Russia claimed on Monday that its armed forces have captured the city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, ahead of Tuesday’s discussion between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff.
According to a post on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel, Putin visited a command post late on Sunday where he was informed of the news.
“Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov announced the liberation of Krasnoarmeysk in the Donetsk People’s Republic as well as Volchansk in the Kharkov Region,” it reads.
Krasnoarmesyk and Volchansk are how Moscow refers to Pokrovsk and Vovchansk, in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions respectively. Russia launched its offensive against the key industrial and logistics hub of Pokrovsk almost a year ago.
Ukraine has yet to respond to the Kremlin’s claim that the cities have fallen. However, the post comes a day before US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to meet with Putin at the Kremlin.
Witkoff is set to discuss the revised version of a 28-point “peace” plan which Russian officials reportedly helped draft. In its original form, the plan would have seen Ukraine forswear NATO membership, cede territory, and limit the size of its armed forces.
The details of the final version, which Ukrainian and European negotiators have worked to make less unilaterally favorable to Russia over the past week, have not yet been made known.
According to the most recent report by the Institute for the Study of War, Russia’s victory on the battlefield is “neither imminent nor inevitable.”
“The Kremlin continues to advance a false narrative that Ukraine’s front line and political stability are on the verge of collapse in an effort to convince the West to capitulate to Russian demands that Russia cannot secure militarily,” the report reads.
Also on Monday, Ukraine’s Third Army Corps disputed Russia’s claim to have captured two villages near Lyman, Donetsk region, on Nov. 21. The Corps described the claim as “another information manipulation,” and said that Russian troops were reporting “fictional achievements to appease their superiors.”