Like in the movie “Mad Max”.Video shows Russian troops entering Pokrovsk
The situation for the Ukrainian defenders of Pokrovsk is becoming increasingly precarious. A photo shows Russian soldiers entering the city under the cover of thick fog. They used motorbikes and dismantled cars.
Russia said its troops continued to advance into the eastern Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk and Kupyansk on Tuesday. A video is said to show Russian soldiers entering Pokrovsk on motorbikes and even on the roofs of damaged cars. Capturing Pokrovsk, which Russian media has called the “Gateway to Donetsk”, would give Moscow a platform to move north towards the two largest cities still controlled by Ukraine in the Donetsk region – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Ukraine’s military confirmed that around 300 Russian troops were in Pokrovsk and Moscow had stepped up efforts to send more troops to the city.
Russian military bloggers published a video on Tuesday showing the entry of Russian troops into Pokrovsk in thick fog. Some users of the Telegram messaging service compared the scene to the 1979 apocalyptic action film “Mad Max.” The video shows Russian soldiers riding motorbikes and a collection of cars and other unusual vehicles, many of them without doors or windows. According to the RTL/ntv verification team, the video was recorded in the southern suburb of Pokrovsk. However, the date of the recording could not be independently verified.
Representations of the battle vary greatly between the two warring parties. Although Moscow has for days claimed the city is under siege, Kiev denies complete control by Russia. On Monday it was said from Kiev that they were still able to supply the neighboring city of Myrnohrad. However, publicly available war maps of both sides show that the Russians have mounted a pincer movement around the city and are close to closing it down. Ukraine’s top military commander, Olexandr Syrskyi, told the New York Post newspaper that Russia was concentrating around 150,000 troops to attack Pokrovsk.
Russia also said its forces had taken full control of the eastern part of Kupyansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and were actively advancing northwest and east of Pokrovsk. A Russian commander said in a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry that his troops had captured an oil depot on the eastern bank of Kupiansk and a number of train stations.
Reports of the fighting could not be independently verified. According to Moscow, the Russian military now controls more than 19 percent of Ukraine’s territory. A map of Ukraine tracking changing frontiers shows Russian control of 19.1 percent of Ukraine’s territory.
