{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}- Russian forces are advancing toward the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in the east, according to Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba estimated on Friday that Russia controls 17.68% of Ukrainian territory, compared to 17.61% as of January 1, 2024.
- Syrskyi echoed Ukrainian calls for its allies to allow kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to attack military targets in Russia, but Putin warned that using Western weapons against targets in Russia could trigger a new level of confrontation.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army said Monday that Russian forces were launching relentless assaults in an attempt to advance toward the eastern city of Pokrovsk, and that active fighting was taking place along the entire front line.
Nearly 29 months after the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has stepped up its mobilization efforts to address its manpower shortages and has been bolstered by supplies of Western artillery shells, but Russian troops have continued to advance.
“The enemy does not pay any attention to its rather high level of losses and continues to advance towards Pokrovsk,” Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement from the Eastern Front.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}REPUBLICANS DIVIDED OVER RUSSIAN SECURITY THREAT AS VANCE JOINS TRUMP PRESIDENT
According to open-source intelligence battlefield maps, Pokrovsk lies less than 24 kilometers from Russian-occupied lands and sits at an intersection of roads and a railway that makes it an important logistical point for the military and civilians to the east.
“Active combat operations of varying intensity are taking place along the entire front,” Syrskyi said, noting that Russian forces were also trying to capture flood-prone islands near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FIGHTING RAGES IN THE EAST
Heavy fighting also raged near several eastern villages and towns, including Krasnohorivka and Chasiv Yar, a strategic hilltop town whose capture would bring Russia closer to important cities in the Donetsk region controlled by kyiv.
Destroyed beehives are seen at the site of a Russian missile strike in the village of Rivne, near the town of Pokrovsk, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, January 7, 2024. (Reuters/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File photo)
Russia has carried out 39 assaults on the Pokrovsk front over the past 24 hours out of a total of 117 recorded along the frontline, the military said in its daily battlefield survey.
Russian forces captured two villages in the east over the weekend, Russian media reported, citing the Defense Ministry.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Although kyiv’s tired troops have found themselves on the defensive this year, with Russia once again on the offensive and maintaining pressure, Moscow’s progress has been slow.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who is traveling to China this week as part of a diplomatic trip, estimated on Friday that Russia controls 17.68% of Ukrainian territory, compared to 17.61% as of January 1, 2024.
A senior NATO official said this month that Russia lacks the munitions and troops for a major offensive in Ukraine and would need to obtain significant munitions supplies from other countries, beyond what it already has, to do so.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}LONG RANGE ATTACKS
Russia has been bombing Ukraine’s electricity system in recent months, causing regular power outages across the country.
Ukraine has used domestically-made drones to attack targets in Russia and carried out a major strike overnight that damaged its Tuapse oil refinery, its largest on the Black Sea.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In his statement, Syrskyi said it was vital for kyiv to carry out long-range strikes against Russian forces, echoing Ukrainian officials who have called on their allies to allow kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to attack military targets in Russia.
Russia has warned that the use of US and Western weapons against targets in Russia could trigger a new level of confrontation.
Ukraine also faces a shortage of short-range anti-aircraft missiles to repel Russian reconnaissance drones and must rely on drones and other electronic warfare systems for its defense, he said.
