Russian, Ukrainian troops battle in ruins of Pokrovsk
Russian and Ukrainian soldiers clashed in the ruins of Pokrovsk, a shipping and logistics hub in eastern Ukraine that Russia has been trying to capture for more than a year.
The Ukrainian military said heavy fighting was continuing in a part of the city that is key to front-line logistics.
He said additional special forces had arrived there and more weapons and equipment had been sent.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its soldiers cleared 35 buildings of Ukrainian troops.
It was also stated that Russian forces squeezed the surrounded Ukrainians near the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, about 160 km to the north.
Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports from either side.
Ukraine denied the claim that its troops were surrounded in both areas.
With peace talks deadlocked in the fourth year of the war, Russia says it has the initiative on all sectors of the front, but has been unable to capture a major town since taking Avdiivka in early 2024.
Ukraine says the fighting is largely stalemated and territorial losses are marginal.
DeepState, a Ukrainian project that maps the front line based on verified open-source imagery, showed Russian forces advancing further into Pokrovsk and its surroundings on Tuesday; but outside the strict control of both sides, much of it still appeared grey.
The pre-war population of Pokrovsk was approximately 60,000, but most civilians fled long ago.
Capturing it could provide a platform for Russia to advance towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two largest cities remaining under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region, which Russia wants to capture in its entirety.
Russian military blogger Rybar said on Tuesday that the Kremlin’s control over Pokrovsk is gradually expanding, but “complete clearing of the city is still a long way off.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged on Monday that Pokrovsk was under serious pressure, but his military said Russian troops were not in full control of any area.
Zelenskiy said Tuesday that he visited troops fighting near the eastern city of Dobropillia, where Ukrainian forces are launching an offensive against Russian troops.
He wrote in
