Tons of of Russian troops have pushed deeper into jap Ukrainian cities ‘Mad Max-style’, video launched by the Russians seems to indicate.
The troops had been seen rolling via the fog on motorbikes, with some on the roofs of battered vehicles and vans, apparently into town of Pokrovsk, as Russia mentioned its forces had additionally pressed additional into Kupiansk on Tuesday.
The combat to realize maintain of Pokrovsk, a strategic level on a big street and rail artery within the Donetsk area, has been raging for effectively over a 12 months, in Vladimir Putin’s push to realize management of the entire of Ukraine’s industrial east.
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State of affairs on the battlefield
The Donbas area contains the neighbouring areas of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Ukraine’s army mentioned round 300 Russian troopers had been now inside Pokrovsk and that Moscow had intensified efforts to get extra troops in over the previous few days – utilizing dense fog for canopy from drones.
It mentioned Ukrainian forces had been combating Russian teams within the metropolis.
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Russian troopers enter Pokrovsk on this display seize obtained from a social media video launched on 10 November, 2025. Pic: Reuters
Moscow says taking Pokrovsk, dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk” by Russian media, would give it a platform to push north in the direction of the 2 largest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities within the Donetsk area – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Posting on X on Tuesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned: “The entrance: our primary focus proper now’s on the Pokrovsk route and the Zaporizhzhia area, the place the Russians are growing the quantity and scale of assaults.
“The situation there remains difficult, in part because of weather conditions that favor the attacks. But we continue to destroy the occupier, and I thank every one of our units, every warrior involved in defending Ukraine’s positions.”
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Destruction in Pokrovsk on 1 November. Pic: AP
Moscow and Kyiv have given completely different accounts of the battle for Pokrovsk. Moscow has for days mentioned town is surrounded, whereas Kyiv has denied Moscow controls town and mentioned on Monday that it was nonetheless capable of provide neighbouring Myrnohrad.
Moscow has been threatening Pokrovsk for greater than a 12 months, trying to encompass it and threaten provide traces, fairly than use the lethal frontal assaults it used to take town of Bakhmut in 2023.
Russian battle bloggers printed a video on Tuesday displaying what they mentioned had been Russian forces coming into Pokrovsk alongside a street enveloped in fog, in what some Telegram customers mentioned appeared like scenes from the Mad Max motion movie collection, lots of that are set in a post-apocalyptic panorama.
The date of the footage has not been independently verified.
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Satellite tv for pc picture reveals armoured automobiles within the jap Ukrainian metropolis of Pokrovsk, Donetsk area, on 3 November, 2025. Pic: Reuters
Russia mentioned it had taken 256 buildings and that Moscow’s forces had been actively advancing to the northwest and east of Pokrovsk in addition to across the railway station.
Russia has executed a pincer motion across the metropolis and was near closing it, open-source battlefield maps from each side present, although Kyiv has counter-attacked across the city of Dobropillia.
Ukraine’s high army commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, mentioned in an interview with the New York Publish that Russia was concentrating some 150,000 troops in a push to seize Pokrovsk, with mechanised teams and marine brigades forming a part of this drive.
Russia mentioned its forces had taken full management of the jap a part of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv area. A Russian commander, who gave his name signal as Hunter, mentioned his troops had taken management of an oil depot on the jap fringe of Kupiansk.
In a video assertion issued by Russia’s defence ministry, he mentioned his forces had additionally taken management of a collection of practice stops alongside the railway to Kupiansk Vuzlovyi, a settlement round 6km (4 miles) south of the centre of Kupiansk itself.
Russia additionally mentioned its troops had taken management of the settlement of Novouspenivske within the southeastern Zaporizhzhia area.
Russia’s army says it now controls greater than 19% of Ukraine, or some 116,000 sq. km (44,800 sq. miles), up from 18% almost three years in the past, in accordance with Ukrainian maps monitoring frontline adjustments.
