Pokrovsk battle map: Russian forces edge nearer to key Ukrainian metropolis as Putin faces ‘massive cost’ | EUROtoday

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Fighting round the important thing Ukraine metropolis of Pokrovsk is “extremely intense” after a months lengthy Russian push, Ukraine’s high army commander has stated.

The warning comes as analysts estimated Russian forces at the moment are inside only a few miles of the necessary metropolis.

Ukrainian troops repelled practically 40 Russian makes an attempt to storm defences round Pokrovsk over the earlier 24 hours, the General Staff stated in a battlefield report Thursday.

“Russian occupiers are throwing all available forces forward, attempting to break through the defences of our troops,” Ukrainian military chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi stated. His forces are outnumbered, he added.

Ukraine’s stretched defenses in Donetsk have been creaking since early this 12 months below a fierce Russian drive to seize its neighbour’s total japanese Donbas area. Russian forces are attempting to overwhelm Ukraine’s battlefield defences with sheer numbers of troops and highly effective glide bombs that destroy fortifications.

Pokrovsk, which had a inhabitants of about 60,000 earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, is one among Ukraine’s predominant defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub within the Donetsk area. Its seize would compromise Ukraine’s defensive skills and provide routes and would convey Russia nearer to its said objective of seizing the complete Donetsk area.

But Ukraine’s dogged resistance and Western army assist have rendered the positive factors expensive for the Kremlin in losses of troops and armour.

A significant fear for the Kyiv authorities is that tens of billions of {dollars} of key US army assist to carry Russia at bay might dry up below president-elect Donald Trump.

The Institute for the Study of War estimated late Wednesday that Russian forces have moved to inside about 6km of Pokrovsk, approaching from the south.

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The Donetsk operation has had “a massive cost” for Russian forces, the Washington-based suppose tank stated. Those losses “will temper their ability to translate these gains into more far-reaching offensive operations” within the months forward, it stated.

Though the Russian push has been gradual transferring, it has lately accelerated in Donetsk and compelled Ukrainian defenders to make localised retreats. Major battlefield victories have eluded the Russians.

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Ukrainian media have reported tensions between Ukraine’s commanders because the army strain has constructed. Unconfirmed stories stated Gen Syrskyi, the army chief, had personally taken cost of some brigades round Pokrovsk.

A famend Ukrainian army officer, Serhii Filimonov, commander of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion of the 59th Motorised Brigade, described Pokrovsk’s protection as a “disaster”.

Senior officers are putting “unrealistic” calls for on items and are unfamiliar with circumstances on the entrance line, Filimonov wrote on his Telegram channel this week.