Russian video shows soldiers walking freely through ruins of Ukraine's Pokrovsk

Russia's defence ministry released video on Thursday showing its soldiers moving freely through the southern part of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, patrolling deserted streets lined with charred apartment blocks.

Russia has been threatening Pokrovsk for more than a year, using a pincer movement to attempt to encircle it and threaten supply lines. Russian maps now show the city under Russian control and Ukrainian troops encircled in neighbouring Myrnohrad.

Ukrainian maps show Pokrovsk as a grey zone under no side's control and Myrnohrad not fully surrounded.

Moscow says taking Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, would give it a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

In the video, which Reuters was able to verify as having been shot in south Pokrovsk, Russian troops are shown walking unchallenged along the empty streets, one pushing a stretcher on wheels. The footage does not show them coming under any attack.

Windows and doors hang shattered from blackened and half-demolished buildings. The branches of silver birch trees are torn by bombs. Even the pedestrian crossing signs are battered and bent. No civilians are seen.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine gives casualty figures for the war but the United States estimates that 1.2 million men have been killed or injured so far, making it Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.