Fog helps Russian forces push deeper into key Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk

BBC:

Thick fog has enabled Russian troops to move further into the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s 7th Airborne Assault Corps says weather conditions, particularly dense fog, have prompted Moscow to intensify its bid to get increasing numbers into the ruined city and encircle Ukrainian forces.

Russian forces have spent more than a year trying to seize the city. Ukraine’s military says there may now be 300-500 Russians there and President Voloydymyr Zelensky says the situation remains difficult.

Meanwhile, army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi says the situation on the front line in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region has “significantly worsened”, with the loss of three settlements.

Syrskyi said however that Russia was most active around Pokrovsk. A video has gone viral on social media showing Russian soldiers openly driving through a hazy road on civilian cars and motorbikes.

The BBC has verified the location where the video was filmed as the southern outskirts of the town on the Selidove-Pokrovsk highway.

For several days fog obscured visibility to carry out aerial reconnaissance, says a drone pilot from the “Shershni Dovbusha” unit of the 68th brigade with the call-sign “Goose”.

That’s why, he told the BBC, the Russians had even “dared” to launch assaults using a column of vehicles, which would normally have been wiped out immediately by Ukrainian drones.