Russia amasses 100,000 troops in key Donetsk region

Russian President Vladimir Putin has amassed 100,000 troops on the frontlines in eastern Ukraine — sparking fears that the tyrant is ready to launch a new large-scale assault.

Moscow relocated the soldiers to the area outside Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian transportation hub in the Donetsk region that Russia has spent the last 18 months trying to conquer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Kyiv’s allies now fear that the latest push around the city is part of Putin’s strategy to make a big year-end push to conquer the remaining strongholds in the area and fulfill his ambition of capturing the entire Donbas region, Bloomberg reported.

The build up of Russian troops near Pokrovsk sparked worries at last week’s European security council meeting as leaders worked to hash out details of the security guarantees for post-war Ukraine.

Moscow has touted that it will soon take over the key stronghold, with its forces making small gains of a few hundred yards around the city last month, according to the Washington-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

While Russia’s latest summer offensive has failed to yield big results like with previous pushes before Ukraine’s muddy season begins, the ISW’s Russia Team lead George Barros told the Post that Pokrovsk will likely fall within the year.

Should Russia conquer the city, only the fortresses at Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, will remain as the key defenders of Donetsk, which has seen about 70% of its territory captured so far.

Putin has made Donetsk one of his key demands to ending the war, claiming Russia could conquer it by October.

While the latest developments have raised alarms over the status of the war, Barros previously described the fight for Pokrovsk as emblematic of Russia’s struggle to make meaningful gains in the fourth year of the war.

“It took Russia about 18 months to make its way to the city, but Pokrovsk has already outlived its usefulness,” Barros told The Post. “So it isn’t too much of a loss compared to what it took Moscow to get.”

This latest summer offensive has only resulted in Russia taking 785 square miles of land, about 0.3% of Ukraine’s territory, according to Bloomberg.

As of Thursday, Ukrainian forces were able to push back another push from Russian soldiers in Pokrovsk, according to the latest assessment from the ISW, which tracks daily battles in the war.

The intense battles come as Zelensky spoke with European leaders and President Trump on Thursday to push for a diplomatic end to the war.

“We discussed different options, and the most important is pressure, using strong measures, particularly economic ones, to force an end to the war,” Zelensky said in a statement. “The key to peace is depriving Russia’s war machine of money, depriving it of resources.”

With Post wires