The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that its forces had advanced into the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and were fighting for every building in an attempt to push out Ukrainian troops, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Moscow says the capture of Pokrovsk, called by Russian media the "gateway to Donetsk region", will give it a springboard to advance north toward the two largest cities remaining under Ukrainian control in Donetsk region – Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.
Russia wants to take control of all of Donbas, which includes Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions.
Ukraine still controls about 10 percent of Donbas territory, about 5,000 square kilometers, Reuters reports.
Russia has been besieging Pokrovsk for more than a year, trying to encircle it and cut off supply routes for Ukrainian forces, rather than attacking head-on, as it did when it took over another city in eastern Ukraine – Bakhmut.
Kiev acknowledged that the situation in Pokrovsk has become complicated in recent days, but claims that its forces are still fighting and are not surrounded.
"Assault units of the Second Army continue to destroy the encircled formations of the Ukrainian armed forces in the eastern part of the central district and in the western industrial zone of the city," the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russia claims that over the past 24 hours it has captured 64 buildings in the city, whose pre-war population was 60,000, and has repelled Ukrainian attacks from Khryshyne to the west.
Russian forces are only a few kilometers away from closing the ring around Pokrovsk and neighboring Mirnograd. Russian troops are also very close to encircling Kupyansk in Kharkiv Oblast.
One of Russia's leading military bloggers, Yuri Podoliaka, said that Russian forces have taken tactical control of Pokrovsk, but in Mirnograd, Ukrainian troops have built strong fortifications. He added that Ukrainian forces are also trying to attack from the northwest.