Russian forces have advanced further into several eastern Ukrainian towns, bringing them closer to capturing the strategic city of Pokrovsk, Russian and Ukrainian bloggers said. 

“The enemy advanced in Selydove,” DeepState, a group with close links to the Ukrainian army that analyzes combat footage, wrote on the Telegram messaging app late Saturday. It posted a map indicating Russian troops in the town’s southeast. 

Russian forces have been storming the coal mining town of Selydove in Ukraine’s Donetsk region for the past week. Capturing it would pave the way for a Russian advance on the logistical hub of Pokrovsk 20 km northwest.  

The Russian news outlet SHOT said on Telegram that Moscow’s troop control 80% of Selydove. 

The Russian-installed head of Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces had hoisted their unit’s flag on the roof of one of the buildings in the town of Hirnyk, about 14 km south of Selydove, Russia’s state news agency RIA reported.  

Russian military bloggers also reported that Russian forces were close to taking over the town of Kurakhove, just southwest of Hirnyk. 

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Ukraine has not commented on them. 

Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its evening report on Saturday that Kyiv forces had repelled 36 Russian attacks along the Pokrovsk front-line in the previous day, including in the area of Selydove, while several battles were still ongoing. 

After Moscow’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022 failed to seize the capital, Kyiv, and win a decisive victory, President Vladimir Putin scaled back his war ambitions to taking the old industrial heartland in Ukraine’s east known as Donbas, which covers the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. 

Last month Russian forces advanced there at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open-source data, despite Ukraine taking a part of Russia’s Kursk region. 

Early Sunday, Russia’s air defense units reported destroying at least 30 Ukrainian drones overnight across the southern regions of Voronezh, Bryansk, Oryol, Lipetsk and Belgorod, the Russian defense ministry wrote on Telegram.  

One woman was injured as a result of the drone attack on the border region of Belgorod, the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram. He added that a few cars were also damaged.  

Maxim Yegorov, governor of the Tambov region, about 450 km southeast of Moscow, said a Ukrainian drone fell onto the Michurinsky district of the region, sparking a short-lived fire but causing no injuries or material damage.  

The Russian defense ministry reports only how many drones its units destroy, not how many Ukraine launches. Russian officials also rarely disclose the full scale of damage inflicted by the attacks, especially when they involve military or energy infrastructure.  

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
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