The head of the Ukrainian army admits the “difficult situation” in which the strategic fortress of Pokrovsk has reached. The latest order he gave to the front line commanders

The Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Oleksandr Sîrskîi, has warned that the activity of Russian troops is intensifying around the city of Pokrovsk, located in Donetsk, on the front line, stating that “the situation is difficult”, reports BBC News on Thursday.

Sîrskîi acknowledged that Russian infantry are massing in the area and said he personally visited the front line to speak with top commanders.

He said, however, that reports that Ukrainian troops were “blocked” there by Russian forces are “untrue” propaganda.

More and more information has indicated in recent days the advance of the Russians around this strategic city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The city is a key transportation hub and supply hub, and its fall could pave the way for Russian military efforts to conquer the rest of the region.

In a statement published on Telegram, General Sîrskîi stated: “In Pokrovsk, enemy infantry, avoiding battles, gather in the urban area and change their locations, so the main objective is to identify and destroy them.”

He added: “The situation is difficult, but Russian propaganda claims about the alleged 'blockade' on Ukrainian defense forces in Pokrovsk, as well as in Kupiansk, are untrue.”

Ukrainian commanders must maintain “a reasonable balance between objectives and capabilities,” the general wrote.

“The main priority is to protect the lives of our soldiers,” Sîrskîi said.

Russian forces have been trying to capture Pokrovsk for more than a year. The capture of this city would open their way to the two major cities in the region that are still under Kiev's control: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

The head of Russia's General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, said earlier this week that Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk were surrounded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Pokrovsk was the “primary target” of Russia, whose forces, he said, were eight times greater than Ukraine's in the area.

Zelensky told reporters that Russia wants to capture the city to convince the United States that Ukraine is in decline.

“They don't have a result that they can 'sell' to the Americans. We understand why they need Pokrovsk. They only need it to claim that Ukraine is withdrawing from the east and giving them everything they want,” Zelenskiy said.

In its latest assessment, defense intelligence firm Sybelline wrote that the battle for Pokrovsk “has entered a highly dynamic and intense phase as Russian forces intensify their efforts to infiltrate the city and encircle Ukrainian defenders.”

Deepstate, a Ukrainian open-source monitoring platform still considered close to the Ukrainian military, wrote that Russian forces were “gradually engulfing” Pokrovsk, “with their large number of soldiers”.

Deepstate also claimed that Russian troops are infiltrating deeper into the city and disrupting Ukrainian supply routes.

“The situation in Pokrovsk is on the verge of becoming critical and continues to deteriorate to the point where it may be too late to fix everything,” the monitoring platform estimated.

Russians marshal 11,000 troops to encircle Pokrovsk, Ukrainian military says

On Wednesday, the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces, quoted by the Unian news agency, announced that the Russians were continuing their attempts to encircle the city of Pokrovsk and had brought new troops, about 11,000 troops, around it.

“Regarding the likely nature of enemy actions in the Pokrovsk agglomeration, the enemy has brought about 11,000 more troops to implement its plan to encircle the Pokrovsk agglomeration (the city and its surroundings). Enemy groups that have infiltrated the city will most likely try to advance northwest and north of Pokrovsk,” the Ukrainian unit said in a statement.

In the area of ​​responsibility of the 7th Corps of the Ukrainian Assault Forces in that sector, the enemy had amassed about 27,000 soldiers, about 100 tanks, about 260 armored fighting vehicles and up to 160 guns and mortars.

The entry of small mobile groups of Russian forces into Pokrovsk was also announced by Russian military bloggers, cited by Reuters. According to them, the city is almost completely surrounded. Before the war, Pokrovsk had a population of about 60,000 people, but in the meantime most of them evacuated, including all the children. Currently, few civilians are left here, according to Agerpres.

Putin asked Kiev to contact the encircled battalions to surrender

Also on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin urged Ukrainian leaders to contact their battalions surrounded by the Russian army to surrender in the cities of Kupiansk (in Kharkiv) and Pokrovsk.

Russia asked “the political leaders of Ukraine to make the appropriate decision on the fate of citizens and servicemen, as they did in Azovstal” (Mariupol steelworks, no) in 2022, Putin said during a meeting with wounded soldiers at Moscow's Central Military Hospital.

To this end, the Kremlin leader expressed his readiness to declare a truce of several hours in these areas of the front and invite Russian and foreign journalists.

“We are prepared to cease military operations for a certain period of time: for a few hours, two, three or six hours, so that journalists can go in and see what is happening, talk to Ukrainian soldiers and then leave,” he said at the meeting, which was televised.

Putin added that “it is important to avoid provocations from the Ukrainian side. We don't want a drone to fly, a journalist to be injured and then try to blame us for what happened. We don't need that.”

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday the first surrenders of Ukrainian forces in Kupiansk and new advances on the outskirts of the Pokrovsk fortress, the main objective of the current offensive in Donbas.

“A group of 12 soldiers have communicated their willingness to surrender in exchange for guarantees on their lives. Options are currently being explored for their safe evacuation,” the war report posted on the Telegram app said.

On Putin's orders, the Russian military is trying to convince the defenders of the city of Kupiansk to “give up resistance and surrender.”