust had also fuelled criticism of Ukraine's military high command.

Defence analyst Konrad Muzyka wrote on X that Russian forces had made "minimal gains" in the area on Wednesday but had inched forward further south, near the strategic city of Pokrovsk.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; writing by Dan Peleschuk; editing by Mark Heinrich)