Russia Intensifies Assault on Donbas Fortress Cities — SkimNews
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- Ukrainian police are ordering forced evacuations of families with children from Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, with Donetsk police spokesperson Pavlo Dyachenko telling civilians "this is the only way to save your life."
- Russian glide bomb strikes on Slovyansk shifted from roughly once a week to nearly daily, with total glide bomb launches in the area rising from 40 in June to 109 in July and 92 in August, per Ukrainian police data reviewed by the BBC.
- Civilian casualties in the two cities climbed from 70 wounded in June to 212 in August, with 16 deaths in June, 20 in July, and 15 in August, according to Ukrainian police.
- Russia already controls almost all of Luhansk region and nearly 80% of Donetsk region, where Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, and Kostyantynivka form Ukraine's so-called "fortress belt" of heavily reinforced defense lines.
- A single August 25 attack on Kramatorsk dropped nine glide bombs, seven of which hit civilian apartment blocks and wounded 24 people including a two-month-old baby, per Ukrainian police.
- Zelensky created two new taskforces led by generals Andriy Biletsky and Denys Prokopenko to defend remaining Donbas territory, and said Putin has given his generals until the end of the year to complete the occupation of Donbas.
- US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Zelensky after their talks with Putin, with the fate of Donbas reportedly a key issue; Witkoff has previously appeared to back Russian claims to the region.
Why it matters: Russia controls ~80% of Donetsk and almost all of Luhansk, and the remaining Ukrainian-held fortress cities face glide bomb barrages that wounded 212 civilians in August alone — forcing Ukraine to commit its top generals to a defensive reorganization while Zelensky resists US pressure routed through the Witkoff-Kushner-Putin channel.
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