Russian forces sought to encircle units of Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the Pokrovsk sector, but a counteroffensive operation by Ukraine’s Defense Forces is ongoing there.
Ukrainian troops have liberated 160 square kilometers of territory and cleared another 170 square kilometers of enemy presence, bringing 330 square kilometers back under Ukrainian control, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
According to him, it’s expected that Russia will shift forces to this area in the near term, as Dobropillya and Pokrovsk are the enemy’s main axes of attack.
“It’s too early to draw conclusions. God willing, it ends the way it’s going now. The 79th and 82nd brigades are there-we spoke with them yesterday. The National Guard is there, and assault units as well,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky noted that the second main direction of Russia’s offensive is Zaporizhzhia. But because Russia lacks resources, he said, it is redeploying everything to Donetsk region.
He also said he had seen Russian front-line maps and that their briefings differ sharply from reality.
“In places where we’ve restored the situation, the Russians’ maps show the opposite,” Zelensky said. “I think that’s not a bad thing. In the information space, they kept pushing the provocation that in Donbas they would supposedly take Pokrovsk within 30 days and would definitely capture the east by November. But that differs from reality.”
For several days, Ukrainian forces have been counterattacking in areas around Dobropillya and Pokrovsk in Donetsk region.
On September 18, Zelensky said defenders had liberated seven settlements and “cleared” another nine of Russian presence. And Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi added that Ukraine’s Defense Forces advanced 3 to 7 kilometers into Russian defenses.
