Russia says Ukrainian forces in encircled Pokrovsk and Kupiansk should surrender, claiming they had no chance of survival otherwise.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that its troops were advancing northwards and had blocked multiple Ukrainian attempts to break out of encirclement in the city of Pokrovsk.Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk since 2024 as part of an attempt to take the entirety of the Donbas region.
Russia said on Wednesday that Ukrainian troops in the battered cities of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk were encircled and should surrender, as they had no chance of survival otherwise.Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk, dubbed 'the gateway to Donetsk', since 2024 as part of an attempt to take the entirety of the Donbas region, of which Ukrainian forces still control about 10 percent, or 5,000 square km.In a break with the frontal assaults which Russian forces used against other cities, Russia has used pincer movements to almost encircle Ukrainian forces in both Pokrovsk and Kupiansk while small highly-mobile units and drones disrupted logistics and sowed chaos behind Ukrainian lines.Russia's tactics in both locations created what Russian military bloggers called a grey zone of ambiguity where neither side had full control, but which was extremely difficult for Ukraine to defend.Fully encircling PokrovskBattlefield maps show that Russian forces are a few kilometres away from fully encircling Pokrovsk, known by Russia as Krasnoarmeysk. They also control a significant part of Kupiansk and are advancing on the main road to the city.Russia's defence ministry directly contradicted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's statement on Monday that Ukrainian forces were trying to clear what he had said were just 60 Russian soldiers in Kupiansk.It said Ukrainian units were trapped in what it cast as 'cauldrons' and that their position was deteriorating rapidly while Russian forces advanced, 'leaving no chance for Ukrainian servicemen to save themselves other than by voluntary surrender.'Nearly four years into the deadliest war in Europe since World War II, Russia is trying to take the whole of Donbas and is advancing in the Kharkiv and Dnipopetrovsk regions of eastern Ukraine.Russia's military says it now controls more than 19% of Ukraine, or some 116,000 square km.Pro-Ukrainian maps indicate that Russia has taken more than 3,400 square km of Ukrainian territory so far this year.
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