Ukraine says army holding out in Pokrovsk amid intensifying Russian offensive

Ukraine's top military commander said on Saturday his troops were still holding out in the embattled eastern city of Pokrovsk, which Moscow said its forces were at last enclosing in a pincer movement after more than a year of fighting. Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk", since mid-2024 in its campaign to control the entirety of Donetsk, a Ukrainian province it claims to have annexed.