Ukraine: Russia says advances made in key city of Pokrovsk

A court in Ukraine on Thursday sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison for killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW).

The life sentence is the first of its kind against a soldier since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine's SBU security service said.

The Russian soldier was found guilty by the court in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia of shooting a Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered in January 2024 when he was captured by Russian forces.

He was later taken prisoner along with other Russian soldiers.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the convicted soldier had recruited into the Russian military in exchange for early release from prison after being convicted of theft.

Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie has visited Kherson on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. Her trip was supported by the Legacy of War Foundation.

The city, which was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November 2022, remains one of the most dangerous in the country. Russian forces still occupy most of the region of Kherson.  

During her trip Jolie met with medical staff, volunteers and civilians in Kherson, which comes under near-constant attacks from Russian forces.

"The people of Mykolaiv and Kherson live with danger every day, but they refuse to give in," Jolie said in a statement released on Thursday.

Jolie, a former special envoy for the UN's Refugee Agency (UNHCR), was pictured in a basement wearing body armor as well as meeting children in a room.

She also visited medical and education centers that have been brought underground amid the Russian onslaught.

Before the war, the city's population was nearly 300,000. In March 2022, Russian troops occupied the city, which is the biggest urban center that is within range of Russian artillery, before they withdrew that November to the other bank of the Dnipro river.

The deputy head of the Kherson regional administration, Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, told Ukrainian television that locals were "very grateful" for her visit.

"Sometimes it seems that we have been forgotten, but we can see that this is not the case," he said.

Jolie previously visited Lviv in western Ukraine in April 2022.

Russian forces have advanced in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk amid house-to-house battles with Ukrainian troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Russia said it had captured 64 buildings in the city, which used to be home to some 60,000 people, over the past 24 hours and pushed back Ukrainian attacks.

The strategically located city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region is a major hotspot in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

For more than a year, there has been heavy fighting in this frontline city. Russian troops have been using a pincer movement to surround Pokrovsk and cut the city off from its supply lines.

Kyiv has denied Russian claims that its forces are surrounded, although it acknowledged that the situation in the city has become difficult.  

Moscow says seizing Pokrovsk, which has been dubbed the "gateway to Donetsk," would allow it to move north towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the largest of the two remaining Ukrainian-held cities in the southeastern region.

Russia is aiming to take the entire Donbas region, which is known for its heavy industry and coal reserves.

Moscow controls most of the region, with Ukraine still holding about 10% of the territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday morning that Russia had launched 135 strike drones overnight.

The strikes were mostly concentrated on the Dnipro region, Zelenskyy said on Telegram. At least eight people were injured in the city of Kamianske, where a residential building and railway infrastructure were damaged.

Russian strikes also targeted the regions of Sumy, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv, the Ukrainian president added.

"The targets are our critical infrastructure, everything that supports normal peaceful life," Zelenskyy said.

He said that the continued Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities and civilians was proof that Western pressure on Moscow "is currently insufficient."

Ukraine's allies in Europe have been discussing using seized Russian assets to fund Kyiv's defense, but have so far failed to implement the initiative.

"It is time to make a decision regarding Russian frozen assets. The political will is already there, and we count on the prompt implementation of the technical solution. It is absolutely fair that the aggressor’s money works to protect against his war," Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine's armed forces said Thursday that it had struck an oil refinery in southern Russia, which sparked a fire.

The general staff also said that it had struck several targets in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, which included a drone base in Donetsk and industrial sites in Crimea.

The drone strike on the refinery in Volgograd killed at least one person, the city's governor said.

Andrei Bocharov said a 48-year-old man was killed by shrapnel. 

According to Russian state media, the Ukrainian drone attack saw flight services at 13 airports across Russia to be suspended.

Energy ministers from Europe and the United States were meeting in the Greek capital, Athens, on Thursday to discuss how to use a regional network of pipelines to provide war-battered Ukraine with gas.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, along with energy ministers from the European Union and leading American liquefied natural gas (LNG) company executives, were taking part in the talks.

The meeting, hosted by Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council, comes as US President Donald Trump looks to increase exports of LNG to Europe.

The US is the world's leading LNG exporter. The Trump administration is trying to leverage that position to pressure Europe into buying more American gas by tying energy exports to ongoing trade talks.

Wright said he welcomed the European Commission's plans to phase out Russian gas supplies to the bloc in the next two years, which will "both starve the Russian war machine and build a growing future relationship" between the US and Europe.

Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe — already the largest market for US LNG  has been trying to ween itself off of Russian gas supplies.

As part of that diversification of gas sources, Western energy ministers and executives are looking at a north-south gas pipeline initiative linking Greece with central and eastern Europe, including Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Ukraine, known as the Vertical Corridor.

Speaking late Wednesday during talks with US officials, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece is the "natural entry point for American liquefied natural gas into Europe" due to the country's "very unique geographic location."

"The Vertical Corridor is a project of great geopolitical and economic importance to us," Mitsotakis said, adding that "we are very happy that it's becoming a reality."

Seventeen South African nationals believed to be fighting with mercenary groups in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine have sent pleas to the government in Pretoria to help bring them home, the South African presidency said Thursday.

In a statement, the presidency said it had "received distress calls for assistance to return home from seventeen (17) South African men, between the ages of 20-39 years, who are trapped in the war-torn Donbas."

The men were "lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts," the statement said.

It is not clear whether the men were fighting for Russia or Ukraine. The industrial Donbas region is a key front in the war.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an inquiry into how the men were recruited.

It is illegal for South African citizens to fight for foreign armies without government authorization.

The government issued a warning in August to young people over fake job offers on social media to go to Russia, amid reports that women had been lured there to produce drones.

In March 2024, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed at least 14 South African mercenaries had been killed fighting in Ukraine since the start of the conflict in February 2022.

The South African government said Thursday that it has received what it said were "distress calls" from 17 men who are fighting with mercenary forces in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

It is not clear which side the South Africans were recruited to fight for.

Meanwhile, energy ministers from the European Union are meeting with their US counterpart and leading American LNG company executives in Greece to discuss ways to provide war-torn Ukraine with gas supplies.

Russia has regularly struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began over three and a half years ago.

Ukraine has also been targeting Russia's energy production capacities. Kyiv struck an oil refinery in Russia's southern Volgograd city overnight, killing at least one person, Russian officials said.

Stay tuned as DW brings you the latest on those developments and other major news from the war in Ukraine.