Russian Forces Advance in Donetsk Province of Ukraine

On Thursday, August 2, Reuters reported on the advance of Russian forces in the areas surrounding the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk province in recent days. The news agency quoted a resident of the city who had left his home under artillery fire from the Russian army, stating that this was the second time in two years he had been forced to leave his home. 57-year-old Volodymyr Arkhipov said the intensity of the explosions was such that many did not even have the opportunity to bury their loved ones in the cemetery. Recently having left Pokrovsk, he described his last days there to Reuters: 'I pulled the body of a 37-year-old woman from under the rubble who had suffocated.' According to Reuters, Volodymyr Arkhipov, who left the city with his 84-year-old uncle, is just part of a large wave of people fleeing from Russia's advances on several fronts in the eastern Donetsk region. Survivors from the city who managed to escape the Russian invasion have shared heartbreaking accounts of death and destruction of civilians caused by the shelling of the city. 75-year-old Lydia Polyakova, one of the survivors, told Reuters: 'The intensity of the bombardment was such that we initially thought our house had been hit, but then we realized that our neighbor's house had been destroyed, and we were somehow trapped under the rubble of that house.' She said the intensity of the shelling was so severe that local people could no longer reach the city cemetery to bury the dead and instead had to find pieces of land within the city. Lydia Polyakova added that she buried her daughter under a tree and that this was the only sign she could remember of her grave's location. Reuters noted that with the advance of Russian military units, utilizing both manpower and weaponry towards key cities and supply routes, one of the recent advancements has allowed Russia to come within 20 kilometers of a major logistics center near Pokrovsk, and if serious actions are not taken, it will fall under the control of its army. In this context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Thursday that Pokrovsk is now Russia's primary target. Moscow claimed last week that it had taken control of four villages east of this city. Ukraine has not commented on this claim. Reuters pointed out that Russian soldiers have approached this city, stating that controlling the entire Donetsk province is one of the Kremlin's main objectives in the war with Ukraine. The first batch of American-made F-16 fighter jets has been delivered to Ukraine. A week after Kuleba's visit, Kyiv invited the Chinese Foreign Minister for a visit to Ukraine. Russia has contained a fire caused by a Ukrainian drone attack on one of its oil depots. A new military aid package from the United States to Ukraine has been announced, amounting to one billion seven hundred million dollars.