Along Donetsk’s frontline, a small counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops aims to help change perceptions about the war among Kyiv’s western allies

As Donald Trump prepared to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, Russia launched an offensive in eastern Ukraine. Small groups of soldiers pushed forward near Dobropillia and, meeting little resistance, they advanced 15 to 20 km and seized a chain of villages.

It is a small pocket of land, but one that has driven perceptions of the war in the last months. At the time of the Alaska summit, it was seen as proof that Russia had momentum; as Ukraine had taken back territory – albeit in the context of Russian advances elsewhere – it may have contributed to Trump’s dismissive assessment of Moscow’s military as a “paper tiger”.