Defense of the city of Donetsk is a priority, Zelensky says, as special forces are deployed

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the defense of Pokrovsk was a “priority” as elite special forces were deployed to the bustling city on the eastern frontline.

Ukrainian army sources told the BBC that special forces from military intelligence and assault groups were being used as regular infantry to protect supply lines for troops holding the city in the Donbass region.

There are increasing reports of Russian advances around the strategic city west of Donetsk. Ukraine has denied claims that its forces were encircled.

Moscow wants Kiev to cede the entire Donbass region as part of a peace deal, including the parts it does not currently control.

Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

The deployment of special forces suggests that authorities in Kiev are determined to try to hold onto the city, which Russia has been trying to capture for more than a year.

Local media reported that the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, was in the region to personally oversee the operation.

Pokrovsk is a key transport and supply hub, the capture of which could unlock Russian efforts to take over the rest of the region.

But Kiev also believes that his capture would help Russia in its efforts to convince the US that its military campaign has been successful – and therefore that the West should accede to its demands.

Washington has grown increasingly frustrated with the Kremlin’s failure to move forward with peace talks, culminating in US President Donald Trump imposing sanctions on the two largest oil producers and ending plans for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky has indicated that he is open to Trump’s proposal for a cease-fire that would freeze the war on the current front lines. Russia has publicly demanded that Ukrainian troops leave the rest of Donbas.

In his evening address, the Ukrainian president said: “Pokrovsk is our priority. We continue to destroy the occupier and that is the most important thing… They must be stopped where they have reached – and destroyed there.”

Images shared with news agencies appeared to show a Ukrainian Black Hawk helicopter deploying around 10 soldiers near Pokrovsk, although the location and date could not be confirmed.

Russia’s defense ministry claimed it foiled the deployment of Ukrainian military intelligence special forces northwest of the city, saying all 11 soldiers who landed by helicopter were killed.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source monitoring group, estimates that about half of Pokrovsk is a so-called “gray zone” where neither side has full control.

A military source in Donetsk told the BBC that Ukrainian forces were not surrounded, but their supply lines were being fired upon by Russian troops.

“The situation in the city has changed so much that (Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General) Sirsky is now sending elite units into the city to stabilize it,” he said.

These include special forces and assault units in the Ukrainian Intelligence Agency (GUR), he said.

“There are currently battles for the train station and industrial zone to the west. The industrial zone battles have almost reduced logistics from roughly vehicle-based to foot-based.”

“Ukrainian armed forces are not in a physical environment, but in an operational environment – this means that all logistics are under fire control.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces had made “minor advances” during recent counterattacks north of Pokrovsk, but said the town was “largely a contested ‘grey area'”.