Ukraine, Russia give conflicting accounts of situation in embattled eastern town

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KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine and Russia issued conflicting accounts on Monday of fighting around Myrnohrad, an embattled town to the east of Pokrovsk which Moscow’s forces have enveloped from almost all sides.

Pokrovsk has been a key target of Russia’s troops in their slow drive westward to capture Donetsk region and fighting has gripped the area around Myrnohrad.

Frontline reports also suggested that Russian troops were advancing on villages in Zaporizhzhia region further south.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.

The Ukrainian military, in a statement on Facebook, said it had delivered supplies into Myrnohrad and rotated out troops fighting in the town, including those who were wounded.

“Ukrainian units are confidently holding their positions and destroying the occupiers on the approaches to the town,” it said. “Logistics to the town are complicated, but are being carried out.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, writing on Telegram, said its forces were pressing an advance on the town, noting gains in two of the town’s districts.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ukrainian forces were holding their positions around Pokrovsk and Dobropillia, a town to the north, where Kyiv says its troops have made gains.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, in an interview with the New York Post, said Russia was concentrating some 150,000 troops on a drive to capture Pokrovsk, with mechanised groups and marine brigades part of the push.

Syrskyi told the newspaper that Ukrainian forces were using built-up urban areas to limit the progress of Russian troops and were also confronting Russian sabotage units.

“There are ongoing battles and fights raging on. There are fast manoeuvres carried out by the enemy all the time,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had captured three villages along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front line in the past 24 hours, including two in Zaporizhzhia region, northeast of the town of Hulyaipole.

Ukraine’s DeepState military blog, which uses open-source reports to track the positions of the two sides, noted “a significant increase in grey zones” with uncertain control in Zaporizhzhia region.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, writing by Max Hunder; Editing by Toby Chopra, Ron Popeski and Lincoln Feast.)