Ukrainian troops surrounded on three sides? In the strategically important city, Russian forces began street fighting
Street fighting has broken out in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kurakhove, the Tass news agency reports, as Russian troops try to use their ground advantage as both sides step up drone launches.
"Street fighting is taking place on the territory of the city," Russian security agencies said, adding that the Ukrainian army was moving additional troops to the area.
On Saturday, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, General Oleksandr Sirsky, called the situation in the areas around Kurakhiv and Pokrovsk "challenging" and "with a tendency toward escalation" on Facebook, Bloomberg reports.
Russia's accelerated ground advance in recent weeks threatens to seize the southern part of Ukraine's former industrial heartland.
After capturing the town of Selidovo, Russian troops focused their attack on Kurakhovo – a key logistics center in the southern part of the Donetsk region.
In an effort to encircle the town, whose pre-war population of about 18.000 has dwindled to a few hundred, Russian troops advanced near the village a few miles south and east, according to the DeepState monitoring platform, which maintains cooperation with Ukraine's Defense Ministry.
On Sunday alone, the General Staff of Ukraine reported 39 Russian attacks in at least eight settlements around Kurakhovo.
The Associated Press reported that Kurahovo was surrounded on three sides and that Russian forces were only about three kilometers away from the destroyed city center.
However, between 700-1.000 local residents still remain in the city, most of them living in the basements of buildings without running water, electricity or heating.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi called the situation in Kurakhovo, as well as in the city of Pokrovsk, alarming.
The pace of Russia's advance in Eastern Ukraine has increased since mid-October, posing a threat to the entire southern part of Donetsk Oblast.
Although Russian troops are suffering significant losses due to their advance-at-all-costs tactics, they are still outnumbered by Ukrainian forces – and further bolstered by the arrival of thousands of North Korean troops in Russia, according to Bloomberg.
