The spokesman for the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group Viktor Trehubov said on July 27 on Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne: “On the Pokrovsk front, there is still a certain advancement on their part.” RBC Ukraine quoted him as saying that previously, the “fighting was mostly on the outskirts west and south of Pokrovsk. Now the main Russian mission is to break through between Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka. They aim to threaten” from the “east and, if possible, from the north.”
He referred to advances to the northeast of Pokrovsk, saying that the Russians “are trying to expand it, while our troops are trying to kill and destroy as much manpower and equipment as possible, slow down the offensive and push them back.... [T]hey are trying to take the city into partial encirclement.” Ukrainska Pravda also provided a Deep State map showing the encirclement to be close to 60% complete (approximately from 1:00 to 8:00 on a clock).
