General Staff: there were 223 combat clashes at the front during the day

During the past day, 223 combat clashes took place at the front, the largest of which was in the Pokrovsky direction, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in the morning briefing on December 22.

“On the Pokrovsky direction, 57 combat clashes took place in the areas of the settlements of Shakhove, Rodynske, Suhetske, Pokrovsk, Kotlyna, Udachne, Molodetske, Filia and in the direction of Hryshny, Dorozhny, Novopodgorodne, Sergiyvka, Novy Shakhovy, and Novopavlivka,” the message reads.

In addition, according to the command, Russian forces carried out 27 attacks in the Konstantinov direction. Fighting also continued in the North-Slobozhansk and Kursk, South-Slobozhansk, Kupyansk, Lymansk, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Oleksandrivsk, Gulyaipilsk, Orihiv, Prydniprovsk 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.