KIEV (Reuters) – The Ukrainian army said on Saturday that Russian forces were continuing to launch attacks near the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in an attempt to outflank it from the south and cut off supply routes to Ukrainian forces.
Seizing the road and railway axis in the eastern Donetsk region could create serious difficulties for the Ukrainian army on the eastern front, and also allow Russia to strengthen its front line and advance to the west.
“The Pokrovsk direction remains the hottest, and there the Russians attacked 34 times (in the last 24 hours) and tried to break through our defenses south of Pokrovsk,” Viktor Trikhupov, spokesman for the Ukrainian Khortytsiya group of forces, told Ukrainian national television.
The city, home to a mine that is the sole supplier of coke to Ukraine's giant steel industry, had a pre-war population of about 60,000. Ukraine estimates that about 11,000 of them remain in the city.
Trekhupov said that Russian forces are trying to cut off supply routes by sending small groups of soldiers to settlements south of Pokrovsk.
“They (the Russians) do not enter the city directly because that would mean heavy fighting in urban areas,” Trekhupov said. “So they first try to bypass the city and disrupt the logistics chains.”
He added that Ukrainian forces are using drones and precision weapons to try to prevent Russian forces from reaching their targets.
