Russian forces advance toward strategic city

Russian forces have advanced further into several eastern Ukrainian towns, bringing them closer to capturing the strategic city of Pokrovsk, Russian and Ukrainian bloggers say.

"The enemy advanced in Selydove," DeepState, a group with close links to the Ukrainian army that analyses combat footage, wrote on the Telegram messaging app late on Saturday. It posted a map indicating Russian troops in the town's southeast.

Russian forces have been storming the coal mining town of Selydove in Ukraine's Donetsk region for the past week. Capturing it would pave the way for a Russian advance on the logistical hub of Pokrovsk 20km northwest.

The Russian news outlet SHOT said on Telegram that Moscow's troops control 80 per cent of Selydove.

The Russian-installed head of Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces had hoisted their unit's flag on the roof of one of the buildings in the town of Hirnyk, some 14 km south of Selydove, Russia's state news agency RIA reported.

Russian military bloggers also reported that Russian forces were close to taking over the town of Kurakhove, just southwest of Hirnyk.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Ukraine has not commented on them.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield.

Zelenskyy, in a post on X, said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that "the first North Korean military will be used by Russia in combat zones" between Sunday and Monday.

Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its evening report on Saturday that Kyiv forces had repelled 36 Russian attacks along the Pokrovsk frontline in the previous day, including in the area of Selydove, while several battles were still ongoing.

After Moscow's full-scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022 failed to seize the capital Kyiv and win a decisive victory, President Vladimir Putin scaled back his war ambitions to taking the old industrial heartland in Ukraine's east known as Donbas, which covers the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Last month Russian forces advanced there at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data, despite Ukraine taking a part of Russia's Kursk region.