“Ukrainian Armed Forces Could Be Encircled in the Kurakhove Area”, – Julian Röpke says

The Ukrainian Armed Forces face the threat of encirclement near Kurakhovo, in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region.

This was reported by Julian Röpcke, a military observer for the German tabloid Bild.

According to Röpcke, the Russian army is advancing northward from the south toward Kostyantynivka at a rate of about 2 kilometers per day and has taken control of Maksymivka. The military mapping resource “Deep State” confirms that Ukrainian forces have left this settlement, though Russian forces do not fully control it yet—half of the town remains a gray area.

From the northeast, Russian forces reached the shores of the Kurakhove Reservoir last week, threatening to encircle Ukrainian forces on a larger scale. The Deep State map shows significant advances near the village of Ilinka over the past day.

“The Ukrainian army will likely avoid this threat by conducting another large-scale retreat from approximately 20 settlements southeast of the village of Andriivka,” Röpcke predicted.

It’s worth noting that earlier media reports had speculated about Russia’s intentions in this area as far back as the end of October.