As of the evening of January 21, 109 combat engagements had taken place on the frontlines, with Russian forces launching their most intense attacks in the Pokrovsk direction, reports the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Russian state news agency TASS said Moscow’s forces had seized eastern Ukraine’s Vovkove village, just 10km (6.2 miles) southwest of Pokrovsk city, a key supply hub for Kyiv’s troops. Moscow’s army also captured Shevchenko earlier,

Kyiv region. A Russian ballistic missile strike in Ukraine's capital on the morning of January 18 killed three people and wounded three others. Dnipropetrovsk region. On the morning of January 17, a Russian missile attack on the region's second-biggest city, home to more than 500,000 residents, killed four people and wounded 14 others.

The Russian army is strengthening its positions in villages around the key eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk in an attempt to encircle it and lay siege to a vital transport hub linking embattled Donbas with the rest of Ukraine.

President Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “destroying Russia” with its nearly three-year war in Ukraine, adding he hopes the Kremlin leader is open to making a deal to end the conflict.

The Ukrainian armed forces are vigorously defending Pokrovsk from Russian attacks, as reported by Oleksandr Syrsky. The Ukrainian armed forces are taking all possible measures to prevent Pokrovsk from being captured by Russian troops.