Ukraine reports heavy fighting on eastern front after Russia incursion

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine said there was no sign Russian military pressure was receding along the eastern front inside its borders on Thursday, more than a week after its incursion into Russia, and reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.

Ukraine launched a major assault into Russia’s Kursk region on Aug. 6, carving out a strip of land in what military analysts have said is, in part, an attempt to divert Russian reserve forces to act as reinforcements.

Military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy said Russia had moved some troops from Ukraine’s occupied south to other areas, but that it had not constituted a big redeployment for now.

“No significant changes in the size of the group were detected, and the number of the personnel is not changing enough to indicate any differences or weakening in … hostilities,” Lykhoviy said on national television.

Serhiy Tsehotskiy, an officer with the 59th Motorized Brigade, said there had been no letup in Russian pressure in the partially-occupied Donetsk region where Russia has concentrated its attacks for months.

“The enemy, despite what is happening on the territory of Russia, is still… keeping the bulk of its troops in this direction and trying to achieve success,” Tsehotskiy said on national television.

Russian forces had used all its available reserves in the eastern Donetsk region and had “truly pressured” Ukraine there, he said.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said there had been 58 battles between Kyiv and Moscow’s forces on the front near the Kyiv-controlled logistics city of Pokrovsk, the most it has reported on any single day this month.

The head of the Pokrovsk military administration Serhiy Dobriak appealed to locals to evacuate.

“The enemy has come almost right up to the city of Pokrovsk. Just over 10 kilometers from the outskirts of the city,” he said on Telegram.

DeepState, a popular Ukrainian military blog, reported Russian advances in the villages of Zhelanne and Orlivka on Ukraine’s eastern front late on Wednesday.