Russia Deploys 170,000 Troops in Donetsk Offensive, Zelenskyy Warns of “Difficult” Battle for Pokrovsk.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russia has massed around 170,000 troops in the eastern Donetsk region, launching a fresh push to seize the embattled city of Pokrovsk in what could become one of the largest offensives of the war this year.
“The situation in Pokrovsk is difficult,” Zelenskyy said during a briefing in Kyiv, rejecting Moscow’s claim that the city is surrounded. “There are Russians in Pokrovsk,” he acknowledged, “but they are being destroyed — gradually destroyed — because we need to preserve our personnel.”
Pokrovsk, once a thriving industrial hub, has been reduced to rubble after more than a year of intense fighting. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces have breached parts of the city’s outskirts, forcing Ukrainian defenders to withdraw to fortified positions.
Despite the intensity of the assault, Zelenskyy insisted that Kyiv’s troops were holding their ground and methodically repelling infiltration attempts.
The battle for Donetsk has become symbolic for both sides. Russian President Vladimir Putin has framed it as essential to completing Moscow’s stated goal of “liberating” the entire Donbas, while Western analysts see the campaign as a test of whether Ukraine can maintain defensive cohesion amid manpower shortages and dwindling ammunition.
Putin has claimed “steady advances” across the eastern front, though progress has been slow and costly. Analysts say Moscow hopes a high-profile victory before winter could strengthen its negotiating leverage as Washington presses for renewed peace talks.
Ukraine Strikes Back Inside Russia
Even as Kyiv’s forces dig in along the eastern front, Ukraine has intensified its campaign of deep strikes against Russian infrastructure.
Vasyl Maliuk, head of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), said his forces have carried out more than 160 successful long-range attacks this year on Russian oil extraction and refining facilities — a campaign designed to disrupt Moscow’s logistics and erode its war economy.
Maliuk claimed the attacks caused a 20% drop in domestic oil products and temporarily halted 37% of Russia’s refining capacity, though the figures could not be independently verified.
He also said Ukrainian operations destroyed nearly half of Russia’s Pantsir air-defense systems and even struck an Oreshnik hypersonic missile — touted by Putin as “invincible” — while it sat on a launch pad inside Russia.
“These operations show that we are not resting on our achievements,” Maliuk said. “We’re developing new equipment, new combat units, and new methods of warfare.”
Rising Civilian Toll and Shrinking Aid
Meanwhile, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, warned that civilian casualties have risen 30% this year compared with 2024, driven largely by Russia’s relentless drone and missile attacks on energy and residential infrastructure.
Overnight strikes on Sumy injured 11 people, including four children, while drones also targeted Odesa’s energy grid, threatening heating and water services ahead of what forecasters predict will be a harsher winter than last year.
“Destroying energy production and distribution capacity as winter starts clearly impacts the civilian population and is a form of terror,” Schmale said in Geneva.
He added that the U.N.’s Ukraine response fund has plunged from $4 billion in 2022 to just $1.1 billion this year, leaving millions vulnerable. “This conflict increasingly feels like a protracted war,” Schmale said. “Right now on the ground, it doesn’t feel like it’s ending any time soon.”
