“Since the beginning of the day on December 19, 52 combat clashes have been recorded at the front, most of them in the Kostyantyniv and Pokrovsky directions in the Donetsk region, where Russian troops are trying to break through the defense of the Armed Forces”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“Today, the communities of border settlements, including Volfine, Ryzhivka, Rogizne, Bezsalivka, Iskryskivshchyna, Boyaro-Lezhachi of the Sumy region, were affected by enemy artillery fire,” the report says as of 4:00 p.m.
Almost half of the battles were recorded in two directions in the Donetsk region – the Kostyantyniv and Pokrovsky directions.
“In the direction of Kostyantynivka, the enemy carried out 15 assaults in the areas of the settlements of Kleban-Byk, Oleksandro-Shultyne and towards Pleshchiivka, Novopavlivka, Ivanopil and Sofiivka. Three clashes are currently ongoing.
In the Pokrovsky direction, the Russian invaders made 10 attempts to dislodge our defenders from their occupied positions in the areas of Rodynske, Zvirove, Kotlyna, Udachne settlements and in the direction of Novopodgorodny – they were unsuccessful,” the message states.
Fighting also continued in the North-Slobozhansk and Kursk, South-Slobozhansk, Kupyansk, Lymansk, Slavyansk, Oleksandrivsk and Gulyaipil directions.
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.