Putin hails Russian capture of all of eastern Ukraine's Pokrovsk

MOSCOW, Dec 2 - President Vladimir Putin hailed what his commanders told him was the full Russian capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign, saying it would help Moscow fulfil its wider war aims.

Russia, which uses the Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk to refer to the city, has faced fierce Ukrainian resistance in its battle since mid-2024 to capture Pokrovsk, once a strategic logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.

"I want to thank you. This is an important direction. We all understand just how important," Putin, dressed in military uniform and sitting in a command centre, told the army's top brass in a video released by the Kremlin late on Monday.

"It will ensure solutions going forward to the tasks that we initially set at the beginning of the special military operation," he added, employing the phrase Moscow uses to describe its nearly four-year military campaign in Ukraine.

The city's fall, if confirmed, gives Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

RUSSIA WANTS THE WHOLE OF DONBAS

Russia wants to take the whole of the wider Donbas region, which comprises the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk where Pokrovsk is located.

Kyiv and most Western nations reject Moscow's seizure of the territory as an illegal land grab they have vowed to try to thwart.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has said in recent weeks it has been holding back Russian forces in the north of a city which had a pre-war population of over 60,000 people and is located near Ukraine's only source of coking coal minerals.

Reuters could not immediately independently verify the assertions of either side, though maps from both have long shown the city under intense Russian pressure with Moscow's forces deep inside it.

The claimed capture of the city comes as the United States accelerates efforts to clinch a peace deal for Ukraine, with Putin set to hold talks in Moscow later on Tuesday with U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

FALL COULD STRENGTHEN MOSCOW'S HAND IN TALKS

Russian analysts have suggested that the taking of Pokrovsk, Moscow's most important single territorial gain inside Ukraine since it took the ruined city of Avdiivka in early 2024, could strengthen Moscow's negotiating position.

This is because it demonstrates meaningful headway by Moscow's forces in the Donetsk region at a time when Putin is asking Kyiv to surrender the rest.

Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region to the west, where Russian forces say they have already established a foothold, would also be more vulnerable to Russian advances.

The news led Russia's morning news on Chennel One state TV, which showed video of troops calmly holding aloft a Russian flag in what looked like the centre of the city, as a camera panned out wider to show its heavy damage.

A time stamp on the video showed that Putin's statement and visit to the command centre at an unspecified location were on Sunday. Its release late on Monday looked designed to coincide with the build-up to Putin's Moscow talks with U.S. negotiators.

RUSSIAN COMMANDER SAYS TROOPS ENGAGE IN CLEAN-UP OPERATIONS

Valery Solodchuk, commander of the Centre group of forces, told Putin that Russian troops were proceeding with clean-up operations against Ukrainian forces around Pokrovsk and the nearby town of Myrnohrad, where he said up to 2,000 Ukrainian troops were trapped.

Military commanders told Putin that Russian forces were advancing along the entire length of the frontline and had also captured the frontline town of Vovchansk in Ukraine's Kharkiv region as part of efforts to forge a security zone.

Ukrainian officials have made no acknowledgement that Vovchansk, known to Russians as Volchansk, has fallen into Russian hands.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military's General Staff, told Putin that Russian forces were determined to press on with the capture of the entire wider Donbas area. REUTERS