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Ecuadorian forces have revealed how they captured the country’s most-wanted man, drug lord Adolfo “Fito” Macías, more than a year after his brazen prison escape prompted the president to declare an internal armed conflict to crack down on the country’s most violent gangs.

After an almost 18-month manhunt for the leader of the criminal group Los Choneros, the Ecuadorian Security Bloc made a breakthrough on June 25. They obtained intelligence that alerted them to a luxurious home in the province of Manabí, the gang’s longtime stronghold for drug operations.

Authorities immediately traveled to the area and launched a 10-hour operation to try to find and capture the notorious gangster. To prevent the raid from being thwarted, the military and police shut down access within a 15-block radius so no one could enter or leave the site.

Special teams from the armed forces eventually entered the property to gather more information and take control of the house.

It was a fully equipped villa, featuring a pool, a gym, appliances, a game room, marble-like walls, and features that indicated the property was still under construction.

In one area of the house, there was a perfectly camouflaged hole in the floor, containing a bunker with hidden access and air conditioning.

“Police and armed forces on the scene began conducting a search with instruments to see where alias ‘Fito’ was hiding,” Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said.

A surveillance flight had identified an irregular crop field behind the house, so authorities requested the use of excavators to locate the drug lord.

“They started to excavate. As soon as this happened, Fito panicked because if we continued, the roof of his bunker would collapse. At that moment, he opened the hatch, where the military was already located, and climbed out of the hole where he was hiding. That’s how we detained him,” Reimberg said.

Soldiers pinned Macías to the ground, pointed weapons at him and ordered him to say his full name out loud.

“Adolfo Macías Villamar,” he said while lying on the floor with his hands behind his back, footage from the army showed.

After the operation, authorities arrested Macías, along with four other men identified as part of his security detail.

Macías was immediately transferred to the Manta Air Base and then to the Guayaquil Air Base. From there, he was taken to the maximum-security La Roca prison, located in the Guayaquil prison complex, behind La Regional prison, from where he escaped in January 2024.

A photo later released by the interior ministry showed the drug lord locked inside his cell.

President Daniel Noboa said Ecuador is working to extradite him to the United States – where he faces drugs and weapons charges – and is awaiting a response from American officials.

Macías is one of Ecuador’s most notorious gangsters and is the only founding member of Los Choneros believed to still be alive. In 2011 he was sentenced “for a string of crimes, including homicides and narcotics trafficking,” according to think tank Insight Crime, but sprung out of jail in February 2013 before being recaptured months later.

Little is known about his life prior to crime, but he gained a reputation for being the gang’s money laundering expert while incarcerated for over a decade.

Before he fled prison in 2024, the government was planning on moving Macías to a higher-security facility. Noboa’s press secretary told a local channel that the news had likely reached Macías and prompted him to make his escape.

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Rio Silver Inc. (the ‘Company’ or ‘Rio Silver’) (TSX.V: RYO) (OTC: RYOOF) announces that, further to the announcement on May 1, 2025, it will consolidate (the ‘Consolidation’) its common shares on the basis of five pre-Consolidation common shares for one post-Consolidation share.

The Company expects that the TSX Venture Exchange (the ‘Exchange’) will issue a bulletin in short order, confirming that the Company’s common shares will then commence trading on a post-Consolidation basis effective on or about the opening of trading on Thursday, July 3, 2025. There will be no change to the Company’s name or trading symbol. The new CUSIP and ISIN numbers for the post-Consolidation shares are 76721A113 and CA76721A1131, respectively.

No fractional common shares will be issued, and fractions of less than one-half of a common share will be cancelled and fractions of at least one-half of a common share will be converted to a whole common share. Outstanding options, warrants and other convertible securities will likewise be adjusted for the Consolidation, with the number of underlying common shares and exercise prices being adjusted accordingly.

The Company currently has 84,832,845 common shares issued and outstanding, and immediately following the Consolidation the Company expects to have, subject to rounding adjustment, approximately 16,966,572 common shares issued and outstanding, none of which are subject to escrow.

Letters of Transmittal will be mailed shortly to registered shareholders who hold share certificates, with instructions for the exchange of existing share certificates for new share certificates. Shareholders holding uncertificated shares (such as BEO, NCI and DRS positions) will have their holdings adjusted electronically by the Company’s transfer agent and need not take any further action to exchange their pre-Consolidation shares for post-Consolidation shares.

