Russia closes in on Ukraine’s Pokrovsk in one of the war’s key battles

Russia’s troops are slowly closing in on Ukraine’s eastern city of Pokrovsk, seeking to gain control of the supply hub in a critical battle as the war nears the three-year mark.

Ukrainian forces are trying to slow down the advance of Russian military near the city in the Donetsk Oblast, to stop them reaching the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.

Pokrovsk is located at the intersection of several highways connecting key cities in eastern Donetsk and an important railway station.

Yet a lack of manpower and Russian drone attacks on supply routes are holding back Ukraine’s army. There are fears that if Russian troops capture or even bypass Pokrovsk, they could move deeper into the country and force Ukrainian troops to withdraw.

The only strategy to prevent this — according to Ukrainian commanders — is to inflict as many losses on the Russian forces as possible, buying time to hold their ground.

Ihor, a senior battery officer in the 38th Brigade, told Euronews that Russian forces were constantly trying to “breach the frontline”.

“Sometimes it’s less, sometimes it’s more. But their intentions are constant, it’s active combat here now,” he said.

“I don’t support concessions of territories. We have already gone through this twice. And it’s just delaying, and allowing time for Russians to go further with new strength.”

Ukrainian soldiers in Pokrovsk say Russian forces have switched tactics recently, attacking the flanks instead of going head-on to form a pincer movement around the city. With Russians in control of dominant heights, Ukrainian supply routes are now within their range.

What’s more, Ukrainian commanders say they do not have enough reserves to sustain defence lines and that new infantry units are failing to execute operations.

Most of the city’s population has been evacuated, with fewer than 2,000 residents believed to have remained out of a pre-war population of some 60,000.

Maksym, a civil-military cooperation officer with the Ukrainian army, said that he had helped many people to leave the city, but that some residents were difficult to convince.

“Unfortunately, pensioners don’t have that desire [to leave],” he told Euronews.

“Nor do those who expect the Russians to come and rebuild everything,” he added. “But as practice has shown, nothing will be fixed. There will be nothing left except ruins.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week after a meeting with the UK’s Foreign Minister David Lammy in Kyiv that the situation in Pokrovsk remained complicated and that Russia was amassing its forces there.

Moscow is set on capturing as much territory as possible as the administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing negotiations to end the war.

Trump recently froze foreign assistance to Ukraine, a decision that has shocked Kyiv officials already apprehensive about the intentions of the new US president, their most important ally. However, military support has not stopped, according to Zelenskyy.