Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky says bad weather favours Moscow in ‘difficult’ battle for Pokrovsk – UK Times

Volodymyr Zelensky has share a military update from commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi Russia’s assaults on Pokrovsk and in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The situation remains “difficult” in Pokrovsk, he said, adding that it is “in part because of weather conditions that favour the attacks”.

The Ukrainian president added: “The situation in Kupyansk is somewhat easier – our forces have achieved results there, and this has been the pattern for the past few weeks.”

Ukrainian defensive forces are also focussed on the Zaporizhzhia region, where trhe Russians have been increasing the “number and scale of assaults”, he added.

Russian president Vladimir Putin gave no order to begin preparations for nuclear weapons testing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“The president gave no instructions to begin preparations,” Peskov told state owned VGTRK.

“First of all, we must understand whether we should do it. This must be a serious, well-founded and thought-out decision. So our specialists will work on that.”

Ukraine’s special forces have struck a Russian oil depot in occupied Crimea, officials have said.

“The Hvardiyska oil depot is an important element of the fuel logistics system of the occupying authorities in Crimea,” the special forces stated on Telegram.

“It is important for supplying military facilities and transport of the enemy army.”

The Independent could not independently verify the report.

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.

But Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement from the front line that his country’s fighters are “under pressure” is something of an understatement.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, told the New York Post that Russia was concentrating some 150,000 troops on a drive to capture the town, which is much prized by Russia.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Russian troops may have already successfully infiltrated the three tactically important towns.

Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that its forces have captured the village of Novouspenivske in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

The Independent cannot independently verify the report, but authoritative Ukrainian battlefield map DeepState indicates that Russian troops have surrounded the village.

We’ll bring you more detail as we get it.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 37 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions and the Crimean Peninsula, RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing daily data from the Russian defence ministry.

Moscow does not usually release the full number of drones fired by Ukraine in its overnight attacks.

Russian forces have taken full control of the eastern part of the city of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and are actively advancing inside the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry also reported that its troops had taken control of the settlement of Novouspenivske in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

The Independent could not independently confirm the battlefield reports.