The loss of Pokrovsk would halve Ukrainian steel production, which is essential to the military industry and expensive to import.
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The Russian army claimed, on Sunday October 13, the capture of a new village in eastern Ukraine, near the strategic town of Pokrovsk, a region where its forces have been progressing rapidly for several weeks.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have captured the village of Mykhailivka, on the outskirts of Selydové. This last town south of Pokrovsk was badly damaged by months of Russian bombing and the majority of its inhabitants fled.
Pokrovsk, which had a population of 60,000 before the Russian offensive, is a key logistics hub for the Ukrainian army and is home to the only Ukrainian-controlled mine producing coke, a coal needed to make steel. Its loss would halve the production of this metal, essential to the military industry and which is expensive to import.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated on Saturday evening that the situation of Ukrainian forces in the east of the Donetsk region, where Pokrovsk is located, and in the south of Zaporizhia was “very difficult”.