Putin says Russian army has surrounded Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk

By Andrew Osborn and Gleb Stolyarov

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces have surrounded the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and control 70% of it, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, but Kyiv's top general said Ukraine was pushing back hard and that fighting was raging in the city centre.

Moscow has been trying to take full control of Pokrovsk, which Russians call by its Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk, since mid-2024 as part of its push to take the whole of the wider Donbas industrial region.

Instead of mounting a full frontal assault on the city, which used to be home to over 60,000 people and be an important logistics hub for the Ukrainian military, Russian forces have used a pincer movement to seek to steadily encircle it while initially infiltrating in small and then larger assault groups.

Moscow says taking Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, would give it a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Pressure on the city comes at a time when the United States is trying to broker a possible peace plan to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two with both sides eager to show they have the upper hand on the battlefield.

Speaking at a news conference in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, Putin said that Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk and the neighbouring town of Myrnohrad, which Russians calls Dimitrov, were in deep trouble and that Ukraine might face a collapse of its frontline in certain places.

"Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) and Dimitrov (Myrnohrad) are completely surrounded," Putin told reporters, saying that some of Kyiv's most combat-ready troops were being destroyed in the process.

"Seventy percent of Krasnoarmeysk's territory is in the hands of the Russian armed forces. In the south of the city of Dimitrov, the enemy group has been cut off. It is scattered throughout the city. And our troops are moving onto its systematic destruction," said Putin.

The Russian Defence Ministry said earlier on Thursday that its assault units were advancing in central and northern Pokrovsk and that its forces had advanced to the east, west and south of Myrnohrad.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's top commander, painted a different picture however, and said on social media that Ukrainian troops had been blocking attempts by Russian forces to stage new assaults on Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad.

Syrskyi said that Russia had been forced to bring reserves forces into the area.

Ukraine's Operational Task Force "East" said separately that its troops had also been staging raids south of Pokrovsk's train station and that fighting was raging in the city centre.

Reuters could not independently verify the contrasting battlefield claims and maps from both sides contradicted each other too.

Russian maps show Pokrovsk under Moscow's control and Ukrainian troops encircled in neighbouring Myrnohrad. Ukrainian maps show Pokrovsk as a grey zone under no side's control and Myrnohrad as not being fully surrounded.

(Reporting by Reuters Moscow buro and Kyiv buro; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)