Ukrainian soldiers encircled by Russian forces in the key eastern city of Pokrovsk have started surrendering, the defence ministry in Moscow claims.

But Ukraine‘s military has pushed back on the report by the TASS state news agency, saying the situation is “difficult and dynamic”.

Kyiv has also claimed its positions in some districts of Pokrovsk have improved despite its city being infiltrated by Russian troops.

Latest: Russian attacks are ‘nuclear terrorism’, Ukraine warns

Ukraine is increasing its number of assault troops in the area, the 7th Rapid Response Corps said on Facebook.

And Ukrainian troops are also working to cut Moscow’s military logistics routes, it added.

The Russian defence ministry also said its forces defeated a team of Ukrainian special forces that headed to Pokrovsk in a bid to prevent Russian forces from advancing further into the city.

‘Footage of Ukrainian troops after surrendering’

It later posted videos of two Ukrainian troops who, it claimed, had surrendered.

The footage showed the men, one dressed in fatigues and the other in a dark green jacket, sat against a wall in a dark room, as they spoke of fierce fighting and encirclement by Russian forces.

The videos’ authenticity could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate public comment from Kyiv on the Russian ministry’s claims.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously acknowledged that some Russian units had infiltrated the city. But he maintained that Ukraine is tackling them.

He said Russia had deployed 170,000 troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, where Pokrovsk is located, in a major offensive to capture the city and claim a big battlefield victory.

‘Operation to destroy enemy forces’

Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Saturday the situation in Pokrovsk remained “hardest” for Ukrainian forces, who were trying to push Russian troops out.

But he insisted there was no encirclement or blockade as Moscow has claimed.

“A comprehensive operation to destroy and push out enemy forces from Pokrovsk is ongoing. The main burden lies on the shoulders of the units of the armed forces of Ukraine, particularly UAV operators and assault units,” Mr Syrskyi said.

Read more:
Ukraine will work on ceasefire plan within next 10 days
24 hours in the kill zone

Why is Pokrovsk important?

One of Moscow’s key aims has been to take all of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of coal-rich Donbas, which comprises of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Kyiv still controls about 10% of Donbas.

Capturing Pokrovsk, which Russian media has dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk”, and Kostiantynivka to its northeast, would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

‘Key Russian fuel pipeline struck’

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as HUR, has said its forces have hit an important fuel pipeline in the Moscow region that supplies the Russian army.

In a statement on Telegram, HUR said the operation late on Friday was a “serious blow” to Russia’s military logistics.

HUR said its forces struck the Koltsevoy pipeline, which is 250 miles long and supplies the Russian army with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.

The operation, which targeted infrastructure near Ramensky district, destroyed all three fuel lines, HUR said.

The pipeline was capable of transporting up to three million tonnes of jet fuel, 2.8 million tonnes of diesel and 1.6 million tonnes of gasoline annually, HUR said.

Russia ‘targets gas production site’

Also overnight, Russia launched an attack on a gas production site in Poltava, in central Ukraine.

A fire broke out, the local administration said, but no injuries were reported.

Kyiv condemns ‘nuclear terrorism’

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has condemned Russian strikes this week on substations powering some of its nuclear plants.

It accused Russia of carrying out “targeted strikes on such substations” which “bear the hallmarks of nuclear terrorism”.

Elsewhere, a civilian died and 15 more were injured on Saturday morning after Russia struck the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine with a ballistic Iskander missile, local official Vitaliy Kim said.

A child was among those hurt in the strike, he added.

TORONTO — Nothing beats Game 7 of the World Series. It is sheer, unfiltered entropy, this jewel of a game gone gonzo, an out-by-out mess of nibbled nails and frazzled hair and stomachs set on perpetual loop-de-loop. If baseball is the ultimate thinking man’s game, then Game 7 is the final of its 800-level course, the definitive test of strategy and self-determination and ability to go spelunking in the deepest part of yourself and emerge with the best version. It is sports distilled to perfection.

Whether Game 7 of the 121st World Series, which will take place Saturday at 8 p.m. ET at Rogers Centre and feature the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers, turns an excellent series into an all-timer is not the point. It is the mere possibilities that so penetratingly tantalize. For all of the givens of baseball — the mound is 60 feet, 6 inches away, and the plate is 17 inches wide, and the ball is 5¼ ounces — Game 7 throws the remaining normalcy to the wolves.

There is no such thing as a pitching role; there are merely out-getting cogs whose collective output must add up to 27. There is no spot in the lineup more important than another; heroes can emerge from the No. 9 hole or bench just as easily as leadoff or cleanup. Baseball is unique in this regard, the prospect of the game being lost at any point forcing both managers to operate as they never would otherwise, with urgency bordering on folly. Game 7 is a march to glory or to doom, the most acute binary imaginable.

