Capture of Pokrovsk will enable Russian military to advance further in Ukraine: Putin
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Ukrainian serviceman firing a self-propelled howitzer near Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region. The capture of the town would give Russia a launchpad to advance farther north and west.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin said the capture of the key Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk would enable the military to proceed with its tasks in its offensive operations in Ukraine, according to Russian news agencies.
“This is an important direction. We all understand just how important. It will ensure solutions going forward to the tasks we initially set at the beginning of the special military operation,” he was quoted as saying during a visit on Nov 30 to a command post.
Russia refers to its more than 3 ½-year-old invasion of Ukraine as a special military operation.
“Russia’s armed forces are confidently holding the initiative and continue to carry out the operation’s tasks. Russian forces are advancing on practically all directions.”
Ukraine, Mr Putin was quoted as saying, was unable to react to the advances of the Russian military and he singled out successes recorded further south in Zaporizhzhia region.
In his remarks, he also described heavy losses that he said had been sustained by Ukrainian forces in the fighting as “the tragedy of the Ukrainian people”.
Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine is a key military logistics hub, as well as the city of Vovchansk in the north-east.
The battlefield claims, announced by the Kremlin in a post on Telegram, ups the pressure on Kyiv as it seeks to bring the United States on side in fraught US-led negotiations aimed at ending the war.
Pokrovsk, a road and rail hub in the Donetsk region that had around 60,000 inhabitants before the war, has been the target of an intense Russian campaign in recent months.
In November, Ukraine sent reinforcements, including special forces troops, to the city in a bid to fend off Russia’s attack.
But hundreds of Russian soldiers managed to infiltrate the city.
Russia’s military chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, on Nov 30 “informed (President) Vladimir Putin of the liberation of the cities of Krasnoarmeysk and Vovchansk”, the Kremlin said on Telegram, using the Russian name for Pokrovsk.
The defence ministry posted a video purportedly showing Russian soldiers raising their country’s flag over Pokrovsk’s central square.
The capture, if confirmed, would complicate Ukraine’s supply lines elsewhere on the front and could give Russia a launchpad to advance farther north and west.
It would also put a nearby Ukrainian army garrison at risk of being encircled by Russian forces.
Vovchansk, located in the Kharkiv region, has been devastated by combat since May 2024.
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had called its capture an “important step toward victory”.
An AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows that the Russian army in November made its biggest advance in Ukraine since November 2024. REUTERS, AFP
