Russia is “rapidly approaching” a key military hub in eastern Ukraine, a local official has said, as Moscow continues its advances despite Kyiv’s surprise gains in its enemy’s Kursk region.

While Pokrovsk is not a major city – about 60,000 people lived there before the war and many have left since the start of the full-scale invasion – it serves as a key hub for the Ukrainian military thanks to its easy access to Kostiantynivka, another military center.

Ukrainian troops use the road connecting the two to resupply the front lines and evacuate casualties toward Dnipro.

Serhii Dobriak, head of the Pokrovsk city military administration, urged the community there to evacuate without delay.

“The enemy is rapidly approaching the outskirts of Pokrovsk,” he said in a Telegram post on Thursday.

His warning is proof that Moscow has not relented in its attack on other parts of Ukraine, despite Kyiv’s successful incursion across the border over the past week, a major development after two-and-a-half years of open conflict.

Ukraine said it has captured more than 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory since the start of its surprise assault, forcing tens of thousands of Russians from their homes.

On Friday, Russia’s foreign ministry said Ukraine had used Western rockets for the first time to destroy a bridge over the Seym river in the Kursk region, adding the strike killed volunteers trying to evacuate civilians.

HIMARS, or the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, has perhaps been the most revered and feared piece of weaponry in Ukraine’s fight and since arriving have helped Ukraine to take back significant swaths of territory from Russia.

Ukraine has used US weaponry and vehicles as part of its push into Russian territory, according to US officials, even though the Biden administration did put boundaries on the use of US weaponry in Russia.

Ukraine officials said its military, already some 35 kilometers into Russian territory, is still advancing “in some areas from 1 to 3 kilometers,” on Friday.

Russia appears to have diverted several thousand troops from frontline fighting in occupied Ukraine in order to address the territorial loss in the Kursk region.

But according to Dobriak, the enemy is “almost right up close” to Pokrovsk, Ukraine’s key logistics and military hub that has become the focus of the Russian offensive in the Donetsk region.

“They are a bit more than 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) from the outskirts of Pokrovsk,” he said, adding that the situation “is only getting worse.”

For months, Russia has been stretching Ukrainian defenses across the entire front line, trying to capture as much territory as possible before new Ukrainian recruits and fresh batches of Western weapons start arriving on the battlefield.

The gains made by Russia have been largely incremental – the front line has barely moved in the past few months – but the recent advance toward Pokrovsk has Ukraine and its allies worried.

The city’s capture would bring Russian President Vladimir Putin closer to his goal of seizing all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Kostiantynivka is the southernmost part of a belt of four Ukrainian cities – with Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – that form the backbone of Ukraine’s defenses of the region, so any progress of Russian troops toward the city is significant.

Officer of Ukraine’s 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade Serhii Tsehotskyi told Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspilne on Friday that Ukraine’s incursion into Russia had not led to a decrease in Moscow’s attacks in the Donetsk region.

He said Russian attempts to advance do not stop “for a minute,” and “the battles continue around the clock.”

“Taking into consideration the events in the Kursk region, they (the Russian forces) are trying to do everything in order to be successful at least somewhere,” he said.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi acknowledged Friday that “intense fighting” is taking place in the cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Thursday that Russian forces are “maintaining their relatively high offensive tempo” in Donetsk, “demonstrating that the Russian military command continues to prioritize advances in eastern Ukraine even as Ukraine is pressuring Russian forces within” the Kursk region.

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Ukraine's invasion of Russia is showing how good it is at hitting Putin's weak spots

• Ukraine knows how to exploit Russian President Vladimir Putin's weak spots.

• Its invasion of Kursk undermined Putin's image as a strongman protector of Russian security.

• The attacks have the potential to erode Russians' support for Putin, an expert said.

President Vladimir Putin's authority has long been founded on his image as an uncompromising defender of Russian security.

But Ukraine's audacious invasion of Russia's Kursk province, where its forces are still making advances more than a week into the incursion, badly dents that image.

In a televised meeting on Monday, Putin sought to reassert control, urging military officials to drive the invasion forces out of the country.

Some Russians who were forced to flee their homes because of the invasion blamed the Kremlin for not keeping them safe and for the information vacuum after the attack.

It's not the first time Ukraine has hit Russia's authoritarian leader where he's most vulnerable — undermining his image as the personification of Russian power and ruining his attempt to shield ordinary Russians from the consequences of his war.

