MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces are just 1.5 km (1 mile) outside the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after Russian units pushed up from the south towards the road and rail hub which had a pre-war population of 60,000 people, a prominent pro-Russian blogger said on Friday.
Russia controls a chunk of Ukraine about the size of the American state of Virginia and is advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion, according to open source maps.
Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said Russian forces were now just 1.5 km from the city after a push from the south.
Podolyaka said members of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups, special forces which penetrate the front ahead of the advance, were already in the city.
Reuters was unable to verify battlefield accounts from either side due to reporting restrictions.
Ukraine’s military said in recent days that Russian troops destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the city.
The fall of Pokrovsk, an important logistics centre for the Ukrainian military, would be one of Ukraine’s biggest military losses in months.
Control of the city, which the Russian media call “the gateway to Donetsk”, would allow Moscow to severely disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its campaign to capture the city of Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area.
Squeezing the Ukrainian military’s access to the road network in the vicinity would make it harder for Kyiv’s troops to hold pockets of territory either side of Pokrovsk, which could allow Russia to consolidate and advance the front line.
The city also hosts a mine which is Ukraine’s only domestic coking coal supplier for its once-giant steel industry.
Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest BV has halted some operations at the mine because of its proximity to advancing Russian troops along the front line of the war with Russia, an industry source said on Thursday.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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