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An entire Russian column was destroyed during a Ukrainian counterattack in Pokrovsk.
A number of military vehicles were left burning along a road in the eastern city, newly released videos show.
A Ukrainian drone can be seen sweeping over the wreckage, while an earlier video appeared to show Russian troops and vehicles hit by cluster munitions.
The battle for the strategic logistics center in Donetsk has been going on for more than a year. Vladimir Putin recently claimed that Pokrovsk had fallen, but Ukrainian officials said he announced this 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 show the city had not yet fallen.
Credit: @skala_ukraine/Instagram
Ukrainian commanders reported on Wednesday an unusually large Russian mechanized attack inside Pokrovsk, where Moscow is believed to have assembled about 156,000 troops.
“The Russians used armored vehicles, cars and motorcycles. The convoys tried to pass from the south to the northern part of the city,” Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps said of the attack.
Vladimir Putin recently claimed that Pokrovsk has fallen to Russian troops – Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Pokrovsk, located on elevated ground, will be the first city captured by Russia from Avdiivka in early 2024. Moscow believes that taking it will open up the rest of the Donbas, territory Putin wants Ukraine to give up in any peace deal.
But experts do not believe that Russia’s seizure of Pokrovsk will 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 the US-mediated peace talks. Putin is demanding that Kiev give up the remaining 12 percent of the region not already occupied by Russian forces, a concession Volodymyr Zelensky has so far resisted.
Donald Trump may travel to Europe this weekend for talks with Mr Zelensky, Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The President of the United States hopes to secure a peace agreement by Christmas but said he does not want to “waste time” on a trip that will not advance negotiations.
Ukraine gave its latest reaction to the US plan on Thursday evening, as a European diplomat said discussions were “advancing rapidly”.
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