President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Pokrovsk remains the hottest spot on the front after a briefing by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky.
Pokrovsk is a Ukrainian stronghold in the Donetsk region that has come under intensified Russian assaults in recent weeks, particularly before the US-Russia Alaska summit on Aug. 15.
Kyiv troops had recovered much of the lost ground when Moscow troops attempted to encircle the city via the city Dobropillia from the north.
Zelensky wrote on X that Russia is “concentrating its greatest efforts” in Pokrovsk but reassured that the situation remains under control.
The president then went on to highlight the significant losses of Russian troops in 2025, which he places at 290,000 troops, deaths and wounded combined.
“Our units continue to carry out their assigned tasks in the Donetsk region and methodically destroy the occupier. Across the front, in just the first eight months of this year, the Russians have lost more than 290,000 soldiers killed and severely wounded,” Zelensky wrote.
Zelensky said Russia’s losses are heavily concentrated in the Donetsk region – one of the regions Moscow demands Kyiv cede for peace talks – where he noted Russia has “[failed] to achieve any of their strategic objectives.”
The remarks can be read as a rebuke to suggestions that Kyiv should cede the Donetsk region for peace, which would hand Moscow one of its stated war goals without further losses or major concessions elsewhere in occupied Ukraine.
Russia has reportedly demanded that Ukraine fully cede the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, freeze frontlines in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and meanwhile offered to withdraw from the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in return.
As of Aug. 13, Russia controls 99% of Luhansk, 75% of Donetsk, 73% of Zaporizhzhia, 69% of Kherson, 4% of Kharkiv and under 1% of Sumy – meaning Moscow gives up peanuts for a region it has thus far failed to capture despite mounting losses.
In Zelensky’s Sunday X update, he also touched on defenses in the Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Sumy regions, noting that Kyiv would “continue our active operations in exactly the way needed for Ukraine’s defense.”
Zelensky also praised several units for their defense.
“Following the results of combat operations this week, I would like to commend the 1st, 33rd, 225th, and 425th Assault Regiments; the 79th and 82nd Air Assault Brigades; the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade; the 414th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade; the 14th Rapid Response Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine; and the Special Operations Forces units,” Zelensky wrote.
“Thank you all, warriors! Glory to Ukraine!” he added.