Russian forces advance towards Pokrovsk amid heavy casualties
Russian forces continue their advance in the Donetsk region, drawing closer to the city of Pokrovsk. On Friday, January 3, the Ukrainian OSINT project DeepState identified the settlements of Dachne, Novy Trud, and Volkove as captured. These areas lie approximately 5-6 kilometers south of Pokrovsk. A similar situation on the battlefield is depicted by the blog Liveuamap, while the official briefing of the Ukrainian General Staff reported ongoing battles for the village of Novy Trud.
Additionally, according to DeepState, Russian forces have made advances in the settlements of Zelenyy, Vozdvyzhenka, and Novovasilyevka, as well as near Yantarnyy and Solntsevka.
Ukrainian military reports claim that Russian casualties on the Pokrovsk front exceeded 300 soldiers killed and wounded on January 3. These figures cannot be independently verified.
Despite the significant losses, the Russian army continues to slowly push towards Pokrovsk. They have stopped attempts to capture the city with a frontal assault, opting instead to outflank it from the south. Russian forces are aiming to reach the administrative boundaries of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, annexed by Russia in September 2022. They are also nearing the administrative border of the Dnipropetrovsk region, which has not seen ground combat throughout the entirety of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.