Other sports’ Game 7s are great, of course, but none flips the game on its head quite like baseball. In the NBA, the decision-making doesn’t change: get the ball to the best players and let them cook. In the NHL, the scheming does not differ demonstrably from the previous six games. The best lines might stay out an extra 15 seconds for their shifts, but it’s essentially the same sport with a little twist.

“Even the Super Bowl, there’s a lot of things that happen, but you’re essentially running the same playbook in one game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Baseball’s different.”

Roberts knows. He managed Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros. Eleven pitches in, the Dodgers trailed 2-0. By the middle of the second inning, the Astros had ambushed Los Angeles for another three runs. The game wasn’t over, but the degree of difficulty for the Dodgers had increased exponentially. They lost that night. The pain still sears beyond Houston’s cheating that season. It was there — history, at their literal fingertips — and then it wasn’t.

This time around, opportunity beckons. The Dodgers plan to start Shohei Ohtani, the greatest talent to ever play the game, on three days’ rest for the second time in his career. How his arm responds is this Game 7’s greatest unknown. Regardless, Roberts learned that night in 2017 that he must meet the game where it’s at, to make uncomfortable choices with unflappable resolve. Maybe it’s a pitching change, and maybe it’s a pinch runner, and maybe it’s sticking with those that brought the Dodgers to the verge of their second consecutive World Series title and third in six years. He doesn’t know. He can’t until the game unfolds.

“There’s certain guys I trust,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to be proactive in Game 7, but you can’t be overly aggressive in certain spots. That’s the beauty of Game 7. It’s gonna be so much fun, dude.”

Roberts’ counterpart is giddy at the prospect, too. A dozen days ago, John Schneider piloted the Blue Jays through Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against Seattle. The peril of do-or-die baseball manifested itself explicitly that night. Instead of treating the game with the rightful exigency, Mariners manager Dan Wilson stuck to his standard script, leaving his best available pitcher, closer Andrés Muñoz, in the bullpen and turning to Eduard Bazardo to hold a 3-1 advantage in the seventh inning with two runners on and George Springer at the plate. One swing later, the Blue Jays led 4-3, and six outs later they were soaking one another in bubbly. The Mariners were resigned to a forever of what-ifs.

Now the Blue Jays find themselves in another must-win situation, only with eight days of energy-sucking World Series baseball behind them. Toronto blitzed the Dodgers with a nine-run inning in a Game 1 win. Los Angeles countered with a Yoshinobu Yamamoto master class in Game 2. The madness of the Dodgers’ 18-inning Game 3 win will live forever. Ohtani couldn’t replicate his legendary Game 3 performance in Game 4, as Toronto evened the series. Rookie Trey Yesavage carried the Blue Jays with a no-walk, 12-strikeout Game 5. Yamamoto went god mode again in Game 6, aided by a fortuitous lodging of an Addison Barger double into the outfield fence that kept a run from scoring and then a catastrophic baserunning mistake by Barger to end the game on a double play.

Now comes Game 7, where anything can — and will — determine who spends the offseason getting fitted for rings and who is left to a winter of regret.

“It’s where legends are made, and it’s where second-guessing can happen,” Schneider said. “I’m going to try to do the former, not the latter. Just let the players put themselves in good spots and go do it. It’s crazy that nine months ago we started this and it comes down to one game, but we wouldn’t have it any other way, and I really think that we’ve had enough guys that are in this situation to where they’ll be able to navigate.

“You don’t want to leave any stone unturned. You don’t want to not fire any available bullets. But I really think going through it against Seattle, you want to try to stay normal and not just get too trigger-happy one way or another. Someone will have to make big pitches, and someone will have to make big swings. That’s just what it comes down to. Numbers objectively, people subjectively, you make the best decision and ultimately the players decide.”

Which players get to make those decisions is the fun of it. How long of a leash does Ohtani get? And when he leaves, who replaces him? Is it Blake Snell, whose entry could prompt Schneider to pinch hit for left-handed hitters in his lineup? Or Tyler Glasnow, who recorded the first save of his professional career in Game 6 and is ready to pitch again in Game 7? Or Roki Sasaki, the starter-turned-closer ready to pitch any inning, first through ninth?

Toronto will counter with Max Scherzer, the 41-year-old future Hall of Famer, who subsists on know-how as much as stuff. He no longer possesses the arsenal to compete with any of the Dodgers’ arms, but he brings experience in this form, having started Game 7 in 2019. Scherzer went five innings and allowed 11 baserunners but just two runs. He exited down 2-0, only for his Washington Nationals teammates to smack a pair of seventh-inning home runs that gave them a 3-2 lead they would not cede.

