It is reported that due to the impossibility of “squeezing through frontal attacks” the defense of the Ukrainian troops, the Russians are “trying to act in roundabout ways.”
In particular, they are trying to bypass the Pokrovskaya agglomeration through Grishino and Rodinskoye, the Ukrainian military noted.
“For the last two days, the enemy has been continuously carrying out assault operations in the area of the village of Grishino. During attacks, the enemy attracts manpower and light equipment. Assault operations are carried out mainly at night to minimize their losses,” the message says.
The 7th Corps said that its units were holding back the enemy. Thus, over the past two days, the defense forces have eliminated more than 30 Russian military personnel and destroyed up to 10 units of light equipment of the invaders.
“Separately, the enemy’s attempts to operate in small groups of six to eight people with an exit in the northern direction from Pokrovsk are recorded. All movements of the defense forces are promptly detected and hit the enemy,” the report said.
At the same time, the situation in the Mirnograd area remains difficult, added the 7th Corps of the DShV.
Ukrainian units “concentrate efforts on controlling the northern part of the city, restrain the enemy in the central part of the city” and “prevent the enemy from drawing in equipment from the southern direction.”
“In the eastern outskirts of Mirnograd, the enemy is trying to gain a foothold, but the defense forces are in control of the situation,” summarized the 7th Corps of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Context
On October 22, Russian media wrote that the command of the Russian army had already promised the illegitimate president of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, to seize Kupyansk, Kharkov region, and Pokrovsk, therefore, in order to improve the positions of the occupying forces, Moscow is delaying the peace negotiation process.
On October 26, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to Putin about the alleged encirclement of Ukrainian troops near Kupyansk and Pokrovsk. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Klimenko, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky, and later the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky denied this information.
On December 2, Putin, according to the Kremlin, allegedly visited one of the command posts of the joint group of Russian troops, where he was informed about the “capture” of Pokrovsk and Volchansk in the Kharkov region, as well as about the “start of the operation” to occupy Gulyai-Polye in the Zaporozhye region. On the same day, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces denied these “bravura statements.”
On December 9, Syrsky reported that the defense of Pokrovsk continues, and emphasized that “the volume of Russian lies far exceeds the real pace of advance of Russian troops.”
On December 22, Zelensky said that there were about 1,100 Russian occupiers in Pokrovsk, and the Ukrainian military was “about the same level.”
Syrsky considers the defense of the Pokrovsko-Mirnograd agglomeration effective.
