Russian forces pressed into Ukraine’s eastern towns of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad during the past week as Kyiv’s military mounted a stout defence.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii said almost half of the battles on a 1,200km (745-mile) front were happening in the two towns, claiming Russia has committed 150,000 troops – almost a quarter of its strength in Ukraine – to capturing them.

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Russia sees Pokrovsk as a gateway to the remaining unoccupied parts of Donetsk, the region it has already claimed as its own in September 2022.

As Ukrainians were gripped by a corruption scandal involving President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s allies, the battlefront was in a fluid state in which no side seemed to gain a decisive advantage.

Both Russia and Ukraine often captured and recaptured neighbourhoods and individual buildings from each other.

Hus, a drone squad commander from the 68th Jaeger brigade on the outskirts of Pokrovsk, told the Reuters news agency, “Here, one building is held by our side, the next occupied by the enemy, and in a few hours it swaps.”

It did appear, however, that the Russians were slowly gaining ground.

Ukrainian troops told Reuters the defence of Pokrovsk was “steadily deteriorating”, despite the army’s efforts to reinforce it.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its troops were advancing through Pokrovsk in house-to-house battles.

A Ukrainian unit commander said Russia was leading its assault with Spetsnaz special forces who were looking for Ukrainian mortar firing crews and drone units, aiming to neutralise them and ease the passage of reinforcements.

These tactics had enabled the Russians to capture the centre of Pokrovsk by early November, and in the past week, they were attempting to work their way east and west. Ukrainian defenders appeared to be maintaining a stronghold in the north of Pokrovsk.

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In Myrnohrad, to the east of Pokrovsk, Russian troops were infiltrating the eastern reaches of the town, and this week made a marginal advance into its northern edge, while Ukrainian defenders firmly held the bulk of it.

Both towns are precariously situated in a Russian encirclement from the north, south and east, in which supply and escape routes are only available towards the west.

The operational significance of the towns’ seizure by Russia depended on “whether Ukrainian forces conduct an orderly withdrawal or disorderly retreat” and on “Russian forces’ ability to exploit the collapse of the pocket and conduct a successful pursuit”, wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Russia’s Defence Ministry has repeatedly claimed that the towns’ complete envelopment and surrender with forces still inside was imminent.

Yet Ukraine has defied Russian expectations and fought on, engaging in what Syrskii called an “active defence”, using drones for “search and strike operations” that took a toll.

“Every metre of our land costs Russia hundreds of military lives,” Syrskii wrote on the Telegram messaging platform.

In October alone, Syrskii said, short-range drones had struck 77,000 targets, a 16 percent increase on the 66,500 targets he said had been struck in September, which in turn represented an 11 percent increase on August.

These figures suggested that Russian infiltrators’ efforts in smoking out drone units and cutting off Ukrainian resupply were meeting with less success than the Russian command might have hoped.

At the beginning of the week, Russia also stiffened its offensive near Huliaipole, about 60km (37 miles) southwest of Pokrovsk, on the border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions.

Syrskii said the situation had “significantly worsened” there, and that “exhausting battles” were taking place for Rivnopillia and Yablukove. Geolocated footage showed Ukraine was forced to abandon Rivnopillia on Tuesday.

On Saturday, Axios reported that the United States government shutdown may have delayed delivery of $5bn of weapons systems to NATO allies and Ukraine, though it did not draw a direct connection between this and the defence of Pokrovsk.

Russia kept up pressure on other parts of the front.

Its Defence Ministry claimed to have seized Uspenovka, Novoye and Sladkoye in Zaporizhia, Volchye in Dnipropetrovsk, and Gnatovke in Donetsk.

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Ukraine’s deep strikes

Far from the ground war, Ukraine continued to pummel Russian refineries in a bid to cut off its fuel supply to the front.

Lukoil’s Volgograd refinery stopped operations on November 6 after being hit by Ukrainian drones, according to unnamed sources who spoke to Reuters. They said that the primary processing unit, representing a fifth of the plant’s total capability and other equipment was damaged.

On Saturday, Ukraine struck substations near Belgorod, causing a blackout in the city.

On Sunday, Ukraine caused a fire at the port and oil terminal of Tuapse, on the Black Sea. Russia said it destroyed four Ukrainian surface drones heading for the Tuapse oil terminal, which Ukraine has struck repeatedly in recent weeks, but others must have got through.

Ukraine also struck a power plant in Voronezh.

On Tuesday, the Saratov refinery caught fire after being attacked by drones. Explosions were also heard coming from the nearby refinery in Orsk.

“Russia has an air defence deficit, with losses including S-300, S-400, and many Pantsir [air defence] systems that protected facilities,” wrote the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko.

“Most of the enemy’s air defence is near the front and Moscow, creating significant gaps in Russia’s airspace. To understand, most Russians in the country are not protected by [President Vladimir] Putin at all, although he constantly promised security to everyone.”