Russia says its forces have pushed deeper into the eastern Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, with one video showing Russian soldiers rolling into Pokrovsk on motorbikes and even on the roofs of battered cars and vans.

Moscow says taking Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, would give it a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Russia has been threatening Pokrovsk for more than a year, using a pincer movement to attempt to encircle it and threaten supply lines, rather than the deadly frontal assaults it employed to capture the city of Bakhmut in 2023.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the situation around Pokrovsk as difficult and his top comman

See Full Page