The Company expects that the Consolidation will provide the Company with increased flexibility in structuring and completing financings and potential business transactions. Shareholder approval for the Consolidation was received at the Company’s Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders held on June 12, 2025, as previously announced on June 25, 2025.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF Rio Silver INC.
Chris Verrico
Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information,

Christopher Verrico, President, CEO
Tel: (604) 762-4448
Email: chris.verrico@riosilverinc.com
Website: www.riosilverinc.com

This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable laws.

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News Provided by GlobeNewswire via QuoteMedia

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Justice Amy Coney Barrett had pointed words for her colleague Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, accusing Jackson of taking an ‘extreme’ position on the role of the judiciary branch.

Writing in her Supreme Court opinion on nationwide injunctions on Friday, Barrett said Jackson’s dissent contained ‘rhetoric,’ and she signaled that the liberal justice’s arguments were not worth much attention.

‘We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,’ Barrett wrote. ‘We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.’

The Supreme Court’s decision came as part of an emergency request from the Trump administration asking the high court to put an end to judges issuing universal injunctions, including those that judges have placed on President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order.

Barrett, who was appointed by Trump, wrote that when judges issue injunctions to block policies, like those the Trump administration is trying to implement, they cannot apply the injunction to more than the parties involved in the case. Barrett said that type of order, often called a ‘nationwide injunction,’ is judicial overreach.

But Barrett’s opinion left open numerous other ways that plaintiffs can seek broad forms of relief from the courts, including by bringing class action lawsuits or statewide lawsuits.

Jackson wrote that nationwide injunctions should be permissible because the courts should not allow the president to ‘violate the Constitution.’ Barrett said that was not based on any existing legal doctrine.

‘She offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush,’ Barrett wrote.

Sotomayor, meanwhile, wrote in her own dissenting opinion that the Supreme Court was being ‘complicit’ by allowing the Trump administration to extract a perceived win out of the high court over birthright citizenship.

Sotomayor said that every court that has reviewed Trump’s birthright citizenship plan thus far has blocked Trump from carrying it out. Trump played a ‘different game,’ Sotomayor said, by bringing the case before the Supreme Court without actually asking the justices to analyze the merits of his plan. Trump instead asked the justices to weigh in on the legality of nationwide injunctions in general.

Trump’s birthright citizenship order would eliminate the 150-year-old right under the 14th Amendment that allows babies born in the United States to receive automatic citizenship regardless of their parents’ citizenship status.

The Supreme Court’s decision still allows for the high possibility that judges will continue to widely block Trump’s birthright citizenship order, but with different legal maneuvering on the part of the plaintiffs and the courts.

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President Donald Trump said he’s open to conducting additional strikes against Iran, should Tehran pick up its nuclear program again to a level that is concerning to the U.S. 

‘Sure. Without question, absolutely,’ Trump told reporters Friday when asked about the possibility of subsequent strikes. 

Trump has previously issued similar warnings to Iran, and said Wednesday at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands that if Tehran were to seek to repair its nuclear program once more the U.S. wouldn’t hesitate to move forward with additional strikes.

Trump also slammed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared victory over Israel on Thursday. Trump countered Khamenei’s claims and said that he had spared Khamenei from death. 

‘I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. ‘I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’’ 

‘I wish the leadership of Iran would realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR. PEACE!!!’ Trump said. 

The U.S. launched strikes late Saturday targeting key Iranian nuclear facilities, which involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters Sunday.

Following the strikes, Trump said in an address to the nation that the mission left the nuclear sites ‘completely and totally obliterated.’ But days later, a leaked report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, published by CNN and the New York Times, cast doubt on those claims, saying that the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear program by several months.

Meanwhile, the U.S., Israel and Iran’s Foreign Ministry have all said that the three nuclear sites that U.S. forces struck have encountered massive damage.

According to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the FBI is conducting an investigation to get to the bottom of the matter and who shared the document with the media.

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A Florida man was indicted Friday for allegedly threatening to kill Alina Habba in a series of online ’86’ posts against the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Fox News Digital has learned.

The ’86” has been interpreted by law enforcement officials to mean ‘get rid of.’ 

Gregory W. Kehoe, the interim U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced the charges Friday. 

According to the indictment reviewed by Fox News Digital, Salvatore Russotto made a threat in May to ‘injure and kill the victim in a series of online posts.’

Fox News Digital has learned that the victim referred to in the indictment is Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey who previously served as counselor to President Donald Trump. 

‘[VICTIM] is a c—,’ Russotto posted. ’86 that b—-.’

He also allegedly posted: ‘A slow painful death for [VICTIM]. 86 that c—.’

