Pokrovsk has been a bastion of resistance, and Russia taking it would be a propaganda win, but experts say it is time to withdraw and save lives for future battles.

A Russian soldier has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Ukraine for executing a Ukrainian serviceman who had surrendered on the battlefield — the first ruling for such a war crime since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

T wenty-one months after it began, Vladimir Putin’s assault on the small Donbas city of Pokrovsk (pre-war population 60,000) is nearing its end. A bloody surge in late October made the situation in the city and in Myrhnohrad,

Sweden and Ukraine are making progress on financing for a major deal that could include Kyiv buying up to 150 Gripen E fighter jets, Sweden's defence minister told Reuters on Thursday, adding that Stockholm could fund part of the deal via military aid.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ukrainian troops should surrender to save themselves in Pokrovsk, a transport and supply hub seen as a gateway to bigger nearby cities.

Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s edition of BBC Verify Live.

A Ukrainian court sentenced a Russian soldier on Thursday to life in prison after finding him guilty of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war, the first time Ukraine has jailed a suspect on such charges.

A frontline visit to bring attention to Russian drone attacks on civilians sheds an inadvertent light on the Ukrainian Army’s troop shortages.

The devastated city -- which was home to some 60,000 people before Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion -- has become a key focus of the Kremlin's yearslong push to capture all of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk Oblast, which along with neighboring Luhansk Oblast makes up the Donbas region.