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During the Ukrainian counterattack at Pokrovsk, the entire Russian column was destroyed.
Newly released video shows dozens of military vehicles burning on a road in the eastern city.
A Ukrainian drone can be seen sweeping over the wreckage, while earlier videos appeared to show Russian troops and vehicles being hit by cluster munitions.
The battle for Donetsk strategic logistics hub has been going on for more than a year. Vladimir Putin recently claimed that Pokrovsk had fallen, but Ukrainian officials said he made the announcement during peace talks to convince Donald Trump that Russia’s victory was inevitable.
Kyiv insists its forces still hold positions in the north of the city, which was home to 60,000 people before a full-scale invasion in February 2022. A video released on Tuesday showed Ukrainian soldiers waving Ukrainian flags to prove that the city had not yet fallen.
Photo credit: @skala_ukraine/Instagram
Ukrainian commanders reported on Wednesday an unusually large-scale mechanized Russian attack inside Pokrovsk, where Moscow is believed to have massed some 156,000 troops.
“The Russians used armored vehicles, cars and motorcycles. The convoy tried to break through from the south to the north of the city,” Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Reaction Corps said of the attack.
Vladimir Putin recently claimed that Pokrovsk had fallen to Russian forces – Gavriel Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP
Pokrovsk is on higher ground and will be the first city captured by Russia since Avdievka in early 2024. Moscow believes that seizing the city will unlock the rest of Donbas, which Putin wants Ukraine to surrender in any peace settlement.
But experts do not believe Russia’s capture of Pokrovsk will lead to the collapse of the front line, and Ukraine has spent years fortifying the nearby “fortress belt” cities of Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Kostyanivka and Druzhkivka.
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Donbass remains a central issue in U.S.-mediated peace talks. Putin has demanded that Kyiv give up the remaining 12 percent of territory not yet occupied by Russian forces, but Volodymyr Zelensky has so far refused to budge.
Donald Trump is likely to travel to Europe this weekend for talks with Zelensky, Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The US president hopes to reach a peace deal before Christmas but says he does not want to “waste time” on a visit that will not advance negotiations.
Ukraine provided its latest response to the U.S. plan on Thursday night, with a European diplomat saying discussions were “moving quickly.”
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