File photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Picture credit: AP)
Russia has deployed about 170,000 troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as it intensifies efforts to seize the strategic city of Pokrovsk, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on Friday. Speaking at a press briefing in Kyiv, Zelenskyy described the situation as “difficult” but rejected Moscow’s claims that the city is fully surrounded after over a year of fierce fighting.“The situation in Pokrovsk is difficult,” he said, as quoted by news agency AP. “There are Russians in Pokrovsk. They are being destroyed, gradually destroyed, because, well, we need to preserve our personnel”, he added. As per news agency AP, Zelenskyy acknowledged that some Russian units had infiltrated parts of the city but insisted Ukrainian defenders were eliminating them.The Ukrainian president’s remarks come as Russian forces intensify their offensive in the east, with President Vladimir Putin recently claiming “significant advances” on the battlefield. However, those gains have come at a high cost in manpower and armour.According to AP, Putin is attempting to convince the United States and Western allies that Ukraine cannot sustain its defence against Russia’s larger army. He has also continued to highlight Moscow’s nuclear capabilities while refusing to compromise on what he calls Russia’s “legitimate war aims.”Meanwhile, Ukraine has intensified long-range strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. Since the start of the year, Ukrainian forces have launched more than 160 long-range strikes on Russian oil extraction and refining facilities, Ukraine’s security service chief Vasyl Maliuk told reporters. “Clearly, we are not resting on our achievements,” Maliuk said, adding that new technologies and combat units were being developed to enhance these operations.As per AP, Maliuk also claimed that Ukraine had destroyed nearly half of Russia’s Pantsir air defence systems and one of its new Oreshnik hypersonic missiles last year at a base inside Russia.UN officials have warned that civilian casualties in Ukraine have risen by 30% this year compared to 2024, citing intensified Russian drone and missile attacks on cities like Sumy and Odesa. Matthias Schmale, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, said that “destroying energy production and distribution capacity as winter starts clearly impacts the civilian population and is a form of terror.”He further cautioned that with funding for humanitarian operations dropping from over $4 billion in 2022 to $1.1 billion this year, the situation “feels increasingly like a protracted war.”
