Russia’s summer offensive in eastern Ukraine has zeroed in on Pokrovsk, one of the last major cities in the Donetsk region still held by Kyiv, as Moscow pushes to consolidate control of the entire area.

A city with a pre-war population of 60,000, Pokrovsk is located west of Avdiivka which fell to Russian forces in February 2024 and is a critical hub in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.

Russian forces are pushing hard to encircle the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south and east, and over 100,000 soldiers are trying to advance in the area,