After the russian occupiers failed to advance on Kharkiv, they changed their main objective. Their new priority is to capture Pokrovsk in the Donetsk oblast. This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with French journalists on August 1.
"The entire east is complex. Their main objective today, after failing to take Kharkiv, which we understand will no longer be possible, has changed. Their main focus is not the whole east, although Sloviansk is not excluded, but Pokrovsk. I would say that for them, Pokrovsk is the priority today. The Pokrovsk direction and the city of Pokrovsk. Of course, there are also Kostiantynivka and they are also targeting Toretsk; they have plans for Sloviansk too, but all of this is just plans", - Zelensky said.
According to him, "the largest number of personnel, the largest amount of weapons and KABs, everything they have" is currently being concentrated by the russians in the Pokrovsk direction.