PNN – The New York Times emphasized in a report that Russia’s advance towards “Donetsk” has dashed Ukraine’s hopes of reducing Moscow’s attacks against Kiev.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, this American media, referring to the maps prepared based on war and satellite images, wrote: After capturing several villages in the border region with Ukraine, Russian forces are only about eight miles away from Pokrovsk – one of the main defense fortifications of Ukraine in the Donetsk region. The capture of the city brings Russia one step closer to its long-held goal of capturing the entire Donetsk region, most of which it currently controls. Pokrovsk, a city with a population of about 60,000 people, is located on a key road that connects several cities and forms a defensive arc.
The New York Times added: The situation in this area is so dire that residents have been asked to leave. Russia’s advance towards Pokrovsk shows that despite Ukrainian forces successfully invading Russia’s western Kursk region, they are still losing territory.
Military experts say one of the aims of Ukraine’s surprise cross-border attack in Kursk last week was to force Moscow to withdraw its forces from the front lines in Ukraine in order to strengthen its border region. However, analysts and US officials say Russia has withdrawn only a limited number of units from the Ukrainian battlefield and is seeking to counter Ukrainian attacks with less experienced combat units in Russia.
This report quoted some American officials as saying: Ukraine has used reserve forces for its cross-border offensive, which means that it is more difficult for this country to reinforce forces for Kiev on the eastern front.
Thibaut Foye, vice president of the Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies, a French research center, admitted in an interview: Ukraine’s attack on Russia “does not affect the overall balance of the front line”. He added: The main feature of the battlefield – the slow but continuous advance of the Russian forces – has remained the same.
Ukrainian forces are trying to divert the Kremlin’s military focus from the front line in the territory of Ukraine by infiltrating the Kursk region of Russia.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Thursday that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region were facing “the most severe Russian attacks”.
Pokrovsk is one of the main defense centers and logistics hub of the Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region.
If Russia can capture this city, it will deal a big blow to Ukraine’s defense capabilities and supply lines and bring the Russian military closer to full control of Donetsk.