This version of Scherzer will be policed by the baserunner, and Schneider won’t be afraid to turn to his other starters, be it Yesavage, Shane Bieber or even Kevin Gausman, who threw 93 pitches in Game 6.

“Trey’s available. Shane’s available,” Schneider said. “I mean, if we go 20 innings, Kev will be available. We’ll worry about next year in the offseason.”

Schneider sipped a Left Field Greenwood IPA out of a paper cup and planned to knock back a couple more as Friday turned to Saturday and he went home with his wife, Jessy, and his sons, Gunner and Grayson. He would play some Xbox with the boys before going to bed, rising and heading back to Rogers Centre at 12:30 p.m. sharp like always.

As much as Game 7 can fray nerves, Schneider wants to approach it as if it’s any other day — a noble, if unrealistic, goal. Because this isn’t normal. Forty times baseball’s championship has been decided in a Game 7, and for the handful of duds, more often it gilds everlasting moments. Luis Gonzalez walking off Mariano Rivera, and Edgar Renteria breaking Cleveland’s heart, and Bill Mazeroski hitting the only championship-clinching home run in a winner-take-all game. The Cubs breaking a 108-year drought and the 1924 Nationals needing 12 innings to beat the Giants. Jack Morris’ 10-inning gem and Madison Bumgarner going five shutout innings on two days’ rest.

“It’s chaos,” Roberts said.

Beautiful, glorious, unbeatable chaos.

Game 7 is here. Cherish it. Sports gets no better.

Game. Seven.

On Saturday night, a World Series champion will be crowned. Will it be a Los Angeles Dodgers repeat, making them the first team to go back-to-back since the 2000 New York Yankees? Or will it be the Toronto Blue Jays‘ first title in 32 years?

Before the Dodgers and Blue Jays take the field for a winner-take-all finale to a thrilling World Series, we asked our MLB experts to break down what will decide which will be the last team standing.

We’ll cover all the action here, so tune in again later for pregame lineups, live analysis during the game and our takeaways following the final pitch.

How could the Blue Jays set up their pitching in Game 7?

The first rule of Game 7, as manager John Schneider said immediately after Game 6, is that everyone is available. He said even Kevin Gausman, who just threw 93 pitches in Game 6, will be available. No, it wouldn’t be unprecedented for him to pitch: Randy Johnson started Game 6 in 2001 for the Diamondbacks and then got the final four outs to win Game 7.

Max Scherzer is the Game 7 starter, but the Blue Jays’ bullpen is in great shape to soak up a lot of innings. Closer Jeff Hoffman didn’t pitch in Game 6, so he’s on two days of rest and could go a couple of innings. Schneider did use his four other top relievers in Game 6 (Louis Varland, lefty Mason Fluharty, Seranthony Dominguez and Chris Bassitt), but none threw more than 17 pitches, so they’re available as necessary, with Fluharty likely to be tasked at some point to get through the Shohei Ohtani–Will Smith–Freddie Freeman part of the lineup.

Bassitt didn’t pitch in the postseason until the ALCS but has now reeled off 7⅔ scoreless innings while allowing just one hit. Schneider has to consider him a multi-inning option. Game 4 starter Shane Bieber will be an option pitching on three days of rest after throwing 81 pitches.

Indeed, it all points to a very quick hook for Scherzer. Though he has survived his two postseason starts — two runs in 5⅔ innings against the Mariners and then three runs in 4⅓ innings against the Dodgers — he has allowed five walks and the three homers in those 10 innings, so he has hardly dominated. Remember, he was terrible in September (10.20 ERA), and his two postseason starts have come on 21 and 10 days of rest. Now, he’ll be starting on four days’ rest. With Bassitt and Bieber available, the Jays might ask for only three innings from Scherzer and will likely be willing to get him out before trouble hits. — David Schoenfield

How could the Dodgers set up their pitching in Game 7?

The Dodgers plan to open with Shohei Ohtani, and that makes sense for many reasons. For one, Tyler Glasnow, who was previously lined up to start Game 7, was used out of the bullpen to close Game 6. More importantly, though, starting is the smoothest path to getting Ohtani on the mound.

Because of the two-way rule, coming in as a reliever would mean Ohtani would have to play a position — in this case, the outfield, where he hasn’t played all season — to bat again after coming out as a reliever. That’s not the case if he opens. Ohtani could close, as he did to finish the 2023 World Baseball Classic for his native Japan, but that would present other logistical challenges. When does he warm up? And how would that be impacted by him preparing to take his turn to bat? Or if he’s preoccupied running the bases?

