Ukrainian commander says forces face new assault on city at eastern front

A spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, Viktor Trehubov, told the Ukrinform news agency that Kostiantynivka and the city of Pokrovsk to the west were “the main arena of battles and the Kremlin’s strategic ambitions”. Syrskyi also said Ukrainian forces had in the past week withstood a powerful attack near the village of Yablunivka in northeastern Sumy region, where Russian forces have been trying to establish a buffer zone inside the Ukrainian border. Russia’s Defence Ministry, in a report earlier in the day, said Moscow’s forces had seized the village of Chervona Zirka – further southwest, near the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk region.