"What has been building up for the Ukrainians is fundamentally a manpower issue," a former senior Pentagon adviser told Newsweek.

Days before the leaders of Russia and the U.S. hold a summit meeting in Alaska, Moscow’s forces breached Ukrainian lines in a series of infiltrations this week in the country’s industrial heartland of Donetsk.

As U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, prepare for a bilateral meeting on Aug. 15 in Alaska, the aims of the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine appear to contradict each other.