Arya News - An entire Russian column has been destroyed during a Ukrainian counter-attack in Pokrovsk.
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An entire Russian column has been destroyed during a Ukrainian counter-attack in Pokrovsk .
Scores of military vehicles were left burning along a road in the eastern city, newly published footage shows.
A Ukrainian drone can be seen sweeping over the wreckage, while earlier video appeared to show Russian troops and vehicles being struck with cluster munitions.
The battle for the strategic logistics hub in Donetsk has raged for more than a year. Vladimir Putin recently claimed Pokrovsk had fallen , but Ukrainian officials said he made the announcement during peace talks to persuade Donald Trump that a Russian victory was inevitable.
Kyiv insists its forces still hold positions in the northern part of the city, once home to 60,000 people before the full-scale invasion in February 2022. A video released on Tuesday showed Ukrainian soldiers waving their country’s flag to prove the city had not yet fallen.
Credit: @skala_ukraine/Instagram
Ukrainian commanders reported on Wednesday an unusually large Russian mechanised assault inside Pokrovsk, where Moscow is believed to have massed around 156,000 troops.
“The Russians used armoured vehicles, cars and motorcycles. The convoys attempted to break through from the south to the northern part of the city,” Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps said of the attack.
Vladimir Putin recently claimed Pokrovsk had fallen to Russian troops - Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Pokrovsk, which stands on elevated ground, would be the first city captured by Russia since Avdiivka in early 2024. Moscow believes taking it would unlock the rest of the Donbas, territory Putin wants Ukraine to surrender in any peace settlement.
But experts do not believe Pokrovsk’s seizure by Russia would lead to the collapse of the front line, with Ukraine having spent years fortifying the nearby “fortress belt” cities of Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka.
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The Donbas remains a central issue in US-mediated peace talks. Putin is demanding that Kyiv relinquish the remaining 12 per cent of the region not already occupied by Russian forces, a concession Volodymyr Zelensky has so far resisted.
Donald Trump could travel to Europe this weekend for talks with Mr Zelensky, Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The US president hopes to secure a peace deal by Christmas but has said he does not want to “waste time” on a trip that will not advance negotiations.
Ukraine delivered its latest response to the US plan on Thursday evening, as a European diplomat said discussions were “progressing quickly.”
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