A view shows a destroyed bridge in the town of Pokrovsk, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 19, 2024. REUTERS/Alina Smutko/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
REUTERS | Published January 4, 2025
KYIV, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Russian forces continue to launch attacks near the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in an effort to bypass it from the south and cut off supply routes to Ukraine’s troops, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday.
The capture of the road and rail hub in the eastern Donetsk region could create serious difficulties for the Ukrainian army on the eastern front and also allow Russia to reinforce and advance its front line to the west.
“The Pokrovsk direction remains the hottest and there the Russians attacked 34 times (in the past 24 hours) and tried to break through our defences south of Pokrovsk,” Viktor Trehubov, spokesman for Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces, told Ukrainian national television.
The city, home to a mine that is the sole supplier of coking coal to Ukraine’s once-giant steel industry, had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. Ukraine estimates that around 11,000 of them remain in the city.
Trehubov said Russian forces were trying to block supply routes by sending small groups of soldiers to settlements south of Pokrovsk.
“They (Russians) don’t go directly into the city because it means heavy urban fighting. So they first try to bypass the city and interrupt the logistics chains,” Trehubov said.
He said Kyiv’s forces were using drones and precision weapons to try and prevent Russian troops from reaching their targets.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.reuters.com
RELATED: As Ukraine’s New Leopard 2 Brigade Disintegrates, The Russians Advance On Pokrovsk
Ukraine is doling out the 155th Mechanized Brigade’s forces to more experienced units.
A 59th Motorized Brigade tank fires on Russian forces.Ukrainian defense ministry capture
FORBES | Published January 4, 2025
As Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its fourth year, capturing the fortress town of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast is one of Russia’s top objectives. Defending the town is one of Ukraine’s top objectives.
For the troops on the ground, that means relentless close fighting in the towns and farmland surrounding Pokrovsk, a key transportation hub with a pre-war population of 60,000 that, after months of Russian bombardment, is now increasingly devoid of civilians.
On or just before Friday, a tank from the Ukrainian army’s 59th Motorized Brigade rolled out to meet Russian forces attacking the town of Novovasylivka, eight miles southwest of Pokrovsk. Rolling forward and backward, possibly to complicate enemy targeting, the tank fired half a dozen rounds in quick succession at targets in a treeline just a few hundred yards away.
The tank crew may have slowed the attacking Russians, but it didn’t stop them. According to the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies, Novovasylivka has fallen.
It’s unclear what kind of tank the 59th Motorized Brigade has deployed for the defense of Pokrovsk. The 2,000-person brigade operates Ukraine’s standard T-64BV tank, but may have also received some of the 150 or so refurbished Leopard 1A5s a German-led consortium has pledged to the war effort.
If the brigade is lucky, it may also get some of the companies and battalions from the disintegrating 155th Mechanized Brigade, which operates heavier Leopard 2A4 tanks. The 155th Mechanized Brigade began arriving in Pokrovsk late last month. But it was already falling apart amid a collapse in its leadership and widespread desertion by rank-and-file troops.
To salvage the 155th Mechanized Brigade, a unit that Ukraine, France and Poland spent months and millions of dollars training and equipping, Ukrainian leaders have begun assigning its fresh but inexperienced subordinate units to the weary but experienced brigades in the Pokrovsk sector.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.forbes.com
Be the first to comment