Ukraine Map Shows Russia Claiming Key Village in Donbas Push

Russian forces are making gains southeast of the logistics hub of Pokrovsk, it has been reported, and maps show the latest state of play on the Donetsk front.

Geolocated footage showed that Russian troops had raised a Russian flag over a city municipal building in Selydove, which is around 11 miles from Pokrovsk where Moscow troops continue to make advances.

As a key logistics hub, Pokrovsk has been a focus for the Kremlin’s goals to totally capture the Donbas region which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. There have been reports of steady Moscow gains in that part of the front, particularly since Ukraine’s August incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

Russian military bloggers said that Moscow’s forces had seized and are clearing the entirety of Selydove, although Washington-based research group the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said it has not yet seen confirmation of Russian forces operating in the west of the town.

“The cleansing of the city is nearing completion!” posted Telegram channel Voenkori as it said that Russian troops “stormed” the city and that Ukrainian troops “fled across the river and to Grigorovka.”

“It is already ours in fact, you just need to share the joy of liberation with the guys who are working there,” posted Paratrooper’s Diary, another milblogger.

The ISW’s latest map on Sunday highlighted some of these reported Russian gains. These included in and around Selydove as well as Russian claims that Moscow had captured Oleksandropil and Hirnyk on Saturday, further south.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.

The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces attacked east and southeast of Pokrovsk over the weekend, although it insisted that Kyiv’s troops “are holding down the pressure and have so far repelled ten attacks of the opponent.”

“The situation on the front line remains tense,” the Ukrainian military said on Facebook on Sunday, according to a translation, “the enemy, despite the significant losses inflicted to him by our defenders, continues to try to break through Ukrainian defenses.”

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian open-source intelligence X account DeepState posted a map which showed that Russia has captured most of Selydove and advanced west of the town, occupied Hirnyk, captured most of Bohoyavlivka, and occupied the area between Novoukrainka and Shakhtarsk.

“Russian advances have accelerated over the past week on the Selydove, Kurakhivka, and Vuhledar fronts,” wrote military analyst Rob Lee on X, formerly Twitter, next to the DeepState map he had shared.