KYIV, 5 November (H.S.): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops on Tuesday near the embattled eastern town of Pokrovsk, currently the site of the most ferocious fighting on the front line. The visit comes as Ukrainian forces endure a massive assault by a large Russian force that has infiltrated the strategic logistics hub after more than a year of attempts to seize it.
Zelensky met with military commanders at a command post in the Dobropillya sector, roughly 12 miles north of Pokrovsk, where Ukraine's military is attempting to pressure Russian lines to prevent them from consolidating their main effort on the town.
The battle for Pokrovsk is critical, as its fall could grant Moscow access to the remainder of the Donetsk region and its fortress belt of fortified cities. Despite Ukrainian denials of encirclement, Russian military bloggers have claimed control over 90% of the city.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has observed that Russian forces are operating with increasing comfort within the largely destroyed and depopulated town.
Ukrainian soldiers and experts report that Russia is using new tactics, including infiltrating the city in small groups disguised as civilians, making them difficult to track. Intense drone activity has severely hampered Ukrainian logistics, making the evacuation of casualties and the resupply of ammunition and vehicles nearly impossible.
While President Zelensky acknowledged the situation was not easy and that about a third of all front-line clashes were occurring in the area, he stated that Russia had no success in Pokrovsk in recent days.As the ground war grinds on, Russia has continued its campaign of striking Ukrainian cities far from the front, with a recent large-scale drone attack damaging industrial facilities and the power supply in the southern port of Odesa.
In retaliation, Ukraine has continued to target industrial sites deep inside Russia with its own drone attacks, including a petrochemical plant and an oil refinery.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
