KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he visited the “intense” eastern frontline town of Pokrovsk on Monday, where Russia has directed an unrelenting infantry assault for months to close in on the strategically placed road and rail hub.
The trip comes a day before Kyiv marks 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion at a critical moment after the U.S. election win of Donald Trump, who has promised to end the war without saying how, raised the prospect of future negotiations.
Zelenskiy handed out military awards as he met sergeants from several units battling to defend Pokrovsk, site of a major coal mine, that Russian forces have been trying to capture, advancing within some 8 km (5 miles) from the city’s outskirts.
“I know that only thanks to your strength the East has not been completely occupied by the Russian Federation,” Zelenskiy said in the video.
Russia occupies a fifth of Ukraine and has been advancing at its fastest rate since 2022 in recent months. The front near Pokrovsk and another near the city of Kurakhove have seen the most ferocious Russian offensives for months.
Pokrovsk lies at an intersection of roads and a railway that make it an important logistics point for the military and for civilians. Its coal mine is the only one in Ukraine that produces coking coal vital for the national steel industry.
The military said its forces had repelled more than 30 Russian attacks near Pokrovsk in just the past day.
Zelenskiy’s office said he also visited other parts of the Donetsk region to check the progress with fortifications and discuss preparations for the looming winter with regional officials.
The bulk of critical infrastructure – for the supply of water, electricity and natural gas – has been ruined in the Donetsk region, as cities and towns have come under daily artillery fire, drone, missiles and guided bombs attacks.
Vadim Filashkin, the regional governor, said about 324,000 civilians remained in Kyiv-held parts of the region, down from about 2 million over the same territory before the invasion.
The Donetsk region, where Russian proxy forces launched an insurgency in 2014, is one of four Ukrainian provinces that Moscow claimed to have annexed in late 2022. Moscow says capturing the rest of the province is one of its principal war aims.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash and Anastasiia Malenko; editing by Tom Balmforth and Alex Richardson)
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