Russotto also allegedly posted: ‘Eliminate [VICTIM]. 86 Traitor. Death penalty for all traitors.’

Russotto was charged with transmission of an interstate threat to injure and retaliating against a federal law enforcement officer by threat.

‘This is yet another disturbing example of a dangerous copycat inspired by the reckless behavior of former officials, targeting those who serve our country and threatening the very people working to keep America safe,’ FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital. ‘Our FBI will not tolerate political violence in any form.

‘I’m grateful to our law enforcement partners in Florida for their swift action and steadfast commitment to justice.’ 

The indictment comes after Patel said he has been forced to divert agents to investigate ‘copycats’ of potential threats to Trump as a result of former FBI Director James Comey’s ’86 47′ social media post last month.

‘Do you know how many agents I’ve had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists, because, everywhere across this country, people are popping up on social media and think that a threat to the life of the president of the United States is a joke and they can do it because he did it?’ Patel said last month. 

‘That’s what I’m having to deal with every single day, and that’s what I’m having to pull my agents and analysts off because he thought it was funny to go out there and make a political statement.’ 

An FBI official told Fox News Digital the agency cannot disclose the number of ‘copycat’ incidents due to ongoing investigations but described the number to Fox News Digital as ‘significant.’ 

Comey met with Secret Service officials in Washington this month for an interview about his ’86 47′ Instagram post, two sources briefed on the meeting told Fox News.

Comey is under investigation for the now-deleted Instagram post that showed seashells arranged on a beach to say ’86 47.’

‘Cool shell formation on my beach walk,’ he wrote along with the post. 

Comey offered an explanation for the post after he received backlash on social media. 

‘I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,’ the subsequent post from Comey said. ‘I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.’

The president, in a May interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, didn’t accept Comey’s explanation. 

‘He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,’ Trump told Baier. ‘If you’re the FBI director, and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination,’ and it says it loud and clear.’ 

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Top House Republicans are warning the Senate to proceed carefully with any possible changes to President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’

‘We in the House don’t want to see this changed too much. Of course, they’re going to put their mark on it, and they’re going to shape it and hopefully make it better, But, yeah, it just can’t change materially too much for us to have to thread that needle again,’ said Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas.

He hosted House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, on an episode of the RSC’s podcast, ‘Right To The Point,’ an early copy of which was obtained by Fox News Digital.

Arrington told Pfluger, ‘The reality is, we struck a very difficult and very, very delicate balance in the House that could be disrupted on any number of policy fronts, if the Senate were to go too far.’

The RSC is a 189-strong member group in the House GOP that acts as the conference’s de facto conservative think tank.

Arrington’s committee, meanwhile, plays a central role in the budget reconciliation process – which is what Republicans are using to pass Trump’s agenda on tax, immigration, energy, defense, and the national debt in one massive bill.

It’s notable that they used the RSC’s weekly podcast to send a pointed message to their colleagues in the Senate, which comes as lawmakers there wrestle with key issues in the House’s version of the bill.

Senate Republicans still have to deal with unresolved questions on Medicaid and state and local tax (SALT) deductions, among other items. 

Senate GOP leaders have said their changes to the bill are critical in order for it to survive their razor-thin majority of three seats – the same margin as the House holds.

The House passed its version of the bill by just one vote in late May. Now, different House GOP factions are warning that they will not accept the Senate’s proposed changes on a number of key issues.

‘If you and I had the pen, and it was just between two West Texans, I know there are deeper, deeper fiscal reforms that would bend the curve even more dramatically on our spending and debt to GDP. But we have other members that we have to negotiate with,’ Arrington said.

‘So yes, make it as good as you can make in terms of improvements, but there is a point at which you will, instead of bend, you will break the delicate balance, and you will imperil the most important and most consequential bill – with the greatest set of conservative reforms in my lifetime, if not 100 years.’

When reached for comment on Arrington’s remark, Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office pointed Fox News Digital to the South Dakota Republican’s appearance on the Hugh Hewitt show Wednesday.

‘I met with [House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.] yesterday, and we’ve talked several times today already, just checking in on various aspects of the Senate bill and, you know, what the prospects are when it gets to the House,’ Thune said. ‘So there’s been a lot of coordination from the very beginning about this and that, you know, continues to this day, which is why we continue to stay in close contact.’

Johnson, Thune and the White House have been in near-constant communication, hammering out details big and small in the bill.

Pfluger said he was still ‘hopeful,’ however, about Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline.

