KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian troops have stabilised the battlefield in an area of eastern Ukraine where Russian forces had made a sudden push this week to pierce Ukrainian defences, the regional governor said on Thursday.

Ukraine said small groups of Russian infantry had thrust some 10 kilometres (six miles) toward its main defensive line near the town of Dobropillia, raising fears of a wider breakthrough that would further threaten key cities.

The advance, just days before Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were due to meet in Alaska, appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv to give up land in pursuit of peace three-and-a-half years into Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.

“The situation in the Dobropillia sector has stabilised,” Vadym Filashkin, governor of the embattled Donetsk region, wrote the

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