Drone footage shows devastated Ukrainian city nearly surrounded by Russian forces

New drone footage shows a devastated Ukrainian city nearly surrounded by Russian forces near the city, which Moscow now claimed to control this week.

Barely a road appears untouched in Mirnohrad, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, 12 kilometers (7 miles) away. Major logistics hub of Pokrovsk,

Some of the destruction is so fresh that smoke was still rising in footage shot over the past few days.

“They are trying to wipe (the city) off the face of the earth,” said Oleksiy Hodzhenko, press officer for the drone battalion of the 38th Marine Brigade, whose troops were still fighting inside Mynohrad on Wednesday.

According to DeepState, an open-source Ukrainian map widely used by the military and analysts, the city is virtually surrounded by Russian forces.

Hodzenko said that although there was still a route for Ukrainian troops, Russian efforts had made logistics in and out of the city difficult: “We can (only) do a small rotation of very few personnel. People sit there for weeks.”

Ukraine’s Eastern Command said on Telegram that it was sending supplies to troops in Mynohrad. Hodzenko said they were relying on ground-robotic drones to deliver food and water to the remaining troops. He did not say how many people remained in the city in view of military restrictions.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Mynohrad had a population of about 46,000. Since then it has suffered the same fate as dozens of other Ukrainian towns and villages in the east and south as they have been almost emptied of people.

Over more than a year, attacks by the Russian military with glide bombs weighing 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds), as well as attack drones and artillery swarms, have turned the city into an uninhabitable shell.

“When you sit at the command post and listen to the exchanges between (Ukrainian) units, once every few minutes on the radio comes, ‘KAB (glide bomb) on Mynohrad,'” Hodzenko said. “So far, all our fighters do, and everything they do, is to keep control of the city as best they can, making a completely inhumane, titanic effort.”

Kremlin presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that Russia’s progress on the battlefield had strengthened its negotiating position in talks with the United States over a US-drafted plan aimed at ending the war.

“The progress and nature of the talks were, of course, influenced by the Russian military’s battlefield successes in recent weeks,” Ushakov told reporters. “These developments had a positive impact on the talks.”

On Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that troops had taken control Pokrovsk nearby, Posting a video of Russian soldiers holding the Russian flag in the city center. The claim was rejected by the General Staff of Ukraine.

Col. Volodymyr Polevy, communications chief of the 7th Corps Assault Brigade, deployed to that part of the front, told the AP on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces were still fighting in the northern part of the city.

Hodzenko urged Western allies to continue supporting Ukraine.

“Despite some agreements or disagreements between the US, Russia, the EU, NATO, we still need help, especially military help,” Hodzenko said.