“Since the beginning of December 30, 142 combat clashes have been recorded at the front, most of them in the Pokrovsky and Gulyaipil directions, reports the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“The enemy launched three missile and 34 air strikes, using three missiles and dropping 101 guided aerial bombs, carried out 2,574 shelling and 2,759 kamikaze drone strikes,” the summary said as of 10:00 p.m.
Most of the fighting was recorded in the Pokrovsky direction in Donetsk and in the Gulyaipil direction in Zaporizhzhia region.
“During the day, in the Pokrovsky direction, the aggressor carried out 28 assault and offensive actions in the areas of the settlements of Rodynske, Chervyn Lyman, Rivne, Pokrovsk, Myrnograd, Udachne, Molodetske, Filia and in the direction of the settlements of Sukhetske, Hryshyne, and Novopavlivka. Battles are currently taking place in three locations.
In the Gulyaipil direction, 22 combat clashes were recorded in the areas of the settlements of Solodke, Gulyaipole Biloghirya and in the direction of Varvarivka, two combat clashes are still ongoing. Zaliznychne, Boykove, and Svyatpetrivka were hit by enemy airstrikes,” the message states.
Fighting also continued in the South-Slobozhansk, Kupyansk, Lymansk, Slavyansk, Kostiantynivsk, Oleksandrivsk, and Prydniprovsk directions.
Read also: Muzhenko explained the importance of the struggle for Pokrovsk and Kupyansk
On December 17, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that the enemy had increased the group to the number of about 710,000 soldiers in order to conduct a strategic offensive operation.
According to him, Russian troops have been trying to capture Pokrovsk for more than 17 months, but Ukrainian units are holding the defense and intercepting the initiative.
Pokrovsk – a city with a population of about 1,250 people (estimated by the local authorities at the end of October, before the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation – more than 60,000) – is an important road and railway junction and was under threat of encirclement by Russian troops for most of the year.