General Valery Gerasimov reported to Putin: We captured Pokrovsk and Volchansk

The commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, General Valery Gerasimov, has reported to President Vladimir Putin about the capture of the cities of Pokrovsk in Donetsk and Volchansk in the Kharkiv region, the TASS agency reports, citing Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russia has conducted offensive operations, but none of them have been successful recently - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this earlier yesterday:

"Undoubtedly, Russia is moving, it is certainly conducting several offensive actions and operations. But none of these operations were successful. Heavy fighting continues in Pokrovsk and in other directions. Ours are having more success near Kupyansk. Although Russia claims to have captured Kupyansk, we have almost completely cleared them from that city. In October, the Russian Federation suffered its worst losses in nearly 4 years. Video footage confirms 25,500 people were killed."

According to the Ukrainian blog "DeepState", the Russian offensive accelerated in November. 505 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory were captured - almost as much as in the previous two months.