"The Ukrainian military seems highly attuned to the political and symbolic dimensions of their attacks, often targeting symbols of Putin's power rather than focusing solely on military objectives," Maxim Alyukov, an expert on Russian politics at the University of Manchester in the UK, told Business Insider.

Ukraine targets symbols of Putin's power

Some of Ukraine's most notable triumphs in the war serve both a military and a psychological purpose.

In 2022 and again in 2023, Ukraine launched devastating attacks on the Kerch Strait Bridge that connects the occupied Crimea peninsula to mainland Russia.

The attacks destroyed parts of the 12-mile structure and led authorities to temporarily halt traffic on the bridge.

The bridge, which allows Russia to transport troops and equipment to the peninsula, was an important military target for Ukraine.

But it's also one of Putin's pet projects and among the most famous symbols of his power.

The Russian president personally opened the bridge in 2018, four years after Russia annexed Crimea, driving a truck across it and boasting that it was an achievement that had eluded his Soviet forbearers.

'"The construction of the bridge was a key part of the propaganda shaping Putin's image as a leader capable of completing grand projects and solidifying the annexation of Crimea," Alyukov said. "Therefore, Ukraine's attack on the bridge likely had both a military purpose and a political purpose to embarrass Putin and undermine his image domestically."

The Kursk incursion similarly has a symbolic and military purpose.

It undercuts Putin's power and the basis of his authority but also serves to divert Russian troops away from the front line in Ukraine. The territory seized could be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia.

Other attacks, Alyukov explained, are more symbolic in their ambition.

Ukraine has launched a series of long-range drone attacks on Russia, targeting military sites and gas depots — but also Putin's palatial private residences near Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In May, satellite images showed that Russia had diverted several air-defense systems to protect Putin's residence in Lake Valdai, north of Moscow.

A Ukrainian drone attack in 2023 struck the Kremlin itself, the Moscow fortress complex that's at the heart of Putin's political power.

"Drone attacks near the Kremlin are purely political and symbolic — they put pressure on the Russian public by demonstrating that the Ukrainian military can reach the heart of Russia, thereby undermining the perception that Putin has full control over the situation," Alyukov said.

Pro-Ukraine paramilitary groups have previously made more limited but still impactful raids over the Russian border.

Groups such as the Freedom of Russia Legion, which is made up of Russians opposed to Putin, have launched cross-border incursions in Belgorod and other parts of Russia bordering Ukraine.

The units typically cross the border, clash with Russian forces, and withdraw, temporarily seizing control of Russian villages before vanishing.

The aim of the attacks is, again, to puncture Putin's image as a strongman protector of Russia and bring the reality of the war home to ordinary Russians, Alyukov said.

Brian Whitmore, an expert on Russian politics at the University of Texas-Arlington and the host of the "Power Vertical" podcast, wrote in an article for the Atlantic Council in August that Putin's power is based on projecting strength.

"Its internal logic, processes, incentive structure, and behavior resemble those of a mafia family," he wrote of Putin's inner circle. "And the most destabilizing moment for a crime syndicate is when the mafia boss looks weak."

In comments last week on Telegram, the Russian military blogger Vladislav Shurygin said Ukraine's strategy was taking a psychological toll on Russia.

Ukraine, he said, was managing "to exhaust Russia with continuous unexpected strikes on sensitive infrastructure and the civilian population, provoking discontent, disappointment, and apathy."

Ukraine must maintain its momentum

In an authoritarian political system like Russia's, where Putin holds unchallenged power, attacks on the leader's image and authority can be uniquely damaging.

After decades of increasingly repressive rule under Putin, many Russians have become politically detached, according to a January survey by the Chicago Council on Public Affairs. Many don't actively support the war in Ukraine, viewing it as a conflict happening far away, with their knowledge of the conflict shaped by state propaganda, the survey said.

In exchange for their security, Russians have increasingly ceded control to Putin, Alyukov said. But attacks like the Kursk incursion have the potential to disrupt that balance — if Ukraine can keep up the pressure.

"Whether this balance will ultimately be shattered depends on the scale and duration of Ukrainian attacks and the nature of Russia's response," Alyukov said.

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Kremlin accuses the West of helping Ukraine attack Russia

An influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the West and the U.S.-led NATO alliance had helped to plan Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia's Kursk region, something Washington has denied.

