Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Thursday that its assault units had pushed into northern Pokrovsk and captured a village south of Siversk, marking new advances on two fronts in eastern Ukraine.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield claims and the Ukrainian military said it had thwarted 57 Russian assaults on the Pokrovsk front in the past day and was destroying Russian units inside the city.
Russian forces are pushing forward at several points along the front line, especially in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, as the U.S. discusses a possible peace plan to end the deadliest European conflict since World War II.
Moscow says taking Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, would give it a platform to drive north toward the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Russian maps show Pokrovsk under Moscow's control and Ukrainian troops encircled in neighboring Myrnohrad. Ukrainian maps show Pokrovsk as a grey zone under no side's control and Myrnohrad as not being fully surrounded.
The Russian Defense Ministry said units from Russia's 2nd Army were advancing in central and northern Pokrovsk and that its forces had advanced to the east, west and south of Myrnohrad.
It said Russian forces had also taken the village of Vasiukivka, to the southeast of the town of Siversk, around which Russian forces are also trying to execute a pincer movement.
Russia last year changed its battlefield tactics. Instead of frontal assaults on cities, it started to develop pincer movements around several key places in an effort to reduce casualties and force Kyiv to either withdraw its troops or risk encirclement.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had also penetrated Ukrainian lines north of Huliaipole in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
