Ukraine Pushes Counteroffensive Near Pokrovsk as Russia Claims New Gains

Ukrainian troops pressed a counteroffensive on Friday near the eastern towns of Pokrovsk and Dobropillia, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying Russian forces were suffering “significant losses.”

In his nightly address, Zelensky said the operation had derailed Moscow’s plans to capture Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub. “Our military is destroying their forces,” he said, adding that Ukraine was taking more Russian prisoners “every day.”

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, reported advances of three to seven kilometers through Russian defenses, while Zelensky said Ukrainian troops were also holding their ground around Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

On Thursday, Zelensky announced that seven settlements and 160 square kilometers had been retaken in the Pokrovsk-Dobropillia area, with another nine “cleared” of Russian troops.

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces had captured the villages of Muravka in Donetsk region and Novoivanivka in Zaporizhzhia. A Russia-installed official told TASS that Moscow’s troops now controlled all supply routes around Pokrovsk.

The Donetsk region remains the focus of the heaviest fighting, as Moscow presses its demand that Kyiv abandon the territory before any peace deal.

Reuters said it could not independently verify battlefield claims from either side.