Zelensky Appoints High-Flying General to Critical Donbas Sector, Scene of Heavy Russia Losses

President Volodymyr Zelensky named one of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s (AFU) most popular and successful generals to command in the eastern Donbas region on Sunday, as Ukrainian and Russian forces were locked in heavy battles across the fighting line in the strategically-critical Pokrovsk sector.

He will take over leadership of the Khorytsia operational-strategic group, the AFU headquarters responsible for operations along a 300+ kilometer line of front that has been the scene of the war’s most intense fighting for more than a year, Zelensky said during a nightly evening national video statement. Drapaty already was commander of all AFU ground forces and will keep that job, the Ukrainian leader said.

Aged 42, Drapaty is among the most prominent of a “new generation” of younger Ukrainian general officers that had fought against Russian forces since 2014. He came to prominence and senior command thanks to battlefield successes combating Russia’s second, more massive invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Drapaty is usually credited for stitching together defenses in Ukraine’s chaotic southern sector in early 2022, and then planning and leading a counteroffensive that liberated the Kherson region later that year. In later operations along the Dnipro River his command pioneered mass use of FPV drones to control air space and dominate terrain behind Russian lines,.

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Prior to appointment to ground forces command in Nov. 2024, Drapaty-led forces brought major Russian offensives to a halt in the northern Kharkiv and eastern Luhansk regions. Among rank and file Ukrainian service personnel, Drapaty is usually considered a careful commander focused on inflicting maximum enemy casualties, and a thorough planner prioritizing protecting troop lives over holding ground to the death.

Drapaty’s appointment came against a background of continued, heavy Russian assaults in the Khortysia area of responsibility. Per data made by Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) on Monday, over the past week Ukrainian forces engaged Russian forces 1,080 times in a “combat clashes”, of which nearly half – 488 - were aimed towards the city at the center of the Khortysia defensive network, the industrial city of Pokrovsk.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday announced its forces had captured Velyka Novosylka, a locally-significant road-hub on the approaches to Pokrovsk, and claimed the Kremlin offensive aiming to break Ukrainian defenses and encircle and capture the industrial center city Pokrovsk was accelerating. Russian forces in mid-January broke Ukrainian defenses around Kurakhove, a town 30 km. south of Pokrovsk, after more than a month of battles and heavy losses,

Khortysia spokesman Major Viktor Tregubov, in Sunday comments during a national telethon claimed the Kremlin was wrong and that portions of Velyka Novosylka remain under AFU control, and that defenders are fighting hard to retain a toehold there. Russian attacks towards Pokrovsk generally were slowing down in frequency and intensity, because of troop shortages following heavy losses, he said.

“They (Russian forces) don’t have an unlimited number of personnel, which they used to simply throw into the city wave after wave, until they started to cling to some suburbs, then enter the city, then destroy buildings closer to the center, and so on. They have already abandoned this tactic in Pokrovsk. And this indicates that they simply no longer have the people to use such tactics,” Tregubov said.

“The goal of the Ukrainian troops is to slow down and destroy the Russian troops…. This is partially successful, and we see this in the example of Pokrovsk, where the Russians are not moving forward, as they used to do, but are (still) trying to capture it,” he said.

Maksym Bakulin, spokesman for the Donbas-deployed 14th National Guard Brigade, in Saturday comments published by the Ukrainian army information platform Armiyainform.com confirmed Ukrainian front-line troops in the Pokrovsk sector have observed continuing Russian attacks, but with seemingly fewer troops than in the past.

“They use less manpower than before, and use more heavy equipment and off-road …They (attacking Russian units) have started bringing personnel closer (by vehicle). Previously, they often sent them on foot, now in most cases they bring them closer (by vehicle), then they de-bus them them. From there they try to fight under the cover of cannon artillery and multiple launch rocket systems,” he said.

Bakulin said the Russian attack columns met and repelled by 14th Brigade in recent combat are usually small, consisting of two tanks, such as a T-72 and a T-90, leading the column, and 2-4 armored personnel carriers that disembarking soldiers and then try and support the attack with vehicle weapons. In most cases Ukrainian artillery, mortars and drones stop and burn the Russian vehicles, and then surviving soldiers are shelled or hit with FPV drones that hunt them down, he said.

Ukrainian combat formations led by 59th Motorized Brigade deployed in the Pokrovsk sector over the weekend and on Monday published drone footage documenting destruction of Russian troop transporters including ATV buggies, motorcycles, pickup trucks, tanks and MTLB armored transporters. Recent battle reports from the Pokrovsk sector likewise told of continuing Russian attacks with little ground gained and heavy losses.

Kiril Sazonov, a volunteer and peacetime political scientist, in a Sunday analysis said the Pokrovsk sector is the Russian army offensive’s “main direction” and where the Kremlin has concentrated firepower. Ukrainian lines are generally holding but, in small sectors, Russian forces still are managing to advance at the price of heavy casualties.

“There are no substantial advances or successful assaults with the capture of noticeable areas.There is only massive pressure slowly pushing back AFU units literally meter by meter…No new reserves can affect the speed of advance of this “military machine” in the Donetsk mud. It is getting stuck. The second point is the enemy’s losses…The ‘Pokrovsk furnace’ is becoming for the Donetsk (main) group of occupiers (Russian forces)… A large mass grave. The ZSU have developed the situation to the point that the enemy is suffering massive daily losses with no noticeable results. He is burning all his reserves in this furnace.”

The popular army blogger Alex33, a lieutenant in the ground forces with 175,000 followers on Telegram, wrote on Saturday of combat in the Pokrovsk sector: “The enemy has been actively using assault infantry groups. Some groups advancing from the west of the village of Novovasylivka were hit by mortars and shells, bodies were scattered across the field. The desire of the (vulgar word for Russians) to attack has been dampened somewhat, but they are bringing up reserves. They are not yet risking crossing open fields, they are waiting for an opportunity, in particular, they are hoping for fog!”