Civilians flee Pokrovsk, Ukraine, as Russian army advances

Residents of Pokrovsk fled on Wednesday, as Russian forces continued to move towards this important logistics node in eastern Ukraine, despite the attack by Kiev floated in the Russian border region of Kursk.

The Russian army has taken control of one town after another in recent weeks in this sector of the front, and it is now about ten kilometers from the city of Pokrovsk, which has a population of about 53 thousand a person who has been urgently summoned by the Ukrainian authorities to leave.

Maxim (40 years old), who was met by Agence France-Presse journalists when they visited the area, says that the situation is “very tense” and is getting worse every time time The eight-storey building where he lives was recently bombed while he was returning to his apartment.

“I decided to leave because life is more important,” said the miner in Pokrovsk.

As for Anatoly (60 years old), he said that he saw two attacks that caused “great losses, but everyone is alive, thank God the people are gone.”

Ukrainians flee from Pokrovsk as Russian forces advance into the area

On Monday, regional authorities ordered an “emergency evacuation” of families with children from Pokrovsk, which is located on the road leading to the Ukrainian stronghold of Chasev Yar and Kostyantinivka.

As a new sign of its progress, the Russian army announced, on Wednesday, that it had control of an additional town in this region, Gilani, which is located about 20 kilometers east of Pokrovsk.

He also announced, on Tuesday, that he had taken control of the city of New York in eastern Ukraine, a highly symbolic victory because of the name, despite Russia’s assertion that it is a high- an important logistical platform for the Ukrainian forces.

Despite Russia’s announcement, Ukrainian soldiers and bloggers confirmed on Wednesday that part of New York is still under the control of Ukrainian forces.

While the Ukrainian military offensive that began on August 6 in Russia’s Kursk region is getting a lot of attention because it is moving combat operations to the aggressor’s territory, the center of the fighting continues in the Ukrainian industrial region of Donbass (east), where Russian troops are better equipped and more numerous.

In the Kursk region, the Ukrainian army announced on Tuesday evening that they had taken control of 1,263 square kilometers and 93 districts, which means that they achieved some progress on the previous day.

The most important area he said he had controlled so far was the town of Sodja, which had a population of 5,500 people, and was located eight kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Ukrainian Army Chief Oleksandr Sirsky said, “Ukraine’s armed forces advanced 28 to 35 kilometers into the enemy’s defenses.”

In the nearby Bryansk region, Russian authorities announced on Wednesday that they had foiled an infiltration attempt by a group of Ukrainian “saboteurs”.

The governor of the region, Alexander Bogomaz, said via Telegram, “During the battle, FSB forces in the Bryansk region and units of the Russian Armed Forces blocked the attempt to enter. The enemy was hit by bullets.”

A firefighter puts out a man injured by a Russian bombing in Pokrovsk

According to the Ukrainian authorities, the operation in Kursk is aimed at creating a “buffer zone” on Russian territory to prevent bombing operations, forcing Moscow to redeploy forces there from regions another of the front, or even get a bargaining chip while “just” peace talks are possible.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Wednesday that the attack in Kursk dealt a “severe blow” to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda.

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But Ukraine’s invasion of the Kursk region still seems to have not eased Russia’s pressure on Pokrovsk.

A drone attacks

The Russian capital was targeted on Tuesday-Wednesday night by “one of the largest drone attacks” in Ukraine in the war, according to its mayor, Sergei Sobyanin.

The official confirmed that 11 Ukrainian drones were shot down. The city of Moscow, which is located more than 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was the target of demonstrations several times before, without causing any serious damage.

On the Ukrainian side, the Air Force announced that they destroyed 50 Russian drones and one missile overnight. The head of the military administration in Kiev, Sergei Popko, said that ten of them were captured while they were “heading for the capital of Ukraine.”

On Wednesday, Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor reported a brief but rare outage in Telegram and WhatsApp messaging services in Russia as a result of an electronic “attack.”

In addition, Ukraine voted, on Wednesday, to join the International Criminal Court, after years of abstention and despite opposition to the military establishment, with the hope of one day punishing of Russia for the crimes attributed to him.

This case is very sensitive in Ukraine, as many fear that their forces fighting against the Russian army will be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court, which intends to try – commit genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.

Ukraine’s parliament voted Tuesday to ban the Russian-linked branch of the Orthodox Church, which still has thousands of bishops in Ukraine despite its declining influence.