Russia's talk about the fall of Pokrovsk should be ignored

Not a word of what the Russian defence ministry says is credible. Its claims that Russian troops have surrounded Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka and Kupiansk, in eastern Ukraine, are agitprop.

- SAM KILEY

But Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement from the front line that his country’s fighters are “under pressure” is also misleading - and something of an understatement. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Russian troops may have successfully infiltrated the three tactically important towns. Kupiansk is on Russia’s route towards Kharkiv. The other two control the eastern and southern routes to the last remaining Ukrainian redoubts in Donetsk - Kramatorsk and Slaviansk.

Vladimir Putin has thrown a massive effort into the fight for Donetsk, which Moscow has already illegally “annexed”. Ukraine’s commanders believe there are about 100,000 Russian troops in this sector alone. They have paid a gigantic price in blood for tiny territorial gains. If Pokrovsk falls, eventually, there will be nothing left of this former garrison town.