Russia has advanced within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub for Kyiv’s troops in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to open-source satellite imagery.
A battlefield map compiled by the DeepState social media site from satellite imagery and battlefield footage, shows Moscow’s troops making marginal but steady gains south of Pokrovsk, having taken over Shevcheko, a rural settlement roughly 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the city, over the last week.
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The New York Times (NYT), reported Thursday that Moscow had shifted recent tactics near Pokrovsk using open terrain to the south of the city to out-flank Ukrainian positions rather than directly engaging Kyiv’s defensive lines.
Pokrovsk sits on a key road that links multiple cities that formed a defensive arc against Moscow’s advances and is the last major city in the central part of the Donetsk region that remains under Kyiv’s control, the NYT added.
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky described the situation in Pokrovsk as “extremely fierce” on Thursday in a Facebook statement after visiting frontline positions, adding that Kyiv has been reinforcing defenses to contain Moscow’s advances.
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A need for unconventional decisions
Syrsky also mentioned the “unconventional decisions” Kyiv would have to make to bolster defense and “more effectively destroy the invaders” without providing further details.
Serhii Kuzan, the chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, a non-governmental research group, told the NYT that Ukraine might launch a surprise offensive to divert Russian troops basing his assessment on Syrsky’s previous tactics, such as the Kharkiv counteroffensive and Kyiv’s Kursk incursion.
“Speaking of unconventional decisions, including in the Pokrovsk direction, we recall these two examples and understand that this is Syrsky’s approach,” Kuzan said.
Superior manpowernumbers
The NYT attributed Russian advances to Ukraine’s troop shortages – while Syrsky acknowledged that Moscow troops are “superior, primarily in manpower” in his Thursday statement, troops defending Pokrovsk blamed other factors for the dire situation.
Speaking to AP News in August, when Russian troops had advanced within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of Pokrovsk, some commanders defending the city said inadequate training and the poor quality of replacement troops were to blame.
“The main problem is the survival instinct of newcomers. Before, people would stand until the last moment to hold the position. Now, even when there is light shelling of firing positions, they are retreating,” a soldier with the 110th Brigade said at the time.
The NYT also reported that Russian advances in the Donetsk region in recent months have been “at its fastest pace since 2022.”
Russia has been making creeping gains in Ukraine’s eastern front in recent months, capturing Vuhledar, another key logistics hub and tactical stronghold in the region, after Ukrainian forces withdrew on Oct. 1. Frontline troops later told Kyiv Post that Russia’s evolving tactics and the lack of reinforcements from Kyiv were to blame for the fall of Vuhledar.
Citing analysts, the NYT reported that Moscow likely planned to capture the region to secure a more favorable position for negotiations ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump assuming office in January and pushing for peace talks.
In late 2022, Russia announced the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions after holding what it called referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine, even though it had not occupied all of the four regional territories at the time. Kyiv and Western governments said the votes breached international law and ruled them as illegitimate and non-representative.
At the time of publication, Moscow controls nearly all of the Luhansk region.
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