General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: since the beginning of the day, there have been 144 skirmishes at the front, a third of them in the Pokrovsky direction

Since the beginning of this day, there have been 144 combat clashes at the front, a third of them in the Pokrovsky direction, reports the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the headquarters, in the Pokrovsky direction, Russian units tried 49 times to break through the Ukrainian defenses in the areas of the settlements of Shakhove, Nove Shakhove, Chervyn Liman, Myrnograd, Novoeconomichne, Rodynske, Lysivka, Novopavlivka, Pokrovsk, Zvirove, Udachne, Molodetske, Novomykolaivka, Novoukrainka, Dachne. In five locations, fighting continues until now.

The General Staff also reports that in the Slavyansk direction, the Defense Forces repelled 13 enemy attacks near Serebryanka, Vyimka, Pereizny, Siversk, and in the direction of Dronivka, and in the Oleksandrivsk direction, Russian forces attacked 15 times in the direction of Yegorivka, Novoivanivka, Yalta, Sosnivka, Stepove, Verbove, Novogrihorivka.

The enemy continues its attacks in the North-Slobozhansk and Kursk, South-Slobozhansk, Kupyansk, Lymansk, Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivsk, Gulyaipilsk, Orihiv and Dnieper directions.

The co-founder and analyst of the DeepState platform, Roman Pohorily, said on Radio Svoboda (Svoboda Live program) that Russian troops are gradually entering Pokrovsk and the situation around Mirnograd is becoming more and more dangerous. According to him, the enemy already has the opportunity to accumulate forces directly in the city, gradually “absorbing” Pokrovsk.

“If they take Pokrovsk, it will be a disaster, a complete disaster, because everyone who is there will simply remain there, and they will not be able to get out of there normally,” said Pohorily, adding that the encirclement does not mean a ring, but the effect of fire, when the enemy controls movement, blocks rotations, logistics.

According to the Institute of War Research, Russian troops continue to advance in the Pokrovsky direction and operate “with increasing comfort” inside the city itself. At the same time, Ukrainian troops continue defensive efforts and counterattacks in the Pokrovsky direction, and also liberated a significant part of the territory, where the Russian troops penetrated, in the Dobropilsky direction.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said on November 3 that the Ukrainian military is increasing the pressure on the Dobropil ledge. According to him, this forces the Russian army to scatter its forces and makes it impossible to concentrate the main efforts in the Pokrovsk region.

The Pokrovsky direction accounts for about a third of all combat operations on the front, as well as 50% of all uses of guided aerial bombs by Russian troops, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

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.