Russia has deployed around 170,000 troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region where they are trying to capture the stronghold of Pokrovsk in a major push for a battlefield victory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday.

Moscow’s forces infiltrated Pokrovsk after months of attacks on the city, a strategic part of Ukraine’s eastern defenses.

Hi, this is Asami Terajima reporting from Kyiv on day 1,346 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today's top story: About 170,000 Russian troops are deployed in the Pokrovsk sector in eastern Donetsk Oblast to aiming capture the semi-surrounded city,

Russian President Vladimir Putin is claiming that Ukrainian forces are surrounded by the Russian army in two key eastern cities and is offering to negotiate a deal for their surrender