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By Dan Peleschuk
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian forces are struggling to fend off intensifying Russian advances on the eastern city of Pokrovsk, the military and open-source analysts said on Wednesday.
Moscow's troops have in recent weeks closed in on the key logistics hub after more than a year of grinding advances, which Kyiv says have come at a staggering human cost to Russia.
In a statement, Ukraine's 7th Corps said Russian forces had deployed some 11,000 troops in an attempt to encircle the greater Pokrovsk area.
Enemy groups that had already infiltrated the city were attempting to push further north and northwest, it said.
'MOST DIFFICULT' SITUATION: ZELENSKIY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the situation around Pokrovsk was "the most difficult" along the 1,250-km (775-mile) front line.
"As in previous weeks, this is the area with the most intensive combat activity, with a strong concentration of Russian forces," Zelenskiy said after a discussion with Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
He said the situation around the northeastern city of Kupiansk "remains difficult, but our forces have more control in recent days. We are continuing to defend our positions."
Zelenskiy this week said around 200 Russian troops were in various parts of Pokrovsk, whose capture he said would be critical for Moscow to demonstrate it has the upper hand on the battlefield.
Capturing Pokrovsk, as well as Kostiantynivka to its northeast, would give Moscow a platform to drive towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk.
Also on Wednesday, Ukrainian open-source group DeepState said Russia has been able to break a military logistics route to the neighbouring city of Myrnohrad through infantry ambushes and drone attacks.
It warned that Ukraine would need to deploy a brigade-level force, rather than smaller units, to block further Russian infiltration of Pokrovsk.
"The situation in Pokrovsk is on the verge of critical and continues to deteriorate to the point that fixing everything may be too late," the group said.
It also posted what it said was footage of Ukrainian forces destroying a Russian flag that had been briefly hoisted over the city gates.
In a later update, DeepState said Russian forces were trying to infiltrate Pokrovsk and a nearby village in small groups. Russian troops, it said, had taken advantage of bad weather and identified gaps in Ukrainian defences.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Ukrainian forces were surrounded in Pokrovsk and in Kupiansk.
Ukraine's military rejected the claim about Kupiansk as "fantasies" and said Pokrovsk had not been blockaded, adding that supply lines in the area remained intact.
Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield reports from either side.
ZELENSKIY SAYS RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN FALTERING
Moscow has stepped up a battlefield offensive amid a stalled U.S.-led diplomatic effort to end the war, now well into its fourth year after Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion.
The Kremlin has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine cede its entire Donbas region, where Pokrovsk is located, as a precondition for peace talks - something Kyiv has rejected.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Zelenskiy said Russia's year-long effort to capture Pokrovsk showed that it was unable to accomplish its goal of militarily seizing the rest of the region.
"That's why the fact that we hold Pokrovsk and that they continue to put off the plans for their (wider) campaign proves to the world that they are lying."
(Additional reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; editing by Gareth Jones, Ros Russell, Mark Heinrich, Ron Popeski, Rod Nickel)
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