Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov stated on Monday that Moscow’s forces are pushing forward along the entire contact line in Ukraine and now encircle Ukrainian units in the town of Mirnohrad.
During a meeting with officers at the command centre of the Russian grouping operating in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, Gerasimov said President Vladimir Putin ordered the destruction of Ukrainian forces in Mirnohrad (called Dimitrov by Russia). The town, located east of Pokrovsk, had around 46,000 residents before the war.
Gerasimov claimed Russian troops already control over 30% of buildings in Mirnohrad.
Russia maintains it has fully captured Pokrovsk (referred to by its Soviet-era name Krasnoarmeysk) and surrounded Ukrainian defenders in Mirnohrad. Ukraine repeatedly denies Pokrovsk has fallen, insisting its forces still hold parts of the city and continue counter-attacks in the Mirnohrad area.
Current territorial control
Russia currently occupies 19.2% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea (annexed in 2014), the Luhansk region, over 80% of Donetsk, more than 75% of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and portions of Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Kyiv asserts it maintains defensive lines and inflicts heavy casualties on Russian forces for minimal territorial gains.
Last week, Putin declared Russia would seize full control of the entire Donbas region by force unless Ukrainian troops withdraw, a demand Kyiv categorically rejected.
In its daily update on Monday, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that air-defence systems intercepted and destroyed 121 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Also read: Christodoulides meets Zelensky: Cyprus Ukraine relations deepen
For more videos and updates, check out our YouTube channel.
