Russia said on Wednesday that its forces were advancing north inside the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and clearing out Kyiv’s troops in a drive to take full control of what has been an important transport and logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.

Over the past five months, Russians have conducted targeted battlefield air interdiction operations aimed at reducing Ukraine's defensive and logistical capabilities near Pokrovsk. Russian advances in the Pokrovsk sector were largely enabled by attacks on Ukrainian drone launch capabilities,

Pokrovsk is the latest in a string of grueling urban battles between Ukraine and Russia since the start of the war and bears hallmarks of the bloody fighting for Bakhmut and Avdiivka earlier. Moscow now occupies both cities, which were effectively reduced to rubble.

Oleksandr Syrskyi says special forces have been deployed but denies Russian reports Ukrainian troops are surrounded in Pokrovsk.

Today, Ukrainian military officials briefed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the situation at the front, with a focus on the Pokrovsk direction. "There are results in destroying the enemy. I want to specially commend the units of the 79th Separate Air Assault Brigade,

By Ben Aris in Berlin The battle for Pokrovsk became intense on November 1. In the first part of the day it looked like the fall of the key logistics hub to Russia that could end the war was imminent.

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy reported approximately 170,000 Russian troops are in Donetsk, intensifying efforts to capture Pokrovsk, though he denied the city is fully surrounded. Meanwhile, Ukraine continues long-range strikes on Russian oil infrastructure,

Vladimir Putin has announced a successful test of a Poseidon nuclear-powered submarine torpedo which experts have warned is capable of causing a “radioactive tsunami”. The Russian president said the test of the weapon had been a “great success”,