MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. The most difficult situation for Ukrainian troops over the past 24 hours has emerged in the Pokrovsk area on the Kiev-controlled territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Ukraine’s General Staff said on its Telegram channel on Monday.

"The Pokrovsk direction was the hottest spot," Ukraine’s General Staff said.

Defense circles told TASS on July 28 that Russian troops had liberated the settlement of Progress in the Pokrovsk direction and gained a strategically important frontier near the railways, maximally restricting the Ukrainian army’s logistics.

Meanwhile, some commanders of the Ukrainian army’s 59th motorized infantry brigade fighting in the Pokrovsk direction had been disciplined after reports in social media that the military command’s orders had resulted in heavy casualties.

Colonel (Retired) Oleg Starikov of Ukraine’s Security Council said earlier that Ukrainian troops could not contain a tactical crisis that had emerged in the Pokrovsk direction. He admitted that Russian forces fully possessed the strategic advantage. He further said that the Ukrainian authorities were making "a lot of strategic mistakes.".