KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine is intensifying its efforts to defend the strategic hub of Pokrovsk, aiming to secure key supply and evacuation routes and root out Russian infantry infiltrating the city, the top army commander said on Thursday.
Oleksandr Syrskyi said he visited the area to meet his troops as Russia – almost four years into its invasion of Ukraine – continued to increase its assaults.
He dismissed Moscow’s assertion that its forces had trapped the Ukrainian troops inside the eastern stronghold.
“The enemy infantry, avoiding combat, is gathering in urban areas and changing locations, so the primary task is to locate and destroy them,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram app.
Russia has been inching towards Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region for more than a year, slowly but steadily taking control of the small villages to its south.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s general staff said that at least 200 Russian military personnel entered the city in separate groups as small-arms firefights raged in the former logistics hub.
Ukraine was taking steps to “strengthen the stability of defences” in the city and aimed at bolstering its logistics by improving defence of supply and evacuation routes, Syrskyi said.
“The main priority is to save the lives of our soldiers,” he said.
Logistics for the city were complicated due to Russia’s FPV drones “but possible”, Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps operating in the area said in a statement on Facebook.
The brigade added that Russia mostly used infantry to attack Pokrovsk, but also deployed armed vehicles to advance on Myrnohrad, around 6 km (4 miles) to the northeast.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)
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