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By John Feng and Brendan Cole
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Russian troops have made advances in southern Ukraine according to the Institute for the Study of war (ISW) as a map shows the latest state of play on the front line.
The Washington, D.C.-based think tank assessment comes ahead of an expected call between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.
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Why It Matters
Putin said he backed the idea of a 30-day ceasefire proposed by Washington but has insisted that the "root causes" of the war he started be addressed, raising concerns that he has no intention of ending hostilities.
Russian gains in the south will add to Putin's sense that the battlefield situation is in his favor, reducing the chance of the Russian leader agreeing to anything that can stop this momentum.
What To Know
In its Monday update, the ISW said that geolocated footage indicated how Russian troops had recently advanced northwest of Robotyne, in the Zaporizhzhia region, south of the Donetsk region where both sides have made gains in the Toretsk direction.
This follows up unconfirmed claims by pro-Russian military bloggers that Russian forces, including elements of the 108th Airborne (VDV) Regiment had seized Mali Shcherbaky and made gains both west and east of the settlement.
The pro-Moscow Telegram channel Operation Z described a "new catastrophe of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" posting that the Russian army is advancing on the Zaporizhzhia front and "liberating villages one by one."
After the capture of Piatykhatky, Moscow's troops from the Dnepr Group had seized Stepove from where they were advancing north.
This was also claimed by the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and other Russian sources and shown on the latest ISW map.
Elsewhere, the ISW said that both Ukrainian and Russian forces had recently advanced in the Toretsk direction—Kyiv's troops to the north and Moscow's to the south.
A planned call on Tuesday between Trump and Putin follows U.S.-led negotiations in Saudi Arabia, where Washington proposed a 30-day ceasefire which was accepted by Kyiv during bilateral talks in Jeddah on March 11. Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov told Kommersant that Russia is not "losing hope" ahead of the call.
What People Are Saying
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW): "Russian forces recently advanced in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast."
The Russian Defense Ministry on Telegram: "Units of the Dnepr military group, as a result of active and decisive actions, liberated the village of Stepovoye in the Zaporizhzhia region."
What Happens Next
Eyes are turned to the expected phone call between Trump and Putin, and more importantly, whether such a conversation can yield results that change the calculus of the war.
In comments emailed to Newsweek, Ian Brzezinski, senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, said Putin linking a ceasefire to the war's "root causes" was his way of demanding Ukraine's permanent exclusion from NATO, neutered Ukrainian armed forces, and Volodymyr Zelensky's removal as president.
This raises doubts that Kyiv could ever agree to such conditions.
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