Ukraine’s military intelligence service said its special forces would continue operations against Russian troops in the embattled eastern city of Pokrovsk.

HUR said its “Timur” special unit was operating in the strategically important logistics hub and that intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov was also present in the city.

“Heavy fighting is taking place with the Russian occupiers,” the intelligence service said in its statement.

Other special units were involved in the fighting, seeking to prevent the fall of the industrial city, the agency said, adding that it was withholding details for security reasons.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed last week that a Ukrainian special forces unit had been “destroyed” after landing in Pokrovsk by helicopter.

The Ukrainian commandos had reportedly been deployed to secure supply routes to the city amid the deteriorating situation for troops.

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, rejected Russia’s claim that Ukrainian troops had been encircled there.

On Monday, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had repelled several Ukrainian attacks in Pokrovsk, where street battles are ongoing.

Moscow has waged for months a costly campaign to capture the former mining city in the Donbass region, which had around 60,000 residents before the war.

The battlefield claimed that neither side could be independently verified.

Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion for more than three and a half years. 

(dpa/NAN)