Dec 1 (Reuters) – Military commanders told President Vladimir Putin in comments reported on Monday that Russian forces had captured the frontline Ukrainian towns of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk and were advancing elsewhere, which he hailed as successes to enable further gains.
Ukrainian officials have made no acknowledgement that either place has fallen into Russian hands.
The announcement was issued as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held talks in Paris and ahead of U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff’s meetings in Moscow on a U.S.-backed plan to reach a settlement of the more than 3-1/2-year-old war.
Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, reported to Putin during the president’s visit on Sunday to an unidentified military command post that Russian troops had captured Pokrovsk, known in Russian as Krasnoarmeysk.
A key Russian target in Russia’s slow westward advance through eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the logistics hub has been under attack for months by Moscow’s forces.
“This is an important direction. We all understand just how important,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.
“It will ensure solutions going forward to the tasks we initially set at the beginning of the special military operation.”
Russian forces, Putin was quoted as saying, “are confidently holding the initiative and continue to carry out the operation’s tasks. Russian forces are advancing on practically all directions.”
He said one of the tasks lying ahead was the creation of a “security zone” along the Russian border to protect settlements from Ukrainian attack.
Gerasimov told Putin that Russian forces were determined to press on with the capture of the entire Donbas – an industrial area made up of Donetsk and Luhansk region.
Russia refers to its more than 3-1/2-year-old invasion of Ukraine as a special military operation.
VIDEO OF TROOPS IN SHATTERED TOWN
Video posted on the Russian Defence Ministry Telegram channel showed Russian troops striding through a town identified as Pokrovsk, with shattered buildings and deserted streets. One group hoisted a Russian flag aloft in a square.
Vovchansk, near the Russian border in Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, has long been gripped by fierce fighting. News agencies said Defence Minister Andrei Belousov congratulated troops on capturing the town, describing it as a step towards future successes in the area and elsewhere.
Valery Solodchuk, commander of the Centre group of forces, told Putin Russian troops were proceeding with clean-up operations against Ukrainian forces around Pokrovsk and the nearby town of Myrnohrad.
A third commander, Andrei Ivanaev, reported to Putin about Russian advances further south in Zaporizhzhia region and said forces had on Sunday entered the city of Huliaipole and were engaged in street battles.
Gerasimov said Russian forces pressing their advance had also made their way into the embattled town of Lyman, north of Pokrovsk.
Ukraine’s General Staff earlier on Monday said that Russian forces had launched 43 attacks on its positions in areas around Pokrovsk.
In recent weeks, Ukraine had reported that its forces were holding their ground around Pokrovsk and even making gains in a town to the north.
Ukraine’s top commander last week cast doubt on Russia’s announcement that it had captured Kupiansk, another embattled and largely destroyed town in Ukraine’s northeast.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Chris Reese, Cynthia Osterman and Sonali Paul)
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