Russian troops march toward Pokrovsk, capturing second Ukrainian city in a week | News about the Russia-Ukraine war

Russia has seized a second city in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region within a week in a months-long offensive that shows no signs of abating. The General Staff of Ukraine reports more than 150 attacks on the front every day.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had captured Hrodivka, a town on the road to Pokrovsk that Ukrainian generals say is a key target.

Russian troops entered Hrodivka in early September. The capture came just five days after the fall of Wuhledar on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border.

Russia's air campaign is also in full swing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia dropped 800 glide bombs and sent nearly 400 drones and 20 missiles to Ukraine last week.

“This daily air terror can be stopped. This requires the unity of partners and long-range weapons,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky has asked his allies to allow Ukraine to use Western-supplied missiles to attack Russian airfields from which glide bombs are fired aboard Tupolev-95 bombers.

Russia has warned of dire consequences if allies allow Ukraine to attack hundreds of kilometers inside Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did so again on Tuesday.

“As soon as this decision is made, when it is made, we will know about it, and the plan that (Russian President) Vladimir Putin mentioned will already come into force,” Lavrov said.

Russia has also suffered setbacks.

Kharkiv-based North Ukraine Forces spokesman Vitaly Zarantsev announced on Sunday that a major mechanized attack early last week in Vovchansk resulted in more Russian deaths than wounded.

“The enemy deployed a large number of personnel and a significant number of armored vehicles, which, under the protection of two tanks, tried to storm (our) positions,” Sarantsev said.

“They tried to advance to the (industrial) plant but were hit by fire from our artillery and strikes from our FPV (first-person view) drones,” he said.

“For the first time the number of dead exceeded the number of wounded. This shows that the intensity of the battle was such that the enemy simply did not have time to withdraw its personnel or take in the wounded – they all died in this attack.

Ukraine said that in general, 40 percent of Russian losses in Kharkiv were “irreversible” – that is, dead or irretrievably injured.

“Significant” Russian losses with marginal progress

Ukraine pioneered the use of drones on the battlefield to destroy armored vehicles, demonstrating the use of FPV Phoenix drones to drop munitions on three Russian field munitions depots in Luhansk and on armored personnel carriers.

Experts argue about Russia's ability to continue to absorb enormous losses of people and vehicles.

It has been carrying out offensives in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia since February as Ukraine has fallen into a defensive posture.

“Russian forces have conducted several battalion-sized mechanized attacks in western Donetsk Oblast since July 2024, most of which resulted in significant armored vehicle losses in exchange for minor territorial advances,” wrote the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank.

Russia had its greatest success this year on the Pokrovsk Front.

Since taking Avdiivka in February, it has formed a 40 km long salient towards Pokrovsk.

According to a financial statement, the company lost five vehicle divisions to achieve this goal.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, estimated that Russia lost 8,800 armored vehicles and tanks in the first two years of the war and that Soviet stocks were quickly depleted.

According to Ukraine, Russia has lost more than 30,000 soldiers and 1,500 artillery systems every month since the summer.

In the long-range offensive

Ukraine remains on the offensive in widespread attacks on Russian energy and defense targets.

Ukraine's General Staff said it attacked an oil depot in Feodosia in Russian-occupied Crimea. They said the Feodosia depot was the largest military oil depot in Crimea and was used to supply Russian forces at the front. An adviser to the head of the occupying forces in Crimea confirmed a fire at the Feodosia depot on Monday, without naming the cause.

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region said 45 Ukrainian drones attacked the region on Tuesday, injuring two people.

Andriy Demchenko, head of Ukraine's border guard, said Ukraine continues to fire at Russian gas production platforms in the Black Sea to prevent them from being used for gas production or military purposes.

Military intelligence and the border service of Ukraine “constantly carry out tasks in the waters of the Black Sea to control this area and prevent the enemy from entering,” Demchanko said.

Expansion of weapons production

Zelensky said in his address on Monday evening that he would call for Western investment in the production of drones and electronic warfare in Ukraine at a meeting of the heads of government of Kiev's key allies on Saturday at the US air base in Ramstein, Germany. But on Wednesday the meeting was postponed after US President Joe Biden withdrew due to the extent of Hurricane Milton.

Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said his country would invest 400 million euros ($439 million) in developing drones in Ukraine.

“This involves all types of advanced drones that can be used for reconnaissance, defense and attack, particularly in the air, but also on land and at sea,” said Brekelmans.

Brekelmans also announced that Dutch F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine and that all 24 aircraft promised by the Netherlands would be delivered “in the coming months.”

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Zelensky proposed temporary land concessions in return for Ukraine's NATO membership and a negotiated end to the war during his visit to Washington last month.

This would mean recognizing that Russia retains de facto control over the territories it conquers, but the conquests would not be recognized as legal by Ukraine or its Western allies, the report said.

The deal would now include the acceptance that the lands confiscated by Russia would have to be regained through negotiations in the future, the newspaper said.

Zelensky said in his address on Saturday evening that sovereignty would not be given up: “(Peace and security) is possible exclusively on the basis of international law and without any trade in sovereignty or territory.” (AlJazeera)