So, expect Ohtani to start — and stay on the mound for however long he is effective and throwing his best stuff. Glasnow should be available to pitch bulk innings after him. He has never thrown in back-to-back games, but he also threw just three pitches in Game 6. After that? Roki Sasaki will be available, though he threw 33 pitches Friday night. So might Blake Snell, who started Game 5. Ideally, the Dodgers won’t have to venture beyond that. — Alden Gonzalez

What should we expect to see from Ohtani in Game 7?

Ohtani made a start on three days’ rest once: April 21, 2023. But that was after throwing only two innings in the prior start. This time, he’ll take the mound on the biggest stage after a six-inning, 93-pitch start. So, there is no precedent from which to draw. But Ohtani loves the moment. He showed it two weeks ago, when he homered three times and threw six scoreless innings to clinch a pennant. And he showed it two years ago, when he emerged from the bullpen in Miami and struck out then-teammate Mike Trout to win Major League Baseball’s prestigious international tournament. Whatever the expectations might be, Ohtani will strive to exceed them. — Gonzalez

The Dodgers’ bats finally perked up in Game 6. What does L.A. need to do to keep that going?

The Dodgers need to be themselves. That sounds corny, and it is. But that’s part of what the Game 6 story was about. After all of their struggles on offense, the strikeouts piled up early against Kevin Gausman. But they kept working at-bats, driving up his pitch count, and put together the one rally they needed. It hasn’t been pretty, but it’s how the Dodgers are built. Mookie Betts finally checked in on offense and has to be feeling a lot better about things heading into Saturday. That’s huge. The Dodgers have scored six runs over the past three games, and the lineup is too loaded for that to continue. Of course, it doesn’t mean the funk will dissipate by Saturday. — Bradford Doolittle

The Blue Jays’ hitters were uncharacteristically quiet in Game 6. How can they get back on track?

Everyone has been uncharacteristically quiet against Yoshinobu Yamamoto this postseason, so it’s not like the Blue Jays need to change much after scoring just once in Game 6. They’re likely facing Ohtani on short rest, Glasnow on none, Sasaki on back-to-back nights or some combination of all of the above. Toronto has been in this situation as recently as the ALCS and isn’t likely to wilt at the plate for a second night in a row at home. Just like Brad said for the Dodgers, the message for the Jays going in should be to just be themselves. — Jesse Rogers

Who are the X factors on each side that could decide Game 7?

Game 7 has turned two players into Hall of Famers: Bill Mazeroski (1960) and Jack Morris (1991) probably wouldn’t be in without their World Series Game 7 performances. Hall of Famers such as Walter Johnson (1924), Yogi Berra (1956), Sandy Koufax (1965), Bob Gibson (1967) and Willie Stargell (1979) have starred in Game 7s. Unsung veterans such as Ray Knight (1986), Charlie Morton (2017) and Howie Kendrick (2019) have stepped up in the moment. Role players such as Gene Larkin (1991) and Craig Counsell (1997) have delivered late-inning heroics.

In other words, anything can happen. Anyone could be the hero. That’s the absolute beauty of this sport. The easiest answer here is the two stars: Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have the opportunity to put exclamation points on their wonderful postseasons. It very well could be that whoever has the better game will lead his team to victory.

If you want a less obscure X factor, let’s go with Will Smith for Los Angeles and Chris Bassitt for Toronto. The Blue Jays have at times shown their reluctance to pitch to Ohtani. If they’re giving multiple intentional walks again — although considering how that backfired in Game 6, Schneider might return to going after Ohtani like he did in Games 4 and 5 — that will give Smith opportunities to hit with a runner on base. For the Jays, it’s simply that Scherzer is unlikely to go very deep into the game, and Bassitt is the guy likely asked to chew up two or three innings in the middle section. — Schoenfield

Finally, prediction time: Who will be the last team standing?

Rogers: Toronto will win 4-2 with Max Scherzer pitching his way into the history books while Guerrero will be the easy MVP pick.

Doolittle: It’s the Dodgers’ baseball world, and the other 29 teams are just tenants. I don’t really believe that, but I do believe that the Blue Jays’ best chance to win was Friday. Now, they have to navigate a Dodgers lineup that is champing at the bit and a pitching staff that can roll out Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell in the same game. I’m taking L.A. and though I’d be shocked if it’s a runaway, I don’t see it being dramatic. Dodgers 7, Blue Jays 3.

Schoenfield: Blue Jays in seven was my pick heading into the World Series, so I’ll stick with that. Their pitching situation is in much better shape, and the Dodgers will be scrambling to fill all nine innings. And, really, it’s not as if the Dodgers’ bats broke out in a huge way in Game 6. The Jays haven’t touched Yamamoto, but he’s not starting this game.

Lineups

Series tied at 3

Starting pitchers: Shohei Ohtani vs. Max Scherzer

Dodgers

TBD

Blue Jays

TBD

Live analysis

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