By SAMYA KULLAB and YEHOR KONOVALOV, Related Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces are bypassing a key stronghold in jap Ukraine that they’ve fought for months to seize and are focusing as a substitute on chopping provide traces to it, a Ukrainian official mentioned Monday.
Russian troops are going across the very important logistics hub of Pokrovsk, the place a steadfast Ukrainian protection has stored them at bay, and are taking intention at a freeway that leads from there to the central Ukraine metropolis of Dnipro, Maj. Viktor Trehubov, a neighborhood Ukrainian military spokesperson, advised The Related Press.
That route is essential for provides feeding Ukrainian forces in your complete area. Slicing the freeway site visitors would additionally severely weaken Pokrovsk.
“So far, they have not achieved their goal and (Ukrainian forces) are working to ensure that they do not achieve it in the future — just as they have not been successful in other attempts to bypass the city,” Trehubov mentioned in a WhatsApp message.
Ukraine’s military is below extreme pressure alongside components of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) entrance line, particularly in the jap Donetsk area the place Pokrovsk is situated.
After nearly three years of warfare, Ukrainian items are depleted and are outnumbered by Russian forces. Although its battlefield progress has been gradual and dear, momentum within the warfare is in Russia’s favor and its onslaught has steadily swallowed up cities and villages, particularly in Donetsk. The Russian Protection Ministry claimed Monday its forces had seized the village of Pishchane.
In his day by day video tackle to the nation late Sunday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned combating round Pokrovsk was “the most intense” in latest days.
“Now they are acting more cautiously,” he mentioned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is urgent his benefit forward of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s arrival within the White Home subsequent week. Trump says he needs to deliver a swift finish to the warfare, although he hasn’t publicized particulars of his plans.
In 2022, Moscow illegally annexed the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk areas, which make up the economically essential Donbas industrial space, along with the southeastern provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. However Russian forces don’t totally management any of them.
Initially Printed: January 13, 2025 at 10:50 AM EST
