Russia faces a strategic crisis and record losses, but thanks to Trump it sees things positively (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,713)

Every day, the Ukraine Battlefield update newsletter offers a clear look at how the war is unfolding on the ground. Subscribe for free here to get the full text delivered to your inbox. Despite Trump’s help, Russia is not doing well on the front line. But partly thanks to the US position, it assesses the situation as “mildly positive”. After Oleshky, Putin has returned to killing Ukrainian civilians. A military analyst explains how Russia fell into a strategic crisis. Kyiv reports record monthly and daily Russian troop losses. They cannot be verified, but they show a clear trend. The military house affair shows how serious the problem of forced mobilisation is in Ukraine. Videos of the day: Russian refinery on fire, attacks on Zala reconnaissance drones. Despite Trump, Ukrainians are putting pressure on the Russians. Russian advances on the Ukrainian front are not going according to the Kremlin’s plan at all. Over the autumn, the dynamics of the fighting have even shifted decisively in Ukraine’s favour. For the second consecutive month, Kyiv has reported Russian retreats from occupied territory and the highest daily Russian troop losses since the start of Putin’s all-out war. And his generals have been given the unrealistic goal of capturing the whole of Donbas this winter. The situation is developing unfavourably for the Russians despite the US president’s renewed shift in Moscow’s favour. President Donald Trump is currently pressuring Kyiv and, instead of beginning to use a new stringent sanctions law against the Russian aggressor, is buying oil from Russia, switching off Starlink for Ukrainians, while a US envoy calls Putin a “humanitarian”. Dozens of people are killed in Russian attacks every week, and the start of this week was no exception. The Russian army’s stagnation was also confirmed by a brief and very matter-of-fact post from a military blogger who calls himself Creamy Caprice (Slivochny Kapriz) on Telegram. To read this story, log in or subscribeEnjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a subscriber for as low as €1,75 per week.Read without limitsAlready a subscriber? Login