Here’s the status of Russia’s meat-grinder offensive in Donetsk

Russia is expected to conquer a tactically important city in Donetsk that has held out for more than a year-and-a-half — but Moscow is struggling to make any other advancements on the frontlines, according to the latest analysis of the conflict.

The border region is at the center of President Trump’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal — with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin demanding Ukraine give up the entire mineral and coal-rich oblast, despite failing to capture the entire thing during the war.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that has been monitoring the Ukraine war daily, concluded that Russian soldiers advanced a few hundred yards further into Pokrovsk, a key city inside the Donetsk region.

The city is expected to fall within the year following Moscow’s summertime push, but the duration and cost of the campaign to conquer Pokrovsk has been emblematic of Russia’s struggle to make meaningful gains in the fourth year of the war, said George Barros, the ISW’s Russia Team head.

“It took Russia about 18 months to make its way to the city, but Pokrovsk has already outlived its usefulness,” Barros told The Post. “So it isn’t too much of a loss compared to what it took Moscow to get.”

But as Ukraine continues to hold the key strategic cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Russia has found it increasingly difficult to make any headway against Kyiv’s “fortress belt.”

During Monday’s meeting with European leaders at the White House, Finnish President Alexander Stubb reportedly referred to the cities as “a bastion against the Huns,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Russian troops were spotted making offensive pushes in Siversk, located just northeast of Kramatorsk, on Tuesday, with no headway made, according to the ISW analysis.

A similar attempt was reported over in Chasiv Yar, about 18 miles southeast of Kramatorsk, with Russia deploying a number of troops, artillery brigades and airborne division fighters, all of whom found no success in pushing the frontline, the ISW said.

And while Pokrovsk continues to face seige, Russia has been struggling to capitalize on the infiltrations it recently made in the town of Dobropillya, located just north of the hub city.

Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets reported Tuesday that Kyiv’s forces have liberated the villages around Dobropillya, raising up the Ukrainian flag and pushing back the Moscow invaders.

Russian war bloggers, who have become a vital source on the happenings along the frontline, also criticized Moscow’s failures in Dobropillya, saying the recent push around the city was “too narrow relative to its depth and therefore vulnerable to Ukrainian counterattacks,” the ISW found.

Moscow has also found its forces being pushed back around Toretsk, a city that took more than 14 months to conquer before it fell under Russian occupation on Aug. 1.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that he would not give up the Donetsk region, saying Russia cannot claim land that its forces have failed to conquer.