Small groups of Russian troops have pierced parts of Ukraine’s defenses in its eastern Donetsk region, according to local officials and monitoring groups, adding to Kyiv’s complications as Russia attempts to encircle the key strategic city of Pokrovsk.

Russian troops achieved one of the biggest breakthroughs of the war in eastern Ukraine, with some units making it through Kyiv’s primary defensive line just days ahead of President Donald Trump’s peace summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.