MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Ukraine’s army is faced with the most difficult situation in the Toretsk area in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Ukrainian General Staff said.

"The situation in the Toretsk area is tense," it wrote on its Telegram channel.

According to the General Staff, fierce fighting continues in the Pokrovsk area.

The Russian defense ministry reported earlier that Russia’s Battlegroup Center has improved its tactical positions and hit units of the Ukrainian army’s 24th and 41st mechanized brigades, the 109th and 129th territorial defense and the 2nd National Guard brigades near the settlements of Mikhailovka, Novgorodskoye, and Toretsk in the DPR.

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky said on July 2 that the key problem is to recruit "motivated, well-trained soldiers," as well as provide the army with modern electronic warfare and air defense means to counter Russian drones.