Russian troops 'bogged down' near Pokrovsk, Ukrainian military claims

Russian troops have been bogged down near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Feb. 27.

The embattled town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast is among the most hotly contested areas of the front. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi previously claimed that 7,000 Russian soldiers were killed near Pokrovsk in January alone.

Ukrainian forces repelled 33 Russian attacks in the Pokrovsk sector over the past day, the General Staff said in its latest update.

According to Trehubov, Russia's offensive from the south and an attempt to bypass Pokrovsk from the west failed. The spokesperson claimed that Russian forces deployed in the area are becoming exhausted.

"I am not saying that Ukrainian forces caught some second, third, or 100th and 500th breath... But Russian troops have indeed begun to show some physical, moral, and material exhaustion," Trehubov said.

The spokesperson attributed the situation's improvement mainly to Ukrainian drone units, which established "effective defense" and cooperated with the infantry. He said that after the start of U.S.-Russian negotiations, Russian soldiers' motivation to fight decreased in the sector where the Khortytsia group of forces operates.

A day before, the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade reported that Ukrainian troops had regained control of the village of Kotlyne, near Pokrovsk. Kotlyne and Pokrovsk are connected by the T 0406 highway, which also leads to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

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The Kyiv IndependentDmytro Basmat