Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the defence of Pokrovsk is a “priority”, as elite special forces were deployed to the embattled town on the eastern front line.
Ukrainian army sources told the BBC that special forces from military intelligence and assault groups were being used as regular infantry to protect supply lines to troops holding the town in the Donbas region.
There have been growing reports of Russian advances around the strategic town to the west of Donetsk. Ukraine has denied claims their forces were surrounded.
Moscow wants Kyiv to cede the entire Donbas region as part of a peace deal, including the parts it currently does not control.
Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.
The deployment of special forces suggests officials in Kyiv are determined to try to hold on to the town, which Russia has been trying to seize for more than a year.
Local media say the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, was in the region to personally oversee the operation.
Pokrovsk is a key transport and supply hub whose capture could unlock Russian efforts to seize the rest of the region.
But Kyiv also believes its capture would help Russia in its efforts to persuade the US that its military campaign is succeeding – and, therefore, that the West should acquiesce to its demands.
Washington has grown increasingly frustrated with the Kremlin’s failure to move forward with peace negotiations – culminating in US President Donald Trump placing sanctions on two largest Russian oil producers and axing plans for a summit with President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky has indicated he is open to Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire that would freeze the war along the current front lines. Russia has publicly insisted Ukrainian troops leave the remainder of the Donbas.
In his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said: “Pokrovsk is our priority. We continue to destroy the occupier, and that is what matters most… They must be halted where they have reached – and destroyed there.”
(BBC)
