Military authorities in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk have urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because the Russian army is quickly closing in on what has for months been one of Moscow’s key targets.
The call for people to get out as soon as possible came as Kyiv’s forces are trying to divert the Kremlin’s military focus to Russian soil by launching a bold incursion across the border into the Kursk region.
The urgency also underscored the high-stakes gamble Ukraine is making by taking the war into Russia with its ongoing assault that started on August 6.
The attack is a daring attempt to change the dynamics of the two-and-a-half year conflict, but it could leave Ukraine’s shorthanded defence at the mercy of Russia’s push.
The Kremlin’s forces have had battlefield momentum and superior forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region since the spring.
Ukraine is wagering it can cope with the strain on its resources in Kursk without sacrificing Donetsk.
Russia apparently reckons it can contain the incursion without needing to ease up in Donetsk.
“Both cannot be right,” Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said.
“The outcome hangs in the balance.”
Russia’s slow slog across Donetsk this year has been costly in terms of troops and armour, but its gains have mounted up.
Today at the Staff meeting, I received a report from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi. Our key defense directions at the frontline: Toretsk, Pokrovsk, and others. These areas are currently facing the most intense Russian assaults and are receiving our utmost defensive attention.… pic.twitter.com/uL3Oe4wL0n
Advertisement— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 15, 2024
Pokrovsk, which had a pre-war population of about 60,000, is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region.
Its capture would compromise Ukraine’s defensive abilities and supply routes.
It would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the Donetsk region than ever before.
Evacuations in the Donetsk region around Pokrovsk have become increasingly urgent in recent weeks.
Pokrovsk officials said in a Telegram post on Friday that Russian troops are “advancing at a fast pace. With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned on Thursday that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region were “facing the most intense Russian assaults”.
“Priority supplies – everything that is needed – are being sent there,” Mr Zelensky said on X.
That same day, authorities told people to start evacuating.
Pokrovsk officials were meeting with residents to provide them with logistical details on the evacuation.
People were offered shelter in western Ukraine, where they will be hosted in dormitories and separate houses prepared for them.
“As the front line approaches Pokrovsk, the need to move to a safer place is becoming increasingly urgent,” the local administration said.
In Kursk, meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have taken full control of Sudzha, Mr Zelensky said on Thursday.
It is the largest Russian town to fall to Ukraine’s forces since the start of their incursion 10 days ago, and the success raised Ukrainian spirits while embarrassing the Kremlin.
A family who fled from Sudzha showed on Russian state TV the shattered windows of their car, the result of an attack while on the road.
“At the turn they were shooting, there were mines, we drove around the mines. Then we were driving further, the drone hit us in Bondarevka,” said Nikolai Netbayev.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday the army repelled attempted Ukrainian advances in the areas of Gordeev, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Sudzha, and Russkoye Porechnoye, 13 kilometres (eight miles) north of Sudzha.
In other developments:
– The Russian organisation People’s Front said two of its volunteer workers were killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Kursk region while on a mission to evacuate residents from a border area.
– In Russian-occupied Donetsk city, a hypermarket was destroyed in a blaze after being hit by Ukrainian fire, according to local officials. Eleven people were reported injured.
