KYIV: Russian forces knocked out power and water to a rail hub in northern Ukraine and severed water supplies to the eastern town of Pokrovsk on Thursday, causing disruption behind front lines as they try to advance on the battlefield.

More than two years since Russia’s invasion, the war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture, with Moscow regularly pounding Ukrainian infrastructure as its troops try to complete the capture of the whole of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

The United States accuses Iran of supplying hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia. Moscow has warned the West against greenlighting deep strikes into Russian territory with Western weapons, warning it would respond.

Russian forces have been gaining ground in parts of eastern Ukraine including Pokrovsk, whose capture could enable Moscow to open up new lines of attack and complicate Ukrainian logistics in the east.

Donetsk’s regional governor said a filtering station had stopped working because of heavy fighting, severing the water supply to Pokrovsk. He said it would be impossible to fix soon and renewed calls to civilians to flee the town.

“The situation is difficult and it won’t get better soon. So I again call on you to evacuate” the official wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

The town, which straddles several important roads that pass through the Donetsk region and has a rail line, has also lost supply of electricity and gas used for cooking and heating.

Russian momentum has slowed in the areas nearest Pokrovsk, but Moscow’s forces have pressed south from that line of attack, closing in on the nearby town of Ukrainsk.

Ukraine’s military said their forces on the nearby Kurakhiv front, which includes Ukrainsk, were continuing to hold back Moscow’s troops. Russia tried to break through Kyiv’s lines in the area 23 times over the last day, it said.

Duelling fronts

After months on the back foot in the east, Kyiv’s forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last month, rapidly making progress in an attempt to seize the initiative in the war and divert Russian forces from the east.

Russia has kept up its offensive pressure in the east though, and a Russian commander said on Wednesday his forces had taken back control of 10 settlements in Kursk region in a counterattack.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2024