The lightning incursion, the biggest into Russia by a foreign power since World War Two, began on Aug. 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for Putin's military.

Ukraine said the incursion was needed to force Russia, which sent its forces into Ukraine in February 2022, to start "fair" peace talks.

But the United States and Western powers, eager to avoid direct military confrontation with Russia, said Ukraine had not given advance notice and that Washington was not involved, though weaponry provided by Britain and the U.S. is reported to have been used on Russian soil.

Influential veteran Kremlin hawk Nikolai Patrushev dismissed the Western assertions in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.

"The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services," he was quoted as saying, without offering evidence.

"Without their participation and direct support, Kyiv would not have ventured into Russian territory."

The remarks implied that Ukraine's first acknowledged foray into sovereign Russian territory carried a high risk of escalation.

Putin chaired a meeting of Russia's Security Council, including Patrushev, and said the discussion would focus on "new technical solutions" being employed in what Russia calls its special military operation.

KREMLIN SAYS UKRAINE WILL PAY FOR US INVOLVEMENT

"Washington's efforts have created all the prerequisites for Ukraine to lose its sovereignty and lose part of its territories," Patrushev said.

Ukraine said on Thursday that it had installed a military commandant in the area it controlled, even as Russia intensified its offensives in Ukraine's east.

Russia's defence ministry for its part said it had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks along the Kursk frontline.

Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said Ukraine had destroyed a road bridge over the Seym river in the region's Glushkovsky district. State news agency TASS, citing Russian security officials, said that could hinder an ongoing evacuation of the frontier district's roughly 20,000 inhabitants.

While the Ukrainian attack has revealed weaknesses in Russian defences and changed the public narrative of the conflict, Russian officials said Ukraine's "terrorist invasion" would not change the course of the war.

Russia has been advancing for most of the year in the key eastern sector of the 1,000-km (620-mile) front and has vast numerical superiority. It controls 18% of Ukraine.

After more than 10 days of fighting, Ukraine holds at least 450 sq km (175 sq miles) of territory, or less than 0.003% of Russia. But for Putin, the incursion crosses another red line.

One Russian source told Reuters the incursion could embolden hardliners in Moscow who advocate a bigger war, but Putin's choice may not be easy.

He has sought to portray Europe's biggest war in seven decades both as a limited "special military operation" that need not upset daily Russian life and as a historic fight with a West that scorns Moscow's interests and seeks to dismember Russia.

The U.S., which has said it cannot allow Putin to win the Ukraine war, so far deems the surprise incursion a protective move that justifies the use of U.S. weaponry, officials in Washington said.

But they also expressed worries about complications as Ukrainian troops push further into enemy territory.

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if Ukraine started taking Russian villages and other non-military targets using U.S. weapons and vehicles, it could be seen as stretching the limits Washington has imposed, precisely to avoid any perception of a direct NATO-Russia conflict.

Russia's defence ministry has published footage that it said showed a Russian drone destroying a U.S.-made Stryker armoured combat vehicle in the Kursk region.

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Ukraine says over 100 Russian soldiers surrendered in one go after being abandoned by their commanders in Kursk

• Ukraine said it seized 102 Russian soldiers on Wednesday in a single sweep in Kursk.

• Ukraine posted a video of dozens of prisoners, saying they surrendered after their commanders fled.

• Ukrainian intelligence told local media that its special forces had seized a fortified Russian base in Kursk that day.

Ukraine said that its forces in Kursk captured 102 Russian soldiers in one sitting on Wednesday, marking the largest group it's taken prisoner since the war began.

The "I Want to Live" project, run by Ukrainian intelligence, uploaded a video on Thursday of dozens of uniformed men lying on their stomachs next to a road.

They had "made the right decision and surrendered," wrote the agency, which aims to persuade Russian troops to defect or desert.

A caption for the video said the Russian soldiers had been abandoned by the commanders, alleging that the latter fled to avoid capture themselves.

More footage posted on Thursday by the agency showed a large number of blindfolded men held in a tunnel by Ukrainian troops.

"I Want to Live" said the soldiers had been from Russia's 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment and Chechen special forces.

Ukrainian media cited an unnamed source from Ukraine's intelligence services who said that the agency's special forces unit had stormed a "concreted and well-fortified" Russian base in Kursk.

