6 kilometers away.. The Russian army is approaching Ukrainian Pokrovsk

Russian Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov inspected his units fighting to control the pivotal city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, the Russian army announced on Tuesday.

A statement issued by the Russian Ministry of Defense stated, “The Chief of Staff inspected an armored battalion and a mechanized infantry battalion in the central forces grouping that is performing combat missions towards Krasnoarmeysk,” according to the Russian name for Pokrovsk.

A video recording broadcast by the ministry showed Gerasimov’s helicopter flying over an area where the battles had caused widespread destruction.

The recordings also showed a road taken by military vehicles and the Chief of Staff awarding medals to soldiers at an army command center.

Russian advance on Pokrovsk

Russian forces are now only a few kilometers from Pokrovsk, and have occupied the southern and eastern sides of this city, a hub for supplies to the Ukrainian army and the coal industry as well.

Its fall into the hands of the Russians may facilitate their advance towards the large city of Dnipro in the region of the same name in the vicinity of Donetsk.

If Russian forces enter Dnipro, they will achieve a precedent since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, and Russian forces are now at a distance of 6 kilometers from its administrative borders.

For their part, Ukrainian forces have been retreating for months in eastern Ukraine, especially in the Pokrovsk region, in the face of a more equipped and numerous Russian army.

72 Russian marches were shot down

The Ukrainian Air Force announced, in a statement via the Telegram application, on Tuesday, that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 72 out of 131 drones launched by Russia on Ukrainian territory last night.
The statement said that Russian forces launched attacks on Ukraine, during the night, using 131 Shahed drones, and other decoy models, launched from the Russian regions of Millerovo, Oryol, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk.
In addition to 4 “Iskander-M” ballistic missiles launched from the Voronezh region, according to the Ukrainian National News Agency “Ukrinform”.
The statement reported that the attack was repelled by air defense and aviation units, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire teams of the Ukrainian Air Force and Air Defense.