Ukraine has warned that Russian troops are trying to surround the strategic eastern city of Pokrovsk, and said the end of its role as a transit state for Russian gas flows to the European Union would stop the Kremlin using energy as a political weapon.
Moscow’s invasion force has steadily ground towards Pokrovsk in recent months, and appears to be prioritising efforts to cut off the city, which was home to about 60,000 people before Russia launched all-out war on its pro-western neighbour in February 2022. Several thousand civilians are still in the badly damaged city, which has been a hub for Ukrainian troops defending Donetsk region since fighting there began in 2014.
“There is no street fighting in the city. The Russians have not reached the outskirts of the city, but they are trying to encircle it through neighbouring settlements and villages, infiltrating with various groups, accumulating forces and continuing to strike so as to bypass the city,” military spokesman Viktor Trehubov said on Thursday.
“There is also active use of drones, and everything the Russian forces have right now is focused on the area around Pokrovsk,” he told Ukrainian television. “In the Pokrovsk area yesterday our defenders halted 38 attacks…by the aggressor. This is the most intense of all the fronts. It has been that way for the last few weeks. Neighbouring areas, such as Kurakhove and Vremivka, are also still very hot.”
The Russians made them kneel in a line and shot them point blank: A dispatch from the front line
Slovakia threatens to cut aid to Ukrainian refugees as gas row deepens
State has failed to plan for a surge of asylum seeker arrivals as new EU legal deadline approaches
Tánaiste criticises Russia’s ‘abhorrent’ bombings of Ukraine’s energy grid
Russia lays claim to five eastern and southern regions of Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea – including large areas that its troops do not control, and says no peace is possible until Kyiv accepts their permanent occupation and gives up its Nato membership ambitions forever.
Analysts say both sides are trying to strengthen their positions before the return to the White House this month of Donald Trump, who has made ending Europe’s biggest war in 80 years a top priority and claimed he could do it one day.
Kyiv’s troops are trying to hold on to hundreds of square kilometres of Russia’s Kursk region, which borders northern Ukraine, after seizing more than 1,000sq km in a lightning attack last summer. North Korean troops are now fighting alongside Russian units in the area, and Washington and Seoul have said that about 1,000 of them have been killed or wounded in fighting.
The Ukrainian army said it hit a Russian command post in the village of Marino in Kursk region on Thursday with a “high-precision strike”, and Kyiv’s GUR military intelligence agency said two Russian helicopters had been shot down and a third damaged near Crimea this week in the first such attack by remote-controlled marine drones that had been adapted for sea-to-air attacks.
Ukraine again defended a decision to end its decades-long role as a transit state for Russian gas to EU countries this week, when a long-term deal signed before the all-out war between the former allies expired.
“Ukraine has cut off more than just Russian gas transit. We have cut off some of (Vladimir) Putin’s last remaining leverage over Europe and his use of energy as a weapon,” said Kyiv’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, referring to Russia’s president.
Hungary and Slovakia, which border Ukraine and maintain good ties with the Kremlin, denounced Kyiv’s decision but have not reported power problems.
Russia halted gas flow to pro-western Moldova on New Year’s Day, citing alleged debts that the country disputes. Many parts of Transdniestria – a Moscow-backed, separatist-run region of Moldova – were without heat and hot water on Thursday. Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and the EU have said they will adjust energy flows to help Moldova get through the crisis.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
