Key Points and Summary – Ukraine says it has regained territory near Dobropillia and cleared more territory after Russia’s August breakthrough, a shift echoed by DeepState. Zelensky, on a frontline visit, says the counteroffensive is “achieving results.”
-In London, President Trump said Putin “let him down,” blaming Moscow for blocking peace.
German Leopard 2 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Russia struck Kostiantynivka, killing five, while Ukrainian drones hit the Bashkortostan refinery.
-Putin claims 700,000 troops in theater. A Yale report alleges 210 facilities are “re-educating” deported Ukrainian children; Kyiv counts 19,500 taken.
-With Putin rejecting a summit with Zelenskyy, battlefield momentum and stalled diplomacy point to a long war.
Ukraine Retakes Donbas Town As Peace Prospects Stall
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Thursday that Ukraine has regained territory in the Donbas following months of intense fighting.
Zelenskyy said that some 160 square kilometres near the Dobropillia, a coalmining town in eastern Donetsk, had been taken by his troops. Russian troops had broken through Kyiv’s lines in this area back in August.
Kyiv also says that another 170 square kilometres had been “cleared” of Russian troops, but not totally reoccupied. Independent verification of battlefield figures remains difficult, but the pro-Ukrainian monitoring group DeepState indicated that Russian units which had made rapid gains around Dobropillia last month, have since been forced back.
The developments come amid a rare display of optimism from Kyiv. It comes on the back of a grinding summer in which Moscow seemed to consolidate much of its hold across the majority of the Donbas region. Zelenskyy, visiting troops there this week, insisted that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was now “achieving results.”
Trump: Putin ‘Let Me Down’
The military updates coincided with a striking diplomatic moment in London. At a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, US President Donald Trump accused Vladimir Putin of having “let him down,” saying the Russian leader had blocked previous hopes of a peace deal.
“He’s killing many people, and he’s losing more people than he’s killing,” Trump told reporters. “The Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers.”
British officials are likely to welcome Trump’s blunt announcement, which capped a two-day state visit aimed at bolstering UK–US ties and further isolating Moscow from NATO and the U.S.
Russia Ramps Up Attacks, Slams Child Deportation Report
On the ground, Russia continues to hit civilian areas hard.
Kostiantynivka, near the Donetsk frontline, suffered a strike that left five people dead, according to local police. Simultaneously, Kyiv has ramped up long-range attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure, with one of its strikes recently sparking a fire at the Bashkortostan refinery some 1,400km from the border.
Moscow asserts that its manpower remains formidable, however, and Putin alleges that he has some 700,000 troops deployed in Ukraine.
This news also comes amid a fresh report by Yale University’s School of Public Health regarding Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children. Investigators said they had identified over 210 facilities across the country and in occupied Ukraine in which deported minors are subjected to “re-education”. This programme includes military training and even drone assembly.
Kyiv estimates more than 19,500 children have been taken in violation of international conventions. Naturally, Moscow slammed these shocking but well-evidenced findings as false.
Still, with fighting still ongoing, and Putin refusing offers of a three-way summit with Zelenskyy, there is no clear end in sight for Russia’s global controversies.
About the Author: Georgia Gilholy
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education. You can follow her on X: @llggeorgia.
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Swamplaw Yankee
September 21, 2025 at 12:11 am
OMG. Back to word games.
The op-ed uses the word war. The 2014 re-start was of an ancient 1000 year old GENOCIDE of Ukrainians by ethnic ruusskie muscovy wearing their latest Halloween costumes: The NAZI-like FSB Putin costume.
In 2022 the Genocide was re-vitalized with a meat grinder front line of Genocide meandering thru Ukraine.
Remember the 1932-33 Halloween costume worn by the etnic ruskie Muscovy? Yeah, the orcs got all excited about FREE Ukrainian real estate and starved 20,000,000 Ukrainians is a slow agony of death. What did costume did the ruusskie orcs hide behind in 1932-33?
It was the Fat Joseph Stalin KGB costume, a chilling way of the average muscovy to legally kill millions of Ukrainians with a single starvation.
What about when the Ukrainian Cossacks created the WORLD’s first written constitution in 1710? The ruusskie orcs hide behind Czarist Halloween Costumes, “you loook so tsarling, darling czarist”.
The 2014 re-start of this Genocide was a POTUS OBAMA Democrat Cabal unilateral greenlit geopolitical loss to NATO of Ukraine’s Crimean ancient soil, families and Black/Azov Sea jurisdictional areas to the WEST’s prime vile Cold war enemy, tsarling Putin.
There is no clear end in sight for the mistake of the WEST to ignore a 1000 years of ruusskie ethnic tribal genocide butchery.
It is easier for the PRC CCP Xi regime to switch to being Pro-Ukraine that it is for the MAGA POTUS Trump to switch to being anti-genocide of Ukrainians. Xi can easily switch to being PRO-Ukraine + win the NOBEL Peace Prize. MAGA POTUS Trumpkins can not easily switch to demanding Compensation and reparation of $10,000,000 in US gold bullion for each and every mass abducted Ukrainian victim from his ole cuddler buddie Putin.
MAGA POTUS Trump just does not want Victory for the WEST and self-abdicated from the demanding position of leader of the WEST. Trump is incapable of bringing himself to demand on public MSM that Putin immediately stop his genetic need to Genocide Ukrainians and return all the stolen Ukrainian real estate!
It is not 1932-33 when Putin’s grand pop legally butchered 20,000,000 Ukrainians for their vacant homes and farms. In 2025 the real estate taken illegally must be returned.