Ukraine is fighting a rearguard action to prevent Russia gaining its biggest victory in almost two years, an advance that also demonstrates the battlefield challenges facing Vladimir Putin’s army.

More than 300 Russian soldiers have entered the eastern city of Pokrovsk in an intense assault, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters Friday.

The fall of the embattled city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region would represent the most significant prize for Putin since his military took Avdiivka in February last year. Yet the distance between the two cities is just 30 kilometers , underscoring the slow pace of Russia’s advance at a massive cost in casualties.

With Russia’s summer offensive drawing to a close and the approaching winter likely to freeze most of the front line for a fourth

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