Ukrainian units are threatened with encirclement by Russian forces in one of the sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, a spokesman for the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. He said on national television that the situation near the town of Velika Novoselka was complicated, DPA reported, quoted by DPA.
“There is a risk of operational encirclement“, he said, explaining that Ukrainian forces are using artillery in an attempt to prevent this.
Before the war, Velika Novoselka had a population of about 5,300 people and marks the southwesternmost point of the front in Donetsk region. Ukrainian forces are still defending the city center.
Meanwhile, authorities in the northeastern Kharkiv region ordered the evacuation of 16 villages. Children and their families must leave the area because the Russian side has intensified shelling.
In its report on the situation yesterday afternoon, the Ukrainian General Staff listed 82 Russian attacks on all sectors of the front. More than half of them were directed against the city of Pokrovsk and its surroundings, which have been under shelling for months, the military wrote on the social network “Facebook“. The Russian army confirmed that fighting was taking place in the area. The information cannot be verified in detail.
The Russian army is advancing in the eastern industrial and mining regions of Ukraine after the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive in the fall of 2023. Since then, the Russians have captured several important towns such as Avdeevka, Ugledar, and most recently Kurakhovo.