Russia creeps toward key eastern Ukrainian supply city

Russia has been stretching Ukrainian defenses across the entire eastern front line for months, trying to capture as much territory as possible before new Ukrainian recruits and fresh batches of Western weapons start arriving on the battlefield.

The gains made by Russia have been largely incremental – the front line has barely moved in the past few months – but the recent advance toward Pokrovsk has Ukraine and its allies worried.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the difficult situation in his nightly address to the nation on Sunday, saying Ukrainian troops were facing “extremely challenging” realities in that area.

“It is in the Pokrovsk direction that there have been the biggest number of Russian assaults these weeks – the most intense enemy attacks are precisely there and everyone who stops these Russian strikes and destroys this Russian offensive potential is performing one of the most important missions in this war,” Zelensky said.

Analysts at the United States-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Tuesday that Russian troops have recently made “significant tactical advances” in the area, which sits just northwest of Avdiivka, the previously fiercely contested town that Ukrainian troops withdrew from in February.

Russian forces were about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Pokrovsk on Tuesday, according to the ISW, continuing what it called “intensive efforts to advance and conduct a limited tactical encirclement of Ukrainian forces in the Pokrovsk direction.”

Pokrovsk is not a major city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war and many have left since the start of the full-scale invasion. But it serves as a key hub for the Ukrainian military, thanks to its easy access to Kostiantynivka, another military center. The road connecting the two is used by the Ukrainians to resupply troops on the frontlines and evacuate casualties toward Dnipro

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Kremlin is turning to unwitting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race, top intelligence officials said Monday, detailing the latest efforts by America’s adversaries to shape public opinion ahead of the 2024 election.

“The American public should know that content that they read online — especially on social media — could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans or originating in the United States,” said an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.

Russian forces conducted five platoon- to battalion-sized mechanized assaults in western Donetsk Oblast on July 29 and 30. Such localized mechanized pushes are likely the manifestation of Russia's forecasted summer offensive—Russian forces likely lack the wider operational capacity to mount a separate renewed offensive operation in Donetsk Oblast or elsewhere on the front this summer. Geolocated footage published on July 29 indicates that Russian forces marginally advanced on the southwestern outskirts of Kostyantynivka (southwest of Donetsk City) during a reinforced-battalion sized mechanized assault.[1] The same Ukrainian brigade that repelled the July 24 reinforced-battalion sized mechanized assault near Kostyantynivka reported that Russian forces committed 10 tanks, 47 armored fighting vehicles, 10 motorcycles, and a "buggy" to the July 29 assault and that Ukrainian forces struck eight tanks, 12 armored fighting vehicles, nine motorcycles, and the buggy.[2] Additional geolocated footage and Ukrainian reporting indicate that Russian forces conducted an unsuccessful reduced-company sized mechanized assault southwest of Pobieda (southwest of Donetsk City) on the morning of July 29 and that Russian forces marginally advanced southwest of the settlement during a separate reinforced-platoon sized mechanized assault on July 30.[3] Ukrainian sources published footage and reported on July 29 that Russian forces also conducted an unsuccessful reinforced-company sized mechanized assault in an unspecified area of the Kurakhove direction (west of Marinka) and an unsuccessful reinforced-platoon sized mechanized assault near Krasnohorivka (west of Donetsk City).[4] Ukrainian forces previously blunted a reinforced-battalion sized Russian mechanized assault near Kostyantynivka on July 24 and a reinforced-company sized assault near the settlement on July 25.[5] ISW previously assessed that Russian forces are likely attempting to seize Kostyantynivka and cut the Vuhledar-Kostyantynivka T-0524 highway, forcing Ukrainians to retreat from the area.[6]

How much of a threat does the war in Ukraine pose to U.S. interests?

The share of Americans saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a threat to U.S. interests has declined significantly since 2022. Today, about a third of the public (34%) says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine poses a “major threat” to U.S. interests. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, half said it was a major threat.https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/PP_2024.7.29_ukraine_0-02.png?w=310There is a wide and growing gap between Republicans and Democrats over whether the war in Ukraine is a major threat to U.S. interests.

Both Democrats and Republicans are less likely to say the conflict is a major threat to the U.S. than they were in its early days. But that decline is far sharper among Republicans.

• 45% of Democrats now say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a major threat, 5 percentage points lower than in March of 2022 but 7 points higher than a year ago.
• 26% of Republicans say the war is a major threat to the U.S. This share has been essentially flat since early 2023 and remains well below the 51% of Republicans who said this early in the war.