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CNN: Russia tightens its stranglehold on Ukraine battlefield

17 July 2025 16:26 (UTC +04:00)

US President Donald Trump’s 50-day pause ahead of possible secondary sanctions on Russia gifts the Kremlin a window to exploit the incremental gains of recent weeks, which analysts say increasingly put key Ukrainian strongholds in the east in peril, APA reports citing CNN.

Russia is thought to be days or weeks away from surging into a heightened summer offensive, perhaps using the 160,000 troops Ukrainian officials have said are amassing near their front lines. But in the past two weeks, Russia has also made small but vital advances, placing its forces in a better position to cut off Ukrainian troops in three key towns – Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka and Kupiansk – on the eastern front line.

The Kremlin appeared unperturbed by the new Trump deadline, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying on Tuesday: “Fifty days – it used to be 24 hours; it used to be 100 days; we’ve been through all of this.”

Analysts said the new time frame boded well for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goals. Keir Giles from Chatham House wrote Tuesday that it also provided space for Moscow on the diplomatic stage. “The deadline of 50 days gives Russia plenty of time to concoct its own alternative plan, and once again outmanoeuvre Washington through a diplomatic ploy which Trump may well accept willingly… Trump’s latest extension of his notional deadlines for Putin extends Ukraine’s suffering for the same arbitrary period.”

The incremental advances Moscow has made around these three towns have come at a significant cost. But mapping of the front line by DeepState, a Ukrainian monitoring service, and reports from the region show Russian progress in a bid to flank all three.

In the past 72 hours, Russian forces have edged closer to Rodynske, a key settlement to the northeast of Pokrovsk, a main Ukrainian military hub besieged by Moscow for months.

This advance is matched to Pokrovsk’s west, where Russian troops are now moving to encircle the village of Udachne, enabling them to challenge supply routes into Pokrovsk with greater efficiency.