Ukraine Reports Intense Fighting Near Pokrovsk As Russian Forces Press For Breakthrough

Ukraine's military said its forces came under repeated attack on August 21 around the town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, where Russian forces are pressing for a breakthrough.

In a statement, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said there were 46 Russian attacks in the Pokrovsk area over the course of day. Of these, 44 were repelled and two were ongoing into the evening hours local time.

It also said 238 Russian troops were killed or wounded in the same area on August 21. It did not disclose Ukrainian losses, and it was not possible to verify the number of Russian soldiers killed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine's military was responding to the Russian push by strengthening its forces around Pokrovsk, one of the hottest areas of the front.

The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine has ordered a forced evacuation of children with their parents or legal representatives from certain districts of the Donetsk region, including Pokrovsk.

There were dozens of other clashes across the front line on August 21. Most of them were repelled, according to the General Staff, but some continued into the late evening hours.

The governor of the Bryansk region of Russia, Aleksandr Bogomaz, said Russian forces prevented an attempted incursion into the region by Ukrainian troops. Bogomaz said the attempted breakthrough occurred in the Klimovo district of the region, which borders the Chernihiv region of Ukraine.

"The enemy has been hit by fire. Currently, the situation at the site of the clash has stabilized," Bogomaz said on Telegram.

Ukraine said separately that it had destroyed a Russian pontoon bridges with U.S.-made weapons in Russia's Kursk region. A video posted by Ukrainian special forces showed strikes on several pontoon crossings after Russia reported that Ukraine has destroyed at least three bridges over the Seym River.

"Where do Russian pontoon bridges 'disappear' in the Kursk region? Operators...accurately destroy them," Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said on Telegram.

Claims of battlefield success could not be independently verified.

The Kremlin believes the fighting to repel Ukraine's incursion into the Kursk region will last for months and is trying to prepare the public for this "new normal," sources close to the Russian presidential administration and the government have told the Meduza and Verstka news websites.

The reports came as Russia is battling to repel the two-week-old Ukrainian incursion into its region bordering Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces say they control more than 1,260 square kilometers and 92 settlements.

The news outlets said the Ukrainian incursion "shocked" Russian elites, but now that the initial shock has passed, "they've gotten used to it."

'New Reality'

At the same time, the Kremlin is using its propaganda machine to try and prepare Russians for life in the conditions of a "new reality" and "new normality," said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The Kremlin proposes convincing Russians that an enemy that breaks through to Russian territory will face 'inevitable defeat,' but 'the return of territories will take time and Russians need to wait,'" one of the sources said.

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Russian elites are expecting the resignations of those responsible for the Ukrainian breakthrough, a source told Meduza.

Ukraine's leadership has repeatedly clarified that its bold move into Kursk is meant to establish a buffer zone inside Russia meant to protect Ukrainian civilians from cross-border Russian shelling.

The American Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces continued to advance along the entire front line in Kursk.

Earlier on August 21, Ukrainian naval forces struck a Russian S-300 antiaircraft complex in Russia's Rostov region, Ukraine's General Staff reported, while Russia said it was subjected to one of the most intense waves of Ukrainian drone strikes that ever targeted the capital, Moscow.

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Ukraine's General Staff said the strike against the S-300 missile complex near the settlement of Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov region was carried out by naval force units and the consequences of the strike are still being evaluated.

"Russian invaders also use S-300 missiles to attack peaceful Ukrainian cities, destroying residential buildings and terrorizing the civilian population," the General Staff said.

Rostov regional Governor Vasily Golubev separately said a Ukrainian missile had been shot down in the region, without giving details.

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Meanwhile, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital in one of the largest such attacks, adding that air defenses shot down 10 of the drones.

"This is one of the largest attempts to attack Moscow with drones of all time," Sobyanin wrote, adding no casualties or material damage were reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry separately said its air defense systems shot down 45 Ukrainian drones.

"Eleven drones were destroyed over the Moscow region, 23 over the Bryansk region, six over the Belgorod region, three over the Kaluga region, and two over the Kursk region," it said.