About half of Russian assaults across a 1,000km- (620-mile-) front have focused on the town of Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s east, throughout the past week.

The town is considered to be a gateway to the most heavily fortified areas left in Ukraine’s hands in the region of Donetsk.

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Last week, Ukrainian commanders reported that large numbers of Russian forces were amassing there for a concerted push to take the town, which has held out for a year.

“The enemy is trying to advance around the clock,” Maksym Bakulin, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Guard units fighting in Pokrovsk, told Army TV on Tuesday.

Russian forces were going back to using heavy armour and vehicles after a period of infantry attacks, he said.

“Previously, they often sent [troops] on foot, now in most cases they bring them closer, land them and try to fight under the cover of artillery and multiple launch rocket systems,” added Bakulin.

He said Russian forces incurred heavy vehicle losses in the process.

On Wednesday, Ukraine also claimed the Russian military lost 1,670 men in 24 hours, updating its estimated toll of Russia’s wartime losses to 834,670 soldiers.

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‘They don’t have an unlimited number of personnel’

The commander of a UAV platoon attached to the 68th Jaeger Brigade told a telethon Russian forces were sometimes sending up to 30 UAVs to attack a single position.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had dropped 1,250 glide bombs over the preceding week – about twice the usual number – in an indication of how the battlefield had heated up.

Russia tends to use glide bombs on Ukrainian front lines. In the battles for Severodonetsk in 2022 and Bakhmut in 2023, Russia prevailed in urban warfare through human assault waves that incurred staggering losses.

In Pokrovsk, that is no longer the case, said Viktor Tregubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia Group of forces fighting there.

“They don’t have an unlimited number of personnel, which they used to simply throw into the city wave after wave, until they started to cling to some suburbs, then enter the city, then destroy buildings closer to the centre, and so on. They have already abandoned this tactic in Pokrovsk,” he told a telethon.

Deep strikes hit Russian logistics

Ukraine continued to plough drones into its campaign of strategic interdiction of logistics on Russian soil.

On Friday, Ukraine’s general staff said they had struck the Kremniy El factory in Bryansk, which they said makes electronic components for air defence systems, including combat aircraft and the vaunted S-300 and S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces struck the central radar of an S-400 air defence complex, which provides targeting coordinates at medium and high altitudes.

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The S-400 is the most expensive air defence system Russia makes. In 2018, India contracted to buy four complexes, consisting of a central radar, launch vehicles and rockets, for $5.5bn.

On Sunday, Ukraine hit warehouses in Russia’s Oryol region filled with drone and thermobaric warheads, causing secondary detonations. The general staff said their drones had also hit the Ryazan oil refinery which produces diesel for tanks and jet fuel.

Russia’s defence ministry said it thwarted a huge Ukrainian drone attack overnight on Wednesday, downing 104 UAVs over several regions.

But Ukraine’s general staff said drones had successfully attacked the Nizhny Novgorod refinery, which supplies the Russian military, setting it alight.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, said the Lukoil-owned plant was the fourth largest oil refinery in Russia, producing up to 17 million tonnes of products per year.

The US election had not yet interfered with Ukraine’s supply of weapons, Zelenskyy said on Sunday, although humanitarian programmes defunded by US President Donald Trump’s executive orders were going to have an effect.

“What I do is focused on military aid, it has not been stopped, thank God,” Zelenskyy said.

European allies have rushed to pledge aid amid fears that US military assistance might be stanched.

On Monday France pledged 6 billion euros ($6.2bn) in military and financial aid to Ukraine.

Slovakia condemns Ukraine over gas flows

Meanwhile, a simmering spat between Ukraine and NATO ally Slovakia boiled over last week, when Slovak premier Robert Fico called Zelenskyy “an enemy of Slovakia”.

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The remark, reported by Dennik N, an independent news service, was said during a discussion about Russian fossil gas in Slovakia’s parliamentary economic committee on Tuesday.

“Our enemy is Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy caused the problems we are facing. I don’t like him because he is harming Slovakia,” Fico reportedly said.

He was referring to the termination of Russian gas flows via Ukrainian territory on January 1, when Ukraine’s contract with Gazprom ended without renewal.

“There will not be a contract – that is clear,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December. “Okay, we will cope – and Gazprom will cope.”

Ukraine has long complained that Russian energy exports fund Moscow’s war machine.

“It’s time to cut off the petrodollar flow fuelling Russia’s aggression,” Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Vladyslav Vlasiuk told EU ambassadors to Kyiv this month.

Nine days later, Putin boasted that the 2024 budget received $13.15bn more from oil and gas sales than expected.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Russia is interested in continuing this trade.”

Both sides have attempted to weaponise energy in this war, as the EU has sanctioned Russian oil and Russia has cut gas flows to squeeze European economies and choke off military aid to Ukraine.

Slovakia, Hungary and Austria are landlocked, and have argued that they need Russian gas to support their economies more than most other EU and NATO members.

On Wednesday, Zelenskyy wrote on social media that liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US was a better substitute for Europe.

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“American LNG must be paid for with money, but Russian gas must be paid not only with money, but also with independence and sovereignty,” Zelenskyy said. “Many in Europe have already gone through this and have chosen to preserve their independence and sovereignty. But not Mr. Fico.”

There is no love lost between the two men.

Last December, Fico became the second EU leader to visit Moscow during the war, after Hungary’s Viktor Orban.

Zelenskyy accused Fico of pursuing personal gain.

“We are fighting for lives, Fico is fighting for money, and hardly for Slovakia’s money,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address on December 23.

He said Fico refused financial compensation for Slovak consumers to defray the increased cost of buying non-Russian gas. “For some reason, he finds Moscow more profitable,” said Zelenskyy.

Fico, who survived an assassination attempt last year, faced a challenge to his rule this week.

Opposition parties, citing his pro-Russian foreign policy, attempted to hold a no-confidence vote against his government on Tuesday and Wednesday. They failed to gather the quorum of MPs needed to petition for the motion, but were scheduled to try again on February 4.

More sanctions on the way

Energy security guarantees for Hungary were reportedly at the heart of an EU deal to roll out a new package of sanctions on Russia.

Hungary has objected to sanctions against Russia in the past but was reportedly brought on board for a 16th round of sanctions.

The EU was considering gradually banning imports of Russian aluminium and ejecting 15 Russian banks from the interbank secure transfer system, SWIFT, Bloomberg reported on Monday, quoting unnamed sources. Also to be sanctioned were 70 vessels involved in illicit trafficking of Russian oil.

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The EU also agreed to extend existing Russian sanctions on Monday.