Russia’s top military commander, General Valery Gerasimov, asserted on Tuesday that Russian forces were advancing along the entire front line in Ukraine and were targeting Ukrainian troops reportedly encircled in the town of Myrnohrad.
Speaking during a command post briefing with officers of the Centre Grouping operating in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Gerasimov said President Vladimir Putin had ordered the defeat of Ukrainian forces in Myrnohrad — a town of roughly 46,000 pre-war residents located east of Pokrovsk.
According to Gerasimov, Russian troops have taken control of more than 30% of Myrnohrad’s buildings.
Moscow, which refers to the nearby city of Pokrovsk by its Soviet-era name Krasnoarmeysk, claims to have captured the entire city and encircled Ukrainian forces in Myrnohrad, known in Russia as Dimitrov.
However, Kyiv has repeatedly rejected these assertions, insisting that Ukrainian forces continue to hold parts of Pokrovsk and are actively resisting in Myrnohrad.
Russia currently controls about 19.2% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea annexed in 2014, all of Luhansk, more than 80% of Donetsk, roughly 75% of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and small pockets of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Ukraine maintains that its defensive positions remain intact and that Russia is suffering significant losses for what officials describe as “modest territorial gains.”
Last week, President Putin said Russia would seize full control of the Donbas region by force unless Ukrainian troops withdraw — a demand Ukraine has firmly rejected.
