Ukraine faces ‘exhausting battles’ against Russia in Zaporizhia, Donetsk

Russian forces pressed into Ukraine’s eastern towns of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad during the past week as Kyiv’s military mounted a stout defence.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii said almost half of the battles on a 1,200km (745-mile) front were happening in the two towns, claiming Russia has committed 150,000 troops – almost a quarter of its strength in Ukraine – to capturing them.

Russia sees Pokrovsk as a gateway to the remaining unoccupied parts of Donetsk, the region it has already claimed as its own in September 2022.

As Ukrainians were gripped by a corruption scandal involving President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s allies, the battlefront was in a fluid state in which no side seemed to gain a decisive advantage.

Both Russia and Ukraine often captured and re