Russia’s Defence Ministry has stated that its forces had taken control of the settlement of Lozuvatske in the Pokrovsk sector of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, this sector has witnessed some of the most heated frontline battles in the 29-month-long war. Ukraine’s General Staff did not mention the settlement in its reports but noted that the area around it was gripped by heavy fighting. Unofficial military bloggers have reported the loss of at least two other localities in the sector in the last few days.
Russian forces have been slowly advancing through the Donetsk region in Ukraine’s east, with steady, incremental gains since seizing the key town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region in February of this year. The Russian defence ministry said its “centre” group of forces had captured Lozuvatske, northwest of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk. It also reported that Russian forces had launched strikes on other localities in that sector and repelled three Ukrainian counter-attacks.
Ukrainian officials have been stating for weeks that the Pokrovsk sector is gripped by some of the heaviest fighting along the 1,000-km long front line. The country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the sector twice on Thursday with his top military commander Colonel General Olexandr Syrskyi.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that their forces had repelled 17 Russian attacks in that area, with 10 clashes still underway. “The situation is difficult, but under the control of the armed forces,” the report from the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said.
A popular unofficial Ukrainian military blog named DeepState did not refer to Lozuvatske in its latest report, but in the past two days has reported the fall of two villages in the same sector — Prohres and Vovche. Official Ukrainian accounts have made no such acknowledgement of the loss of the settlement.
(With inputs from Reuters)
