Russian forces have increased their offensive around the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, attempting to outflank it from the south and cut off crucial supply lines for Ukrainian troops, Ukraine’s military said on Saturday.
The capture of Pokrovsk, a strategic road and rail hub in the eastern Donetsk region, could pose significant challenges for Ukraine’s defense on the eastern front. It would also enable Russia to bolster and extend its front-line further west.
“The Pokrovsk direction remains the most active. In the last 24 hours, the Russian army carried out 34 attacks and attempted to break through our defenses south of Pokrovsk,” Viktor Trehubov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces, said on national television.
Before the war, Pokrovsk had a population of approximately 60,000 and is home to a mine supplying coking coal essential to Ukraine’s steel industry. Ukrainian estimates suggest around 11,000 residents remain in the city.
Russian forces are looking at the means to cut all logistics routes with positioning small teams close to town to the south. “They shun attacking directly at the city proper so that they wouldn’t take such heavy casualties due to the price of fighting inside urban areas,” said Trehubov. Instead, “they’re attempting to circumvent it and interdict supply lines, Trehubov explained.
To counter these, the Ukrainian forces are employing drones and precision weaponry to prevent Russian advances and bar their ways toward the attainment of objectives.
It is along this context in Pokrovsk that exemplifies the centralization battle of who commands the eastern part of Ukraine in a war that has been going on for months.
