As Trump states Ukraine is losing the war with Russia, officials say the battlefield situation hasn’t changed significantly
By Jim Sciutto, CNN
(CNN) — Following President Donald Trump’s claim that Ukraine is “losing” the war against Russia’s ongoing invasion and that Moscow now has the “upper hand,” multiple officials told CNN there are no new US or European assessments suggesting there have been significant changes on the battlefield and they don’t see any indications President Vladimir Putin’s forces are likely to win the conflict quickly.
The assessments paint a nuanced picture, with Russia making small gains on the frontlines and now approaching key Ukrainian supply lines, but at an enormous cost in military casualties
“Russians are creeping in but it is not a fundamental change from what has been happening over the last several months,” a Ukrainian military official told CNN.
“The truth is that in this last year, Russia has gained less than 1% of Ukrainian territory. So that, of course, is not the winning of the war,” Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze told CNN Monday. “That’s not the objectives Putin and Kremlin is looking for. He wants to deny Ukraine its sovereignty. He wants to subjugate Ukraine as a country. So they are not getting that on the battlefield.”
But officials made clear the situation is challenging for Kyiv.
“Ukraine is incrementally losing strategic ground in the east through attrition and limited defensive positions,” a senior US official said.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have advanced on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. Russian commanders have claimed multiple times to have taken the city, while Ukrainian commanders insist fighting remains underway. Pokrovsk was once a key supply hub for Ukrainian forces in the east. However, as fighting around the city has intensified in recent months, its role has diminished and, while the area is close to key Ukrainian supply lines, those supply lines remain open.
The fear among European officials is that Trump is growing so impatient with the lack of progress in peace negotiations that he may walk away from the talks, assigning blame to Ukraine and Europe for standing in the way of an agreement.
The senior US official agreed, telling CNN, “It’s becoming more of a political liability for him as an endless war.”
In an interview with Politico taped Monday, Trump once again expressed frustration with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, as he pressures him to agree a peace deal with Moscow. “He’s going to have to get on the ball and start accepting things, you know, when you’re losing,” Trump said.
Asked if Ukraine has lost the war, Trump said, “they lost a lot of land” and “you certainly wouldn’t say it’s a victory.”
Trump’s pessimistic read of the war marks a dramatic reversal for the president. Just over two months ago, after meeting with Zelensky at the UN General Assembly in New York, Trump surprised observers by saying he believed Ukraine could not only hold the line but also win back all territory taken by Russia since the invasion, and perhaps even more.
“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump posted on social media, adding, “And, who knows, maybe even go further than that!”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
