By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian forces are struggling to fend off intensifying Russian advances around 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.

‘ON THE VERGE OF CRITICAL’

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said around 200 Russian troops were in various parts of the city, whose

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