MOSCOW, Sept 8 (Askume) – Russia said on Sunday its troops had taken full control of a town in eastern Ukraine, as Moscow’s troops advanced towards the strategic city of Pokrovsk and tried to break through Ukraine’s defence line.
Russian troops have controlled roughly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory since invading Ukraine in February 2022 , and are currently advancing into eastern Ukraine in an attempt to capture the whole of Donbass, a region roughly half the size of the US state of Ohio.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Russian troops had captured the town of Novorodivka, 12 kilometers (7 miles) from Pokrovsk, a major rail and road hub for Ukrainian forces in the region. The pre-war town had a population of 14,000.
Maps posted by Yuriy Podolyka, an influential pro-Russian military blogger born in Ukraine, showed Russian forces attacking at least two locations outside Novorodivka, less than 7 kilometres (4 miles) from the Pokrovsk Islands, about 50 km away.
The Ukrainian army’s general staff detailed fighting in the Pokrovsk area, including Novorodivka, in a report released late Sunday.
The report said 29 Russian attempts had been thwarted, while seven clashes were ongoing. “Our troops are taking steps to remain in their designated positions,” the statement said.
But a Ukrainian official interviewed by US-funded Radio Liberty broadcast last week said Ukrainian forces had abandoned Novorodivka on the grounds that conditions there were not conducive to its defence.
DeepState, a popular Ukrainian war blog, said Russian troops had captured the southeastern village of Nevelskoe.
Askume was unable to immediately verify battlefield reports from both sides due to reporting restrictions during the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Moscow a boost last week when he said Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region had not slowed Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine and weakened Kiev’s front-line defences.
Ukraine’s top military commander said on Thursday that Kiev’s offensive in the Kursk region is working. He said there has been no progress in the Russian forces’ assault toward Pokrovsk over the past six days.
He said that one of the aims of the Kursk offensive was to divert Russian troops from other areas, primarily Pokrovsk and Kulakhov. He said that Russia has deployed a large number of troops in Kursk and is also reinforcing the Pokrovsk front.
Ukrainian President Zelensky said the Kursk operation was also aimed at preventing Russian troops from crossing the border.
Russia currently controls about 80% of the Donbas. Given the pace of Russia’s recent advances in the east, some Russian war bloggers have expressed concern about Russian military overreach.
Two and a half years ago, Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in what he called a “special military operation.” Ukraine and its Western backers have vowed to defeat Russian forces and expel all Russian troops.
