(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s troops have reportedly captured the last town before Pokrovsk, which is a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk Region.
Footage appeared showing Russian soldiers at the office of the local city council, said the DeepState mapping service, which operates in cooperation with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, in a Sunday Telegram post.
The town lies on the road to Pokrovsk, whose capture is an important strategic goal as Russian forces press forward. The fall of Pokrovsk could jeopardize Ukraine’s defensive line and pave the way for Russia to occupy the entirety of the Donetsk region, one of the goals of Russian President Vladimir Putin. That in turn would pose new threats to the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region to the west.
Russia’s state-run news agency TASS reported an advance in Selydove on Monday, citing Denis Pushilin, the Russia-imposed head of the occupied Donetsk region. Neither country’s defense ministry has commented on the fall of Selydove.
“As a result, Russian forces captured up to 170 square kilometers in the last seven days, according to different OSINT mapping sources,” Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital said in its report Monday, saying that this represents Moscow’s “largest weekly territorial gain” in its offensive in eastern Ukraine this year.
Ukraine’s troops remain in Russia’s Kursk region, part of which they occupied in a surprise counteroffensive in August. Russia is attempting to oust Ukrainian forces there and is expected to deploy thousands of North Korean soldiers to assist.
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