‘The Senate is wrestling with this bill right now…to make the changes that make it better, but to send it back to us in a fiscally disciplined way, where we know we still garner the savings where we do the right things to put money back into American families pockets,’ Pfluger said.

Johnson told reporters on Friday that it was ‘possible’ that the deadline could slip, but said he ‘doesn’t want to accept that as an option right now.’

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report

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The Israeli military has denied a new report that soldiers were ordered to fire at unarmed Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza, after hundreds of people were reported killed while approaching food distribution sites in recent weeks.

On Friday, the daily Haaretz newspaper published an article alleging that Israeli soldiers in Gaza were instructed by their commanders to shoot at the crowds of Palestinians approaching aid sites, even as it was evident that the crowds posed no threat.

One soldier who spoke anonymously with Haaretz described the approach routes to the aid sites as a “killing field” where Israeli forces open fire even if there is no immediate threat. According to the article, Israeli forces recently began dispersing crowds with artillery shells, which resulted in a sharp rise in casualties.

“We strongly reject the accusation raised in the article — the IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in response to the article. “To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have also rejected the report as “vicious lies designed to discredit the IDF – the most moral army in the world.”

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed as they approached aid sites or trucks carrying aid since May 27, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Palestinians have come under fire on a near daily basis as they approach the sites, health officials and emergency responders have said.

On multiple occasions, the IDF has acknowledged firing what it called “warning shots” at Palestinians approaching military positions near aid distribution sites. It has also said that it is examining reports of casualties, but it has not publicly released any findings to date.

According to Haaretz, the Military Advocate General has instructed the IDF General Staff’s Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism – which reviews incidents involving the potential violations of the laws of war – to investigate suspected war crimes near the aid sites.

“Any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary,” the IDF said on Friday.

Shots fired at controversial aid sites

The Gaza aid sites where the deaths have occurred are run by the controversial Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which hands out pre-packaged boxes of food at a handful of locations in southern and central Gaza. The group’s distribution was chaotic from the start one month ago, with crowds of desperate Palestinians rushing the sites the moment they open to take the available aid before it runs out, often within less than an hour.

GHF was set up to replace the United Nations aid distribution mechanism, which Israel and the US have accused Hamas of looting. Hamas has rejected those claims, and humanitarian groups say most of the UN-distributed food aid reaches civilians.

GHF coordinates with the Israeli military to designate specific routes for Palestinians traveling to their aid sites and has come under sharp criticism from aid experts. It has acknowledged some episodes of violence occurring outside of its immediate aid sites, but repeatedly described food distribution operations as having “proceeded without incident.”

In response to the Haaretz reporting, the organization said it was “not aware” of the specific incidents described. Nevertheless, it added, “these allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner.”

On Thursday, the US State Department announced that it is awarding $30 million to the organization, a sign of continued US support for GHF, which says it distributed 46 million meals in four weeks of operations.

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President Donald Trump celebrated after the Supreme Court moved to block lower courts from issuing universal injunctions, something that had impacted his executive orders.

The president held a news conference just over an hour after the ruling was issued and said the Supreme Court had stopped a ‘colossal abuse of power.’ 

‘I was elected on a historic mandate, but in recent months, we’ve seen a handful of radical left judges effectively try to overrule the rightful powers of the president to stop the American people from getting the policies that they voted for in record numbers,’ Trump said on Friday.

Trump also accused lower court judges of trying to ‘dictate the law for the entire nation’ rather than ruling on the cases before them.

On Friday, Supreme Court Justices ruled 6-3 to allow the lower courts to issue injunctions only in limited instances, though the ruling leaves open the question of how the ruling will apply to the birthright citizenship order at the heart of the case.

The Supreme Court agreed this year to take up a trio of consolidated cases involving so-called universal injunctions handed down by federal district judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state. Judges in those districts had blocked Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship from taking force nationwide – which the Trump administration argued in their appeal to the Supreme Court was overly broad.

The Supreme Court’s arguments in May focused little on the merits of those universal injunctions – and on Friday, the court made clear that it is not ruling on whether the birthright citizenship orders are constitutional.

‘The applications do not raise – and thus we do not address – the question whether the Executive Order violates the Citizenship Clause or Nationality Act,’ Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, writing for the majority. ‘The issue before us is one of remedy: whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions.’

‘A universal injunction can be justified only as an exercise of equitable authority, yet Congress has granted federal courts no such power,’ she added.

Coney Barrett took a swipe at Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying that her argument was ‘ at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself. We observe only this: [Jackson] decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.’

In her dissent, Jackson warned that the ruling allowed the president to ‘violate the Constitution’ and presented ‘an existentia threat to the rule of law.’

