Ukraine’s forces in the Kramatorsk sector are holding Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region despite Russian claims of its capture, repelling 56 attacks in the Pokrovsk sector over the past 24 hours, according to military officials on Thursday.
The Azov Corps reported 151 Russian troops killed over the last two days in that sector.
Sr. Sgt. Yuriy Syrotyuk of the 5th Assault Brigade’s Fire Support Company said on national TV: “We are now in the Chasiv Yar sector, where Putin personally claimed the town was taken. In reality, the enemy has been unsuccessfully trying to capture this small town since 2023, when fewer than 10,000 people lived here.”
On July 31, Russia’s Ministry of Defense also announced the “capture” of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, but Ukraine quickly refuted the claim.
According to Syrotyuk, the fighting is intense, but Russian troops have made no strategic gains.
He said that Russian troops are operating in small infantry groups, attempting to infiltrate Ukrainian positions, plant flags, and use these staged moments for propaganda purposes.
“Sometimes one or two enemy soldiers slip behind our lines, put up a flag, and declare another town captured. This is not true. The situation is difficult, but the front has not been broken. Ukrainian society should not be misled by such reports,” Syrotyuk added.
The spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff, Major Andriy Kovalev, told RBC-Ukraine that the situation in the Dobropillya sector north of Pokrovsk is stabilizing following recent reports of major Russian advances.
“The Defense Forces are taking all necessary measures to detect and eliminate Russian groups. Additional forces and resources have been deployed to strengthen the defense in the Dobropillya and Pokrovsk sectors,” Kovalev said.
Kovalev said that during operations by the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine “Azov” and cooperating units, Russians suffered significant losses.
Over the past two days in the Pokrovsk sector alone, Azov reportedly eliminated 151 Russian soldiers, wounding more than 70 and capturing 8 prisoners.
Azov posted a combat video on Telegram on Thursday, Aug. 14, with the caption:
“The game of hide-and-seek in the Pokrovsk sector continues. The rules are simple: the occupier hides, we find him and destroy him.”
Previously, Ukrainian open-source battlefield map DeepState reported active Russian advances between Dobropillya and Druzhkivka north of Pokrovsk, warning that Dobropillya could come under threat of capture before Pokrovsk if the current pace continues.
The General Staff acknowledged the challenging situation but said that isolated incursions by small Russian groups do not amount to territorial control.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is using limited tactical gains near Dobropillya to influence the upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where the two are set to discuss a potential end or halt to Moscow’s invasion.
In Pokrovsk, where 1,327 civilians remain, the front line is barely a kilometer away. Donetsk Regional Military Administration (OVA) head Vadym Filashkin warned via Telegram on Wednesday that evacuation is nearly impossible without military support.
“The enemy is targeting nearly all access roads with fiber-optic-guided [first-person view] FPV drones, leaving many people injured. At this point, leaving is only possible with military assistance,” he said.
Before the escalation, residents were repeatedly urged to evacuate, but some chose to remain, Filashkin added.
In the Orikhiv sector, Ukraine’s 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade reported via Facebook on Wednesday, Aug. 13, that it had repelled a three-hour Russian assault.
Ukraine’s 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade reported destroying a tank, four buggies, and four motorcycles, eliminating 16 Russian soldiers and wounding 10 more while damaging an infantry fighting vehicle and an armored vehicle.
According to the General Staff’s Thursday morning report, Ukrainian forces repelled 56 Russian attacks in the Pokrovsk sector in the past 24 hours, out of 148 total combat clashes along the front.
Russian forces also launched two missiles and 87 air strikes on Ukrainian positions, dropping 154 guided aerial bombs. Moscow’s forces also conducted 5,758 other attacks, including 82 using multiple launch rocket systems.
“In the Pokrovsk sector, our defenders stopped enemy assaults near Volodymyrivka, Nykanorivka, Chervonyi Lyman, Novoekonomichne, Rodynske, Promin, Chunyshyn, Zvirove, Kotlyne, Udachne, Horikhove, Novoukrainka and Dachne,” the report said, referring to settlements in the area under Russian assaults.
As reported by Kyiv Post on Aug.12, Russia’s armed forces have pushed deep behind Ukrainian lines in the war’s hottest sector near Pokrovsk, in what some observers call Moscow’s most significant breakthrough in a year.
Ukrainian and Russian sources reported that small infantry groups without tanks or armored vehicles advanced at least 10 kilometers (6 miles) – and possibly up to 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) – north of Pokrovsk, reaching the outskirts of Dobropillya.
Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed on Tuesday that infiltrating Russian troops had moved past the first line of defense, but said their numbers were too small to hold ground and that reserves were being deployed to contain them.
Joint Forces Dnipro spokesman Viktor Trehubov said on the same day that these were “groups of 10 to 15 people,” who were unable to seize territory.
But DeepState painted a grimmer picture, reporting that Russian troops had cut the Dobropillya-Pokrovsk highway, dug in around several villages, and were attempting to secure footholds in others.
Amid the Russian gains, retired Azov officer Bohdan Krotevych accused military leadership of ignoring weeks of warnings about undermanned defenses, warning of a potential collapse of the Pokrovsk salient.
Popular milblogger, junior sergeant of the 24th Aidar Assault Battalion, Stanislav Bunyatov, described the situation in the Druzhkivka sector as “really terrible,” calling the breakthrough the result of a “systemic problem” and delayed reactions to clear warning signs.