MOSCOW – Mr Vladimir Putin is heading to a planned summit on Aug 15 with Mr Donald Trump confident that Russia is in a dominant position on the battlefield as his military advances in Ukraine.

That is likely to strengthen his determination to secure major territorial concessions when the Russian and US presidents meet in Alaska in return for a ceasefire that Mr Putin has so far been reluctant to concede to Mr Trump.

Russian forces

broke through Ukrainian defences

in the eastern Donetsk region around villages leading to the town of Dobropillya, according to the Deep State monitoring platform, which maintains cooperation with Ukraine’s Defence Ministry.

They are consolidating positions and probing for weak points in defences to try to reach the road linking the town and the strategic city of Kramatorsk.

Mr Putin and Mr Trump are set to meet as Russia’s army grinds out gains in a summer campaign that is putting Ukrainian defences under mounting pressure, so far without achieving a decisive advance.

The Russian president has repeatedly rejected calls from Mr Trump, Ukraine and European leaders to agree to a ceasefire to allow for negotiations on a peace deal to end

the full-scale invasion

that is now in its fourth year.

“Putin has much stronger cards to play than his opponents,” said Ms Marina Miron, a military researcher at the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. “The Russian army is on the offensive, and they are dictating the rules.”

Only a few lightly armed Russians bypassed defences around Dobropillya, and Ukraine is working to r...