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A provision inside President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ that would have lessened regulations on certain firearms was one of many stripped policies that did not pass muster with Senate rules.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled late Thursday night that policy changes that would delist short-barrel rifles, shotguns and suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA) would have to be scrubbed from the Senate Finance Committee’s portion of the mammoth bill.

The provision would have allowed for those particular guns and accessories to no longer be subject to a $200 federal tax. They would also no longer have needed to be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Changes to the NFA were part of the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act, a bill pushed by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., in the upper chamber, and Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., in the House.

‘This is a setback, but we are committed to working with the parliamentarian to protect the Second Amendment in any way we can through reconciliation,’ Marshall told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘‘Shall not be infringed’ is crystal clear and the rights of gun owners must be respected.’

Indeed, lawmakers do have the opportunity to rewrite the provision to comport with the Byrd Rule, which governs the budget reconciliation process and allows either party in power to skirt the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate.

Clyde told Fox News Digital in a statement that he disagreed with the ruling, ‘as the taxation and registration of firearms under the draconian NFA are inextricably linked.’ 

‘I’m working with my Senate Republican colleagues to rewrite the language so we can retain our 2A wins and deliver the best possible outcome for the American people,’ he said. ‘We must seize this rare opportunity to restore our Second Amendment rights.’

Arguments before the parliamentarian, who many Republicans lashed out at on Thursday following rulings that stripped key, yet divisive, Medicaid tweaks from the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ are expected to continue throughout Friday and likely until the last few minutes before the final bill is revealed.

The gun provision was one of many tax-related items stripped from the package. Others included subsidies for private schools and carve-outs for religious colleges from the endowments tax, among others.

There are other provisions still under consideration, including ‘Trump Accounts,’ which would have set aside $1,000 in taxpayer money for newborns, requiring Social Securities numbers for a slew of tax credits, and making tax benefits for those who invest in opportunity zones permanent. 

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Russia has amassed 110,000 troops in the vicinity of Pokrovsk as part of its efforts to take over the strategic eastern Ukrainian city, the Ukrainian military chief said Friday.

Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday that the area around Pokrovsk was the “hottest spot”along the 1,200-kilometre (745 miles) front line which runs across the east.

Russian forces have been trying to capture Pokrovsk for almost a year, staging one grinding offensive after another. But despite having a clear advantage in terms of the number of troops and weapons available, Moscow has failed to take over the city.

Pokrovsk is a strategic target for Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his goal is to seize all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk his forces partially occupy.

Kyiv and its allies accuse Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of stalling on peace efforts so that his forces can seize more Ukrainian territory.

Although not a major city, Pokrovsk sits on a key supply road and railroad that connect it with other military hubs in the area. Together with Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, it forms the backbone of Ukrainian defenses in the part of Donetsk region that are still under Kyiv’s control.

Some 60,000 lived in Pokrovsk before the war, but the majority have left in the three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine’s last operating coking coal mine was in Pokrovsk and many of its employees were staying in the area to keep it going. Once it was forced to shut down early this year, they too began to leave.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based conflict monitor, said late last year that Ukrainian defensive operations in Pokrovsk have forced Russia to abandon its original plan to take over Pokrovsk in a frontal assault.

The ISW said this was because Ukrainian troops began using drones as integral part of their defensive strategy, successfully integrating drone operators with their ground forces.

At the same time, Russia was unable to increase the number of troops in the area by much, because it was trying to contain the surprise incursion of Ukrainian troops into its own territory in the southern Kursk region.

Syrskyi told reporters last week that at one point, the Kursk operation pulled back nearly 63,000 Russian troops and some 7,000 North Korean troops.

“This allowed us to weaken the enemy’s pressure on the main fronts and regroup our troops. And the enemy’s capture of Pokrovsk, announced back in September 2024, has not yet taken place, thanks in part to our Kursk operation,” he said.

Instead of continuing to attacking the city directly, Russian troops then began encircling the city from south and northeast.

The ISW said in its most recent assessment on Friday that Russian forces were continuing assaults with small fireteams of one to two soldiers, sometimes on motorcycles, in all-terrain vehicles and buggies.

In a statement issued on Friday, Syrksky said Russia continued to try to break through to the administrative border of the Donetsk region.

“They want to do this not only to achieve some operational results, but primarily for demonstrative purposes. To achieve a psychological effect: to put the infamous ‘foot of the Russian soldier’ there, plant a flag and trumpet another pseudo-‘victory’,” he said.

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