Ukraine loses positions near strategic hub of Pokrovsk

Russian troops have destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near Pokrovska in eastern Ukraine, the Kyiv military said on Wednesday, the 11th of December, as Moscow attacked a strategic logistics centre, reports Reuters.
Moscow’s forces are now just three kilometres from Pokrovsk’s suburbs in the south, according to DeepState, a Ukrainian organisation that draws front lines using open sources.
“As a result of the prolonged clashes, two of our positions were destroyed and one was lost. Efforts are underway to restore the positions,” Nazar Voloshin, military spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Front, said in televised comments.
The fall of Pokrovska, a key logistics centre for the Ukrainian army, would be the biggest military setback for Kyiv in months.
Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Sirskyi said he had visited a naval unit in the Pokrovsk sector and observed the conditions under which soldiers were fighting “an enemy that is superior, above all, in terms of manpower”.
“Unconventional decisions must be taken to increase the strength of our defence and ensure more effective destruction of the invaders,” he wrote on Facebook, without mentioning when the visit took place.
“The fighting is extremely fierce. The Russian occupiers are throwing all available forces forward, trying to break through the defences of our troops.”
Pokrovsk, located about 18 kilometres from the border between Ukraine’s Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, has been the scene of the fiercest fighting in Russia’s 33-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine for several months.
Russia, which Ukraine claims has deployed more than 70 000 troops on the Pokrovsk front, has in recent weeks advanced rapidly towards Shevchenko, a village in the south of Pokrovsk.
Its forces are trying to gain a foothold in the village and are sending reconnaissance and sabotage teams there, Voloshin said. He added that Ukraine is holding them back for now.
Both Ukraine and Russia are focusing on the growing prospects for peace talks, with US President-elect Donald Trump recently calling for a ceasefire and peace talks. Ukraine, for its part, is urging its allies to help it consolidate its position on the battlefield ahead of potential talks.