Russian troops intensify attacks in eastern Ukraine: Kyiv military

KYIV - Russian troops have sharply stepped up their attacks in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s military said on Feb 16, as a Nato official predicted Moscow would increase the pace and intensity of its assaults with talks to end the war approaching.

The main attacks were concentrated near the imperilled logistics hub of Pokrovsk, Kyiv said, with US and Russian officials expected to hold talks in the coming days in Saudi Arabia and US President Donald Trump pushing for peace.

Kyiv’s military reported 261 combat engagements with Russia over a 24-hour period on Feb 15, easily the largest number recorded in 2025 and more than double the roughly 100 per day it reported in previous days.

“Today was the hardest day of 2025 at the front,” the Ukrainian DeepState military blog wrote late on Feb 15.

A late evening report by the military on Feb 16 showed the number of engagements over a 24-hour period had declined to 117. Thirty-eight occurred in the Pokrovsk sector, with one still going on.

Russia’s military on Feb 15 reported the capture of the village of Berezivka, north-east of Pokrovsk.

Ukrainian reports did not mention the village but its evening report on Feb 16 said the adjacent settlement of Vodiane Druhe was one of several under attack in the area.

Moscow’s troops advanced steadily in the east for much of the second half of 2024, announcing the capture of village after village, though the intensity of the fighting dropped in January 2025, according to Ukrainian military data.

Russian forces have seized a swathe of territory to the south of Pokrovsk and are now pushing upwards to its south-west, threatening a main supply route into the outpost, the capture of which could open up more lines of attack for Russia.

Despite being on the backfoot, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported a “good result” in the east on Feb 13 and a military spokesman said Kyiv’s forces had recaptured the village of Pishchane, about 5km to Pokrovsk’s south.

“It isn’t so much the result of something collapsing for the Russians or some kind of magical weapon being delivered to Ukraine, no. Certain organisational actions were taken to help Ukrainians act more effectively,” Mr Viktor Trehubov, a military spokesman, told Reuters.

Stronger push

Ukraine has been using drones for deep strikes on Russia in an effort to inflict pain and strengthen its overall position. Russia has continued to conduct regular drone and missile strikes, while making advances on the ground in the east.

“I would expect a much stronger push. I would expect that we would see... a lot of Russian efforts to advance,” a Nato official who requested anonymity told Reuters.

Though Ukrainian officials are careful to praise Mr Trump, his push to engage directly with the Russians without first consulting with Kyiv and to leave out the Europeans entirely is a cause for alarm in Ukraine and Europe.

Kyiv has said it was not invited to take part in the talks in Saudi Arabia and that in any case it wants to devise a joint strategy with its US and European allies before meeting Russian officials.

France said on Feb 16 it would host a summit of European leaders on Feb 17 to discuss the Ukraine war and European security as the continent scrambles to respond concretely to Mr Trump’s unilateral approach to the conflict.

Mr Zelensky gave figures for Russian strikes with aerial bombs and missiles that appeared to suggest they had increased in size in the last week.

He said Russia had fired about 1,220 aerial bombs, more than 850 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine, compared with 1,206, bombs, 750 drones and 10 missiles the week before. REUTERS