The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces has warned Russian activity is increasing around the key frontline town of Pokrovsk, saying “the situation is difficult”.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi admitted Russian infantry was massing in the area and said he had visited the frontline himself for talks with key commanders.

But he said reports that Ukrainian troops had been “blockaded” there by Russian forces was “untrue” propaganda.

There have been growing reports of Russian advances around the strategic town in the Donetsk region in the east of Ukraine. It forms a key transport and supply hub and its capture could unlock Russian efforts to seize the rest of the region.

In a statement on Telegram, General Syrskyi said: “In Pokrovsk, enemy infantry, avoiding combat, is amassing in the urban area and changing locations, so the primary objective is to identify and destroy them.”

He added: “The situation is difficult, but Russian propaganda claims about the alleged ‘blockade’ of the Ukrainian Defence Forces in Pokrovsk, as well as in Kupiansk, are untrue.”

He said commanders were having to maintain “a reasonable balance between goals and capabilities.”

“The main priority is preserving the lives of our soldiers,” he added.

Russian forces have been trying to seize Pokrovsk for more than a year. Taking it would give them a path towards taking the two biggest cities still controlled by Ukraine in the region – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s chief of general staff, Gen Valery Gerasimov, claimed earlier this week Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk had been surrounded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Pokrovsk was “the main target” for Russia whose forces there, he said, outnumbered Ukrainians by eight to one.

He told reporters Russia wanted to take the town to convince the United States that Ukraine was on the run.

“They do not have a result they can ‘sell’ to the Americans. We understand why they need Pokrovsk. They need it only to claim that Ukraine withdraws from the east and gives everything else they want,” Zelensky said.

In its latest assessment, the defence intelligence firm, Sybelline, said the battle for Pokrovsk “has entered a highly dynamic and intense phase, as the Russian forces intensify their efforts to infiltrate the city and encircle Ukrainian defenders”.

Deepstate, a Ukrainian monitoring group, said Russian forces were “gradually engulfing” Pokrovsk “with [their] sheer number of personnel”.

It said Russian troops were infiltrating deeper into the town and disrupting Ukrainian supply routes.

“The situation in Pokrovsk is on the brink of crisis and continues to deteriorate, to the point where it may be too late to fix everything,” the group concluded.

Romania says a Russian drone has breached its airspace – the second Nato country to report such an incursion.

Romanian fighter jets were in the air monitoring a Russian attack in Ukraine on Saturday and were able to track the drone near Ukraine’s southern border, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the incursion could not be a mistake – it was “an obvious expansion of the war by Russia”. Moscow has not commented on the Romanian claims.

On Wednesday, Poland said it had shot down at least three Russian drones which had entered its airspace.

In its statement, Romania’s defence ministry said it detected the Russian drone when two F-16 jets were monitoring they country’s border with Ukraine, after “Russian air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure on the Danube”.

The drone was detected 20km (12.4 miles) south-west of the village of Chilia Veche, before disappearing from the radar.

But it did not fly over populated areas or pose imminent danger, the ministry said.

Poland also responded to concerns over Russian drones on Saturday.

“Preventative operations of aviation – Polish and allied – have begun in our airspace,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a post on X.

“Ground-based air defence systems have reached the highest state of readiness.”

Earlier this week Russia’s defence ministry said there had been “no plans” to target facilities on Polish soil.

Belarus, a close Russian ally, said the drones which entered Polish airspace on Wednesday were an accident, after their navigation systems were jammed.

On Sunday, the Czech Republic announced it had sent a special operations helicopter unit to Poland.

The unit consists of three Mi-171S helicopters, each one capable of transporting up to 24 personnel and featuring full combat equipment.

The move is in response to Russian’s incursion into Nato’s eastern flank, the Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said.

In response to the latest drone incursion, President Zelensky said the Russian military “knows exactly where their drones are headed and how long they can operate in the air”.

He has consistently asked Western countries to tighten sanctions on Moscow.

US President Donald Trump also weighed in on airspace breach earlier this week, saying he was “ready” to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, but only if Nato countries met certain conditions, such as stopping buying Russian oil.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been making slow progress in the battlefield.

Trump has been leading efforts to end the war, but Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin returned from a summit with Trump in Alaska last month.

Paris ( Imran Y. CHOUDHRY):- French President Macron late Tuesday appointed Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu as France’s new prime minister, the country’s fourth in about a year.

Lecornu, 39, is the youngest defence minister in French history and architect of a major military buildup through 2030, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

A former conservative who joined Macron’s centrist movement in 2017, he has held posts on local authorities, overseas territories and during Macron’s yellow vest “great debate”, where he managed mass anger with dialogue. He also offered talks on autonomy during unrest in Guadeloupe in 2021.

His rise reflects Macron’s instinct to reward loyalty, but also the need for continuity as repeated budget showdowns have toppled his predecessors and left France in drift.

There were celebrations across France after Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a vote of confidence in the National Assembly on Monday. MPs ousted Bayrou by 364 votes to 194 over his austerity budget, which aimed to cut €44 billion to reduce the country’s national debt. ‘Farewell drinks’ for the prime minister were held in several cities, with many happy to see the back of a prime minister widely seen as having little popular mandate. However, there was concern in other quarters over France’s growing political instability.