Russia Besieges Pokrovsk by Cutting Supply Lines – AFU Officer

Russia is attempting to besiege Pokrovsk, a stronghold in eastern Ukraine, by bypassing it and cutting a key supply route to the city instead of directly engaging it, a Ukrainian officer said on Monday.

A highway linking Pokrovsk with the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine is now the new target for Moscow troops, Maj. Viktor Trehubov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Khortytsia Operational Group, told AP News in a WhatsApp message.

“So far, they have not achieved their goal and [the Armed Forces of Ukraine] are working to ensure that they do not achieve it in the future – just as they have not been successful in other attempts to bypass the city,” Trehubov said.

AP News said the highway “is crucial for supplies feeding Ukrainian forces in the entire region,” and losing control could “severely weaken” Ukraine’s defense of Pokrovsk.

Trehubov likely referred to the trans-European E50 highway that runs across the breadth of Europe from Brest in France to Makhachkala in Dagestan, Russia. In Ukraine, Pokrovsk is a transit hub on the highway between Ukraine’s Dnipro and Russian-occupied Donetsk city.

As of Tuesday, Jan. 14, Russian troops have not reached the E50 west of Pokrovsk.

According to DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source battlefield map, Russian troops have been making slow yet steady gains in recent months towards the E50 and another country road farther south that transits through Kurakhove, a city Moscow claimed to have captured in early January.

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Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 13, Russian troops captured a number of settlements southwest of Pokrovsk, leading up to the E50 highway that enters the city from the west, according to Deep State.

As of Monday, Jan. 13, Russian troops were approximately 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of E50 at the closest point, with the country road T0406 on its path – towards which Russia has also been seen slowly advancing.

Kyiv Post’s Monday analysis of the frontline developments showed Russian troops advancing in areas across T0406 opposite the village of Kotlyne without reaching the road or village itself on Sunday, but the latest update indicates that Russian troops have established a foothold on parts of the T0406 between the village of Udachne and Kotlyne.

In a Sunday evening video address, President Volodymyr Zelensky described the fighting near Pokrovsk as “the most intense” compared to other sectors, and he thanked Ukraine’s 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade and the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade for defending the city.