The Kremlin fitted the stronghold with underground communications, personal quarters, a canteen, an armory, and a bathhouse, Ukrainian media outlet Pravda reported.

The reports come as Ukraine's commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a briefing on Wednesday that over 100 Russian troops had been captured that day.

Dmytro Lubinets, the human rights commissioner of Ukraine's parliament, said on Thursday that Russia had initiated prisoner exchange talks.

That would be a notable shift from Russia's position in May, when its human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, said that exchanges with Ukraine had been blocked for several months.

At the time, she blamed Kyiv for what she called "far-fetched demands." Moskalkova has not confirmed whether Russia has returned to the negotiating table.

Ukraine hasn't officially said exactly how many Russian troops it's taken captive since it launched its surprise attack on August 6, but told the Financial Times that the number is in the "hundreds."

Kyiv said a large number of its prisoners taken in Kursk were Russian conscripts — young men made to serve a year of mandatory military service — bringing into question Russian leader Vladimir Putin's vow not to send any of them into direct combat.

The "I Want to Live" project has repeatedly posted videos of Russian prisoners of war seized in Kursk, including footage of what it said were blindfolded Chechen troops.

Ukraine claimed on Monday to have seized nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory in a matter of days. It said later that it had pushed further into Kursk and taken full control of the town of Sudzha.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has claimed since the early days of the incursion that it's stopped Ukraine's advance and is working to force Kyiv's troops back to the border.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular 

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Russian missile sparks blaze in Ukraine as Kyiv's troops push into Russia's Kursk region

A damaged monument to Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin stands in a central square in Sudzha, Kursk region, Russia.

Russia kept up its assault on Ukraine Saturday even as Ukrainian forces pushed into Russia’s Kursk border region.

A Russian missile sparked a blaze in the city of Sumy that injured two people and also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.

Ukraine’s air force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.

On Thursday, Ukrainian forces said they had seized the town of Sudzha, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border. With a prewar population of roughly 5,000, it is the biggest town to fall to Ukraine’s troops since the incursion began.

Associated Press journalists traveled to the area Friday on a Ukrainian government-organized trip. Artillery fire had blown chunks out of a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in the town’s central square, while the bright yellow facade of a local administration building was scorched and pockmarked with bullet holes.

Alexander Kots, military correspondent with the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, said that Ukrainian pressure in Kursk “is not weakening yet.”

“In the main sections of the ragged front, the situation has stabilized. But there are areas where the enemy continues to try to expand its bridgehead,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday that Ukraine had destroyed a bridge across the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district with U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, marking their first use in the Kursk region.

Zakharova’s statement couldn’t be independently confirmed, although the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said that geolocated footage published on Aug. 16 showed that the bridge had collapsed following the strike.

Russian military bloggers said that the destruction of bridges would impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces, but not cut them off completely.

“No one has canceled the pontoons,” said Kots, stressing that the Seim River is smaller than Ukrainian waterways such as the Dnieper River. “And there are still smaller bridges.”

Russia has seen previous raids on its territory in the war, but the Kursk incursion is notable for its size, speed, the reported involvement of battle-hardened Ukrainian brigades and the length of time they have stayed inside Russia. As many as 10,000 Ukrainian troops are involved, according to Western military analysts.

The incursion, which Russian authorities say has led to the evacuation of more than 120,000 civilians, came as a shock to many, Yan Furtsev, an activist and member of local opposition party Yabloko, told the AP.

“No one expected that this kind of conflict was even possible in the Kursk region. That is why there is such confusion and panic, because citizens are arriving (from front-line areas) and they’re scared, very scared,” he said.

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said in a press conference Saturday that approximately 10,000 evacuees from the Kursk region, including 3,000 children, were staying in 171 temporary accommodation centers across the country.

Ukrainian forces have also captured a number of Russian troops as they have moved across the region.

On Friday, the AP visited a detention center in Ukraine, the location of which cannot be disclosed due to security restrictions. Dozens of POWs were seen, some of them walking with their hands tied behind their backs while a guard led them down a corridor. Some had rations of a thin soup with cabbage and onions.

On Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian soldiers and commanders for capturing Russian military personnel and said the country’s “exchange fund” that it would use to bargain for the return of Ukrainian POWs was being replenished.

“I thank all our soldiers and commanders who are capturing Russian military personnel, thereby advancing the release of our warriors and civilians held by Russia,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

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