By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW, Dec 2 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin hailed what his commanders said was Russia's full capture of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory, but the Ukrainian military said its forces still held the northern part of the city.
In comments released before a visit to Moscow by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss possible moves to end the war in Ukraine, Putin said complete control of Pokrovsk would help Moscow fulfil its wider war aims.
"I want to thank you. This is an important direction. We all understand just how important," Putin told the army's top brass in a video that had a Sunday time stamp but was released by the Kremlin on Monday, suggesting it was timed to show that Russia was advancing on the battlefield before Witkoff's arrival.
The Ukrainian military later told Reuters it was not only holding out in the northern part of Pokrovsk, which had a pre-war population of over 60,000 people, but was periodically attacking Russian troops in the south of the city and was keeping its own logistics routes under increased control.
"With its statement about the capture of Pokrovsk, the enemy, not for the first time, is trying to sell its desires for reality," Ukraine's 7th Rapid Response Corps of airborne assault troops said.
VIDEO SHOWS SOLDIER RAISING RUSSIAN FLAG
Video footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry showed troops holding up the Russian flag in a square in what Reuters confirmed was the centre of Pokrovsk, with what sounded like artillery fire echoing in the distance. Reuters could not confirm when the video was filmed.
Reuters could not independently verify either side's assertions about Pokrovsk. Maps from both sides have long shown the city under intense Russian pressure and Moscow's forces deep inside it.
The video released on Monday showed Putin dressed in military uniform and sitting in a command centre at an unknown location. He hailed Pokrovsk's capture after being told by his top commanders that it was now fully in Moscow's hands.
"It will ensure solutions going forward to the tasks that we initially set at the beginning of the special military operation," he said, using Moscow's phrase for its nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a post on X that Moscow had launched "new disinformation campaigns" before the U.S.-Russia talks, but did not spell out what he meant.
RUSSIA WANTS THE WHOLE OF DONBAS
Putin's statement led Russia's state TV news. The Russian military's video showed deserted streets, badly damaged apartment buildings, other bombed-out buildings, and the city's technical university with extensive damage to its roof.
Russian forces control more than 19% of Ukraine - up just one percentage point from two years ago - though they have advanced in 2025 at their fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
Russia, which uses the Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk to refer to Pokrovsk, has faced fierce Ukrainian resistance in its battle since mid-2024 to capture the city, located near Ukraine's only source of coking coal minerals.
Control of the city would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Russia wants to take the whole of the wider Donbas region, which comprises the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk where Pokrovsk is located. Kyiv and most Western nations reject Moscow's seizure of the territory as an illegal land grab.
A MOVE TO STRENGTHEN MOSCOW'S HAND IN TALKS?
Taking Pokrovsk would be Moscow's most important single territorial gain inside Ukraine since it took the ruined city of Avdiivka in early 2024.
Russian analysts suggest it could strengthen Moscow's negotiating position in peace talks by showing Russian forces are making meaningful headway in Donetsk as Putin presses Kyiv to give up the rest of the region. Zelenskiy has rejected this.
Kyiv has suggested that losing Pokrovsk would not radically alter the battlefield situation and could only come at an enormous human cost to Moscow.
Valery Solodchuk, commander of Russia's Centre group of forces, told Putin Russian troops were proceeding with clean-up operations around Pokrovsk and nearby Myrnohrad, where he said up to 2,000 Ukrainian troops were trapped.
Military commanders told Putin Russian forces were advancing along the entire front line and had captured the frontline town of Vovchansk in Ukraine's Kharkiv region in efforts to forge a security zone.
Ukrainian officials have not confirmed Vovchansk has fallen into Russian hands.
(Writing by Andrew Osborn, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Clarence Fernandez and Timothy Heritage)
