Ukraine’s losses outweigh Kursk gains, as Russia on cusp of taking key town

Ukraine’s diversion of troops for the Kursk attack has left parts of Donetsk vulnerable, say analysts. And Pokrovsk could fall soon to Russia.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Svitlana Menyaylo doesn’t want to hear a word about the success of Ukrainian forces in the western Russian region of Kursk.

Since August 6, Ukrainian soldiers have occupied dozens of Russian villages on more than 1,000 square kilometres (620 square miles) and are digging in to repel an imminent Russian counteroffensive.

But for Menyaylo, a seamstress from the besieged town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the very presence of Ukrainian troops in Kursk feels like treason.

Pokrovsk, the administrative centre of a heavily industrialised agglomeration with a pre-war population of almost 400,000, is likely to be taken over by advancing Russian troops soon.

They are less than 10km (6 miles) east of it – and keep inching in every minute after months of heavy bombardment and “meat marches”, frontal attacks on Ukrainian positions that have cost Russian generals tens of thousands of servicemen.