Russian forces are closing in on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, threatening a vital Ukrainian supply line, American television reported CNN.< /p>
Moscow continues its slow, exhausting offensive. Russia has been stretching Ukrainian defenses along the entire eastern front for months, trying to seize as much territory as possible before new Ukrainian recruits and new batches of Western weapons start arriving on the battlefield.
The frontline has hardly moved in the past few months, but the recent advance on Pokrovsk has alarmed Ukraine and its allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the difficult situation, saying Ukrainian troops were facing “extremely challenging” realities in this area.
„The most intense enemy attacks are precisely there, and anyone who stops these Russian strikes and destroys this Russian offensive potential is performing one of the most important missions in this war,” Zelensky said.
Against this background, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said the United States is concerned about the progress of Russian occupation forces in Ukraine, to which the United States will continue to provide security assistance.
Analysts from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Russian troops had recently made “significant tactical progress” In the area. Russian forces were about 20 kilometers from Pokrovsk on Tuesday, according to ISW, continuing “intense efforts to advance and conduct a limited tactical encirclement of Ukrainian forces in the direction of Pokrovsk”.
Pokrovsk is not a big city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war, and many left after the full-scale invasion began. But it serves as a key hub for the Ukrainian military, thanks to its easy access to Konstantinovka, another military hub. The road connecting the two settlements is used by the Ukrainians to supply the troops on the front line.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his goal is to fully capture eastern Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Konstantinivka is the southernmost part of a belt of four Ukrainian cities – with Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk – which form the backbone of Ukraine's defense in the region, which is why any advance of Russian troops towards Konstantinovka is alarming. Kiev said Ukrainian troops were fighting hard to push back Russian troops. The pressure is unlikely to ease soon.
Ukraine finally began receiving new shipments of US weapons in May, after months of delays, and has mobilized thousands of new soldiers who are currently being trained and are expected to begin arriving on the front lines in the fall. The combination of the two should give Ukraine a much-needed boost, and Russia's strategy seems to be to occupy as much new territory as possible before that happens.