Russian and Ukrainian forces are interlocked in determined battles for management of Ukraine’s jap cities of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, which Moscow considers a gateway to the remaining unoccupied areas of the Donetsk area.
On Sunday, Valery Gerasimov, Russian chief of employees, informed President Vladimir Putin his 2nd and 51st Mixed Arms Armies have been “advancing alongside converging axes” and “have accomplished the encirclement of the enemy” in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad.
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He claimed some 5,500 Ukrainian troops have been surrounded, together with elite airborne and marine items.
Russian army reporters contradicted these claims, with one named “Army Informant” telling 621,000 Telegram subscribers, “There’s merely no encirclement” as the 2 claws of Gerasimov’s tried pincer motion have been nonetheless “a number of kilometres” aside.
On Thursday, Oleksandr Syrskii, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, additionally denied Gerasimov’s declare.
“The statements of Russian propaganda concerning the alleged ‘blocking’ of the defence forces of Ukraine in Pokrovsk, in addition to in Kupiansk, don’t correspond to actuality,” Syrskii mentioned.
The Russian reporter additionally thought it “extraordinarily unlikely” that 1000’s of Ukrainian troops have been trapped.
“If earlier city battles have been a traditional meat grinder ‘head-to-head’ with battles for every home,” he mentioned, now they’re “performed by small teams of infantry with the assist of many drones”.
Geolocated footage confirmed that remoted Russian teams had entered western and central Pokrovsk on October 23, however they didn’t seem to manage areas inside the metropolis, moderately to stake out positions and await reinforcements.
Ukraine’s Basic Workers mentioned the scenario round Pokrovsk “stays tough”, and estimated that some 200 Russian troops had infiltrated the city, however mentioned defending items have been conducting sabotage operations that prevented Russian items from gaining a everlasting foothold.
The entrance round Pokrovsk additionally remained dynamic.
Ukrainian army observer Konstantyn Mashovets reported that Kyiv’s troops have been in a position to ambush Russian rear positions within the village of Sukhetsky, northeast of Pokrovsk, demonstrating the porousness of the entrance line.
“[Russian] small infantry teams in some locations started to collide with Ukrainian corresponding teams very often and out of the blue, even earlier than their deployment or when shifting to strengthen and replenish their assault teams straight,” mentioned Mashovets.
“Because of the abundance of drones within the air, which make the motion of any massive concentrations of infantry extraordinarily harmful, the positions of either side stay combined,” mentioned Kremlin-aligned Russian army information outlet Rybar. “This results in the absence of a single entrance line and prevents the dedication of the precise boundaries of the management zones.”
Mashovets estimated that the Russian 2nd Mixed Arms Military, which he described because the “primary influence pressure”, had acquired reinforcements of between 6,000 and 10,500 troops from different areas of the entrance forward of the newest assault, which started in mid-October.
“Particular consideration is concentrated on Pokrovsk and the neighbouring areas. That’s the place the occupier has concentrated its largest assault forces,” mentioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Monday night tackle. “It’s Pokrovsk that’s their primary goal.”
Ukraine strikes Russian vitality hubs
Zelenskyy has typically mentioned his goal is to return the conflict to Russian soil. Ukraine’s long-range drones and cruise missiles have been performing that activity throughout the previous week.
Ukraine struck the Ryazan oil refinery for the fifth time this 12 months on October 23, setting ablaze a crude oil distillation unit. Russia’s Defence Ministry mentioned 139 Ukrainian drones had been shot down in a single day.
Leningrad’s regional governor mentioned “a number of” Ukrainian drones had been shot down with out inflicting injury or casualties on Saturday.
Ukraine struck a gas and lubricants container in Simferopol on Wednesday, Crimean occupation Governor Sergey Aksyonov mentioned.
Putin boasts of weapons ‘no one else on this planet has’
Russian officers who’ve been supportive of US President Donald Trump’s efforts to barter a peace straight with Putin modified their tone after Trump cancelled a summit with Putin and imposed sanctions on Russian oil majors Lukoil and Rosneft final week.
“The US is our adversary, and its verbose ‘peacemaker’ is now firmly on the warpath in opposition to Russia,” mentioned Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Nationwide Safety Council, saying Trump was now “fully aligned with mad Europe”.
Over desserts and tea with Russian conflict veterans on Monday, Putin introduced the profitable check launch of a brand new nuclear-powered torpedo with the power to create radioactive tidal waves focusing on coastal areas.
The Poseidon reportedly has a variety of 10,000km (6,200 miles) and travels at 185km/h (115mph). As with earlier unveilings of Russian weapons, Putin mentioned, “There’s nothing prefer it on this planet, its rivals are unlikely to seem anytime quickly, and there are not any present interception strategies”.
Duma Defence Committee Chairman Andrey Kartapolov mentioned the Poseidon was“able to disabling whole states”.
Three days earlier, Putin had introduced the profitable check of a brand new nuclear-capable cruise missile, the Burevestnik, which can also be nuclear-powered.
“It’s a distinctive ware which no one else on this planet has,” Putin mentioned.
Russia adopted an analogous political intimidation tactic in November 2024, when it launched the Oreshnik, a hypersonic, intermediate-range ballistic, nuclear-capable missile, to hit a Ukrainian manufacturing facility in Dnipro. On Tuesday, Putin mentioned he would deploy the Oreshnik in Belarus by December.
Russia additionally examined the Sarmat, a brand new intercontinental ballistic missile that Putin mentioned isn’t but operational, within the Sea of Japan. Not one of the exams have been independently verified, and it was unclear whether or not any of the brand new weapons have been battle-ready or whether or not they may very well be produced at scale.
On October 22, Moscow performed a routine strategic forces train, sending Tupolev-22M3 long-range bombers over the Baltic Sea, framing it as a response to Western aggression.
Trump mentioned on Monday that Putin ought to as a substitute give attention to ending the conflict.
“I don’t assume it’s an acceptable factor for Putin to be saying,” mentioned the US president. “You must get the conflict ended; the conflict that ought to have taken one week is now in … its fourth 12 months, that’s what you must do as a substitute of testing missiles.”
