Russian and Ukrainian troops battle in ruins of Pokrovsk

MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) -Russian and Ukrainian troops fought battles on Tuesday in the ruins of Pokrovsk, a transport and logistics hub in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has been trying to capture for over a year.

Ukraine's military said fierce fighting was under way in a part of the city that was key for Kyiv's frontline logistics. It said additional special forces had arrived there, and more weapons and equipment were being sent.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its soldiers had cleared 35 buildings of Ukrainian troops. It also said that Russian forces were squeezing surrounded Ukrainians near the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, about 100 miles (160 km) to the north.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports from either side. Ukraine has denied that its troops are encircled in either location.

With peace talks at an impasse in the fourth year of the war, Russia says it has the initiative on all sections of the front, yet it has not captured a major town since taking Avdiivka in early 2024. Ukraine says the fighting is largely stalemated and its territorial losses have been marginal.

ONWARD DRIVE FROM POKROVSK?

DeepState, a Ukrainian project that maps the front line based on verified open source images, on Tuesday showed that Russian forces had pushed further into Pokrovsk and its environs, though it showed much of it still in grey, beyond firm control of either side.

Pokrovsk had a pre-war population of some 60,000, but most civilians fled long ago. Capturing it could give Moscow a platform to drive towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region which Russia wants to capture in its entirety.

Russian military blogger Rybar said on Tuesday that Moscow's control of Pokrovsk was gradually expanding but "a complete clearing of the city is still far off".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged on Monday that Pokrovsk was under severe pressure, but his military said Russian troops were not in full control of any district.

Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he had visited troops fighting near the eastern city of Dobropillia, where Ukrainian forces are conducting a counteroffensive against Russian troops.

(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv; Writing by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Andrew Osborn and Ros Russell)