Ukraine replaces commander following Russian advances on key city of Pokrovsk
A Ukrainian crew member stands on a Leopard 1A5 tank near Pokrovsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on December 13.
By Kostyantyn Hak and Sophie Tanno, CNN
(CNN) — The commander of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk group of forces has been replaced following Russian advances in the region, a military official said Saturday.
General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy would take over as head of the operational and tactical group, replacing General Oleksandr Lutsenko, the official told CNN.
The move comes after Lutsenko faced heavy criticism for failing to stop recent Russian advances on the key city of Pokrovsk.
Russian forces have been spotted just three kilometers (1.9 miles) from the city, according to Ukrainian mapping service DeepState.
Pokrovsk has been the site of some of the fiercest battles on the eastern front for months, as Russia attempts to close in on the city.
Lying around 11 miles from Ukraine’s Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, it is a strategic target for Moscow.
Nearby, Russia claims to be making progress toward this goal. The country’s defense ministry said Sunday that its troops had successfully captured two villages in the Donetsk region, as they advance towards Pokrovsk.
The settlements of Veseliy Hai and Pushkino were “liberated” as a result of “active offensive action,” the ministry said. The Ukrainian name for the village of Pushkino is Chumatske. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on Russia’s claims.
The fall of Pokrovsk to Russian forces would mark the largest setback for Ukraine in months and compound Ukraine’s struggles to get off the backfoot while Russian troops pile severe pressure on the eastern front lines.
Losing it would also add to the anxiety Ukraine’s military faces over the looming Donald Trump presidency in the United States, which has raised the risk that military aid from Kyiv’s largest source could dry up as the grinding conflict approaches its fourth year.
Elsewhere in the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Moscow’s forces had begun to deploy a “significant” number of North Korean soldiers in its effort to drive Ukraine’s army out of Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukraine launched an incursion into Kursk in August and still retains some settlements there.
“Today, there is already preliminary evidence that the Russians have begun to use soldiers from North Korea in assaults – a significant number of them,” Zelensky said.
“The Russians include them in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region,” Zelensky said, adding there had already been “noticeable” losses among these soldiers.
He added that Ukraine had information that North Korean soldiers may be being used along other parts of the front line.
CNN’s Billy Stockwell contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
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