Ukraine's top commander says troops standing firm outside key city
(Reuters) -Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Friday his forces were standing firm in defending a key city on the eastern front of the three-year war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukraine's forces in their defence of Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in eastern Donetsk region that has weathered months of Russian attempts to capture it in their troops' slow advance westward.
Syrskyi said he had presented a report to the president describing the challenges facing Ukrainian troops along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front.
"Most attention was focused on the Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka sectors, where our soldiers are courageously containing intense pressure and destroying the Russian aggressor," Syrskyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
"The enemy is continuing to deploy its tactic of small infantry groups, but has proved powerless on its attempts to seize Pokrovsk. Today, they tried to break through with sabotage groups but were exposed and destroyed by Ukrainian defenders."
Zelenskiy, in his account of the commander's report, singled out for praise those defending Pokrovsk, particularly from sabotage groups "trying to advance and enter Ukrainian cities and villages. No such Russian group will have a chance of survival."
Syrskyi issued his report at the end of a week of upheaval in the government, now focused on boosting domestic arms production.
Zelenskiy appointed a new Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, and put her predecessor, Denys Shmyhal, at the head of the Defence Ministry. The outgoing Defence Minister, Rustem Umerov, was named chairman of the National Security and Defence Council and told to "intensify" peace talks with Russia.
Russia's military has been advancing through Donetsk region, with the Russian Defence Ministry announcing almost daily the capture of villages on the approaches to Pokrovsk. The capture of one such village, Popiv Yar, was announced on Thursday.
Ukraine has reported some successes in pushing back Russian troops from the area in recent months. Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub used to supply other frontline towns.
Most of Pokrovsk's pre-war population of 60,000 has been evacuated. Ukraine's only mine that produces coking coal - used in its once vast steel industry -- lies idle outside the city.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian air defence units repelled Russian drones on Friday evening. Fragments from one intercepted drone fell on a dwelling in an eastern suburb, but no injuries were reported.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander KozhukharEditing by Rod Nickel)
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