CONFLICT
Russische troepen rukken op naar strategische Oekraïense stad Pokrovsk
July 29, 2024 - Russian forces are staging their heaviest assaults near the city of Pokrovsk, threatening a key supply route for Ukrainian troops struggling to fend off Moscow’s invasion.
Pokrovsk, a transport hub with a pre-war population of 61,000, lies on a main road that serves as an important supply route to other embattled Ukrainian-held outposts, such as the towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka.
Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had taken the villages of Prohres and Yevhenivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. Both settlements sit east of Pokrovsk. Kyiv did not comment on the claim.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion in Feb 2022 and still occupies nearly a fifth of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces repelled the Russians from the outskirts of Kyiv early in the war and recaptured territory in the east and south later in 2022. But since a failed counteroffensive in 2023, Kyiv's troops have mainly been on the defensive this year, Reuters said.