Russian troops intensify attacks on Ukrainian forces in east, military says

By Tom Balmforth, Pavel Polityuk and Erin Banco

KYIV (Reuters) - Russian troops have sharply stepped up their attacks in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's military said on Sunday, as a NATO official predicted Moscow would increase the pace and intensity of its assaults with talks to end the war approaching.

The main attacks were concentrated near the imperilled logistics hub of Pokrovsk, Kyiv said, with U.S. and Russian officials expected to hold talks in the coming days in Saudi Arabia and U.S President Donald Trump pushing for peace.

Kyiv's military reported 261 combat engagements with Russia over a 24-hour period on Saturday, easily the largest number recorded this year and more than double the roughly 100 per day it reported in previous days.

"Today was the hardest day of 2025 at the front," the Ukrainian DeepState military blog wrote late on Saturday.

Moscow's troops advanced steadily in the east for much of the second half 2024, announcing the capture of village after village, though the intensity of the fighting dropped in January this year, according to Ukrainian military data.

Russian forces have seized a swathe of territory to the south of Pokrovsk and are now pushing upwards to its southwest, threatening a main supply route into the outpost, the capture of which could open up more lines of attack for Russia.

Despite being on the backfoot, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported a "good result" in the east on Thursday and a military spokesman said Kyiv's forces had recaptured the village of Pishchane, about 5 km to Pokrovsk's south.

"It isn't so much the result of something collapsing for the Russians or some kind of magical weapon being delivered to Ukraine, no. Certain organizational actions were taken to help Ukrainians act more effectively," Viktor Trehubov, a military spokesman, told Reuters.

'STRONGER PUSH'

Ukraine has been using drones for deep strikes on Russia in an effort to inflict pain and strengthen its overall position. Russia has continued to conduct regular drone and missile strikes, while making advances on the ground in the east.

"I would expect a much stronger push. I would expect that we would see ... a lot of Russian efforts to advance," a NATO official who requested anonymity told Reuters.

Though Ukrainian officials are careful to praise Trump, his push to engage directly with the Russians without first consulting with Kyiv and to leave out the Europeans entirely is a cause for alarm in Ukraine and Europe.

Kyiv has said it was not invited to take part in the talks in Saudi Arabia and that in any case it wants to devise a joint strategy with its U.S. and European allies before meeting Russian officials.

France said on Sunday it would host a summit of European leaders on Monday to discuss the Ukraine war and European security as the continent scrambles to respond concretely to Trump's unilateral approach to the conflict.

Zelenskiy gave figures for Russian strikes with aerial bombs and missiles that appeared to suggest they had increased in size in the last week.

He said Russia had fired about 1,220 aerial bombs, more than 850 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine, compared with 1,206, bombs, 750 drones and 10 missiles the week before.

(Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Clelia Oziel)