Putin’s last trick? As Trump urges Zelensky to fold and European leaders dash to Washington, Ukraine claims suicidal Russian ‘fakery’ missions could seal its fate

While Donald Trump urges Volodymyr Zelensky to fold and European leaders dash to Washington, Ukraine claims Russia’s latest trick – suicidal ‘fakery’ missions – could seal its fate.

Vladimir Putin reportedly told the US president during the Alaska summit Friday that Ukrainian frontlines in Donetsk were on the verge of collapse, however, in a phone call which followed, Zelensky urged Trump not to believe the Russian tyrant and said Ukraine was in no such danger.

It comes after Russia has staged fake videos of troops gaining territory in Ukraine in a bid to fool Trump at the negotiating table as EU leaders including UK’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron reveal they will join Zelensky at the White House in a meeting with the US President on Monday.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russian commanders are forcing troops to risk their lives in suicidal flag-painting missions, sending small groups to the frontline villages simply to raise the Russian tri-colour while drones film the spectacle.

The footage is then paraded on kremlin television as evidence of Moscow’s unstoppable advance in the Donetsk region – even though the villages remain firmly under Ukrainian control.

But the cost is devastating. Many of the men sent out on these staged missions never come back as they are shot dead or captured as they try to escape.

‘Russian propaganda is actively using a new tactic of spreading disinformation – staged ‘captures’ of settlements – to create the illusion of success on the front,’ said Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence. 

The strategy, Kyiv believes, is aimed at convincing Trump that Russia is overrunning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces. 

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is desperate to claim all of Donetsk in return for a peace deal – one which Trump is thought to favour. 

In one humiliating episode in the village of Iskra, also known as Andriyivka-Klevtsove, two Russian ‘flag wavers’ were cut down by Ukrainian fire. Two more were captured alive. 

One prisoner admitted under questioning: ‘Our task was to go with a Russian flag in five places in front of the drone and take a photo.’

The Ukrainian commander asked: ‘So you took a photo?’

When asked if they had succeeded, the kneeling soldier, hands tied behind his back, nodded meekly. 

A Ukrainian serviceman confirmed: ‘The settlement is completely under the control of the Ukrainian Defence Forces.’   

Elsewhere, in the village of Zelenyi Hai, another ‘standard bearer’ unit was wiped out by Ukraine’s Bratstvo fighters of the Timur Special Unit, GUR reported.

A GUR statement said: ‘A similar group of ‘standard bearers’ in the village of Zelenyi Hai was recently liquidated by fighters of the Bratstvo unit as part of the Timur Special Unit.’ 

Just before President Vladimir Putin’s high-stakes meeting with his United States counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday, Russia made gains in the Donetsk region.

In advance of the Anchorage summit, Moscow’s army pounded away at Ukraine’s industrial heartland, attempting to seize the flashpoint town of Pokrovsk, a key highway and rail junction in eastern Donetsk, after repeated attempts to breach its defensive line during the week.

As Putin and Trump prepared to meet, battlefield analysis site DeepState said that Pokrovsk was partially encircled. 

In recent days, Russian forces had reportedly seized the village of Yablunivka and the settlement of Oleksandrohrad – both in Donetsk. 

The Ukrainian military also said that Russian forces had seized Popiv Yar, southwest of Dobropillia, and Ivano-Darivka, northeast of Sloviansk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to the Kyiv Independent. 

Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin said the region was beginning the mandatory evacuation of families with children from the town of Bilozerske and a dozen other settlements on August 13.

‘We are beginning the mandatory evacuation of families with children from the town of Bilozerske,’ Filashkin said, adding that around 1,150 children remained in the area impacted by the order.

Zelensky, who has rejected Putin’s demands that Kyiv withdraw from the remaining 30 percent of Donetsk that it still controls, played down the Russian advances, saying on X that his forces were ‘countering’ and ‘increasing the pressure’ on the ‘occupier’.

‘The Russian army continues to suffer significant losses in its attempts to secure more favourable political positions for the Russian leadership at the meeting in Alaska. We understand this plan and are informing our partners about the real situation,’ he said.

Russia illegally annexed Donetsk in 2022, along with Luhansk, both of which form the eastern Donbas region, Kherson and Zaporizhia areas.

In other fighting on Friday, Russia launched a ballistic missile into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one and wounding at least one other person, according to regional governor Serhiy Lysak.

The city of Dnipro is a logistics hub for Ukrainian forces, and the Dnipropetrovsk region borders the combat zone and is regularly shelled by Russian forces.

Some 535 Russian drones and missiles rained on Ukraine during the week of August 7-13. Ukraine intercepted just under two-thirds of them, and Moscow’s forces launched eight missiles against Ukraine, five of which got through its defences. 

But determined to not lose ground, Ukraine has been clawing back territory in Donetsk, even as Russia pours men and resources into the region. 

As of August 15, Russia controls nearly 114,500 square km , or 19 per cent, of Ukraine, including Crimea, and a major chunk of territory in the east and southeast of the country, according to open source maps of the battlefield. 

Ukraine does not control any internationally recognised Russian territory.

It comes as a number of European leader have rallied together to reveal they will be joining Zelensky at a White House meeting with Trump following Friday’s failed summit where Trump and Putin were unable to reach a deal on ending the Ukraine war.

Diplomatic sources have said Friday’s summit in Alaska paved the way for a deal in which Ukraine would be expected to surrender large swathes of the Donbas region in the east of the country, including areas currently controlled by Kyiv.

In return, President Zelensky would receive ‘NATO-style’ protection from Western countries for what remained of his territory.

He is preparing to fly to Washington for a showdown with Trump, at which he is expected to be told to retreat from the battlegrounds.

Zelensky is understood to have said that he will refuse to surrender Donetsk, which has been at the centre of conflict with Moscow since 2014, but is more broadly ‘open to discussing the issue of territory’.

President Zelensky wrote on X last night: ‘We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing.

‘This complicates the situation. If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades.

‘But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.’

He also said he was ‘grateful for the invitation’ from Trump, after he was notably not invited to the talks between the US and Russian President on August 15. and it was ‘important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work’.

UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, Finnish President, Alexander Stubb, French President, Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, have announced they will be taking the trip on Monday.

In a statement, Downing Street said: ‘This follows the Prime Minister commending President Trump’s efforts to end Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, reasserting his position that the path to peace cannot be decided without President Zelensky, and co-chairing a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing this afternoon to discuss the progress to provide Ukraine with robust security guarantees in the event of any deal.

‘At the meeting that will take place at the White House tomorrow, the Prime Minister, with other European partners, stands ready to support this next phase of further talks and will reaffirm that his backing for Ukraine will continue as long as it takes.’

Yesterday, President Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: ‘The best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.

‘President Zelensky will be coming to [Washington] DC, the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.’

And in an interview with Fox News, Trump signalled that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had ‘largely agreed’.

‘I think we’re pretty close to a deal,’ he said, adding: ‘Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say ‘no’.’

Asked what he would advise Zelensky to do, Trump said: ‘Gotta make a deal.’

‘Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,’ he added.

Meanwhile, Zelensky is expected to meet von der Leyen in Brussels shortly – around 14:00 local time (13:00 BST) – ahead of a virtual meeting with a number of European leaders.