[Korrespondent] The situation on the front is changing rapidly: CNN journalists visited the front lines and warned of the threat of the fall of three cities.
In eastern Ukraine, the Russian military's tiny gains are piling up as Moscow pours significant resources into a summer offensive that risks changing control of the front lines, according to today's CNN story.
"Over four days of reporting from villages outside of Kostiantynivka and Pokrovsk, two of the most unified Ukrainian cities in the Donetsk region, CNN has seen control of the territory shift rapidly. Russian drones have been able to penetrate deep into areas that Kyiv forces once used as oases of peace," the report says.
POKROVSK
Journalists say they felt the most acute sense of crisis near Pokrovsk. One commander described to the TV channel "a very bad scenario" in which troops in the city of Mirnohrad, next to Pokrovsk, risk "being surrounded."
The officer added that the Russians had already crossed into the neighboring village of Rodinskoye and were on the outskirts of Beletskoye, which posed a threat to the supply line of Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk.
The same picture was confirmed to CNN on Tuesday by a Ukrainian police officer and another Ukrainian serviceman.
The commander, according to journalists, said that they feared a possible blockade of Pokrovsk, similar to Avdiivka and Ugledar last year, where "we held out to the last and ultimately lost both the city and the people."
KONSTANTINOVKA
Last week, there was a significant advance of Russian troops near Konstantinovka, CNN reports. Now enemy FPV drones can easily hit vehicles already in the city.
Vasily, the commander of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, told reporters that he had not been sent new personnel for eight months, and was forced to replenish the forward positions with only two men, and that food, water and ammunition were delivered using drones.
"Nobody wants to fight. The old personnel remains, they are tired and want to be replaced, but nobody is replacing them," he said.
In addition, the commander accused officers of providing inaccurate reports on the state of the front line to their superiors.
"A lot is not reported and hidden. We do not report a lot to our state. Our state does not report a lot to people," he added.
KUPYANSK
Near Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, Russian troops have broken through to the north of the city, threatening a key supply route for Ukrainian troops to the west, capturing the village of Radkovka, CNN reports.
Military personnel in the city described the situation as "changing very quickly," and Russian war correspondents have already said their forces are on the outskirts of the town.
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?
The fall of these three cities would create three separate crises for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, CNN notes.
First, these are the urban areas from which Ukraine defends the rest of the Donetsk region it controls, without which its troops lack places to hide and get supplies..
Secondly, their loss to Moscow will free up a significant number of Russian forces for a powerful offensive on Kramatorsk and Slavyansk – the largest cities in the Donetsk region, which are still under Ukrainian control.
Third, this loss would leave Ukrainian forces defenseless, forcing them to defend mostly open farmland (with a few towns along the way) between the Donetsk region and its key city of Dnipro
"The cumulative effects of Ukraine's human resource crisis, Kyiv's turbulence with the Trump White House, and the uncertainty of arms supplies are a perfect storm brewing in the face of the vigor and persistence of Russia's summer offensive, whose progress is no longer gradual but is changing the conflict and rapidly bringing Putin closer to some of his goals," the journalists conclude.