Ukraine smashes back Russian push across railway | Political News

Ukrainian forces are persevering with to maintain defensive strains in the northern half of Pokrovsk and have maintained control over positions south of a essential railway line, the Ukrainian Air bodily assault Forces said Friday.

Russian troops have tried to cross the railway line — which Kyiv says is key for future liberation operations — to broaden the world of town that they control, but Ukrainian forces have stopped them. “Enemy forces in Pokrovsk are being ground down,” the 76th Rapid Response Corps said on Telegram.

“As a result, the enemy is forced to replenish its manpower losses. Russian command has already committed the ‘Center’ operational reserve in our sector of responsibility,” the corps wrote. The ongoing resistance to Russian expansion comes as President Donald Trump has demanded in his latest plan to end the war that Ukraine agree to several of the Kremlin’s terms, including land cession.

The corps said that as Russia is sending in reserves, Ukraine is steadily increasing its forces in the area, including drone crews, to strengthen its defensive positioning and block routes to Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk is no longer just a battlefield for territory, but also a key setting intended to influence U.S. perceptions and sway the course of peace negotiations, analysts say, according to The Associated Press.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims his forces are on the cusp of winning. As a prerequisite for peace, he demands that Ukraine cede the Donbas, made up of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, one of his key war aims.

Zelensky, faced with U.S. pressure at times to accept Putin’s conditions, has sought to show Trump Russia is not winning. Armed with maps of the front line, Zelensky has softened Trump’s ever-shifting stances.

“Imagine how many Russian forces there are. But at the same time, they do not have the planned result. In my opinion, they do not have such a result that they can ‘sell’ to the Americans,” said Zelensky at a briefing with reporters last week, when around 200 Russian troopers breached Pokrovsk’s defenses.

“We understand why they need Pokrovsk. They only need it to say – look, after all, the idea that Ukraine leaves the east and gives everything else that they want is the only possible one, otherwise they will supposedly capture more,” he said.

Despite Zelensky’s bullish evaluation, the loss of Pokrovsk can be very damaging for Ukraine, said Peter Dickinson, Ukraine editor at the Atlantic Council assume tank in the U.S.

“Trump does not like losers … he likes to be with the winners … This will be portrayed by the Russians as a major victory,” he said.

If Pokrovsk falls, it might pave the way in which for Russia to take the remaining of the Donbas. But those advances, just like the battle for Pokrovsk, will take time and come at huge price in manpower and navy tools.

“What this means politically, of course: Russia will beat the drum that they’ve achieved a big victory … And they will say, look, we can take all of Donbas but in how long and at what cost? They will not say,” Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at the Chatham House assume tank in London.

Dickinson said most of the logistics around Pokrovsk, such as roads and railways, have been destroyed, and town is no longer as strategically precious to the Ukrainians as it was.

“It’s primarily a propaganda victory, a symbolic victory, a sort of psychological victory, perhaps, for the Russians. They need to be able to show that – Putin desperately needs to be able to show that they’re making progress,” he said.