KYIV – Russia has amassed 110,000 troops in the vicinity of Pokrovsk as part of its efforts to capture the strategic eastern Ukrainian city, the Ukrainian military chief said Friday.
Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday that the area around Pokrovsk was the “hottest spot” along the 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) front line that runs across the east. Russian forces have been trying to seize Pokrovsk for almost a year, launching one grinding offensive after another. But despite having a clear advantage in troop numbers and weaponry, Moscow has so far failed to take the city.
Pokrovsk is a strategic target for Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his goal is to seize all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which his forces partially occupy. Kyiv and its allies accuse Putin of stalling peace efforts so that his forces can capture more Ukrainian territory.
Although not a major city, Pokrovsk sits on a key supply road and railroad that connect it with other military hubs in the area. Together with Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, it forms the backbone of Ukrainian defenses in the part of Donetsk region still under Kyiv’s control. About 60,000 people lived in Pokrovsk before the war, but most have left in the three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine’s last operating coking coal mine was located in Pokrovsk, and many of its employees stayed in the area to keep it running. Once it was forced to shut down earlier this year, they too began to leave. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based conflict monitor, said late last year that Ukrainian defensive operations in Pokrovsk had forced Russia to abandon its original plan to capture the city in a frontal assault.
The ISW noted this was because Ukrainian troops began using drones as an integral part of their defensive strategy, successfully integrating drone operators with ground forces. At the same time, Russia was unable to significantly increase troop numbers in the area because it was trying to contain the surprise incursion of Ukrainian troops into its own territory in the southern Kursk region.
Syrskyi told reporters last week that at one point, the Kursk operation drew away nearly 63,000 Russian troops and around 7,000 North Korean troops. “This allowed us to weaken the enemy’s pressure on the main fronts and regroup our forces. And the enemy’s capture of Pokrovsk, announced back in September 2024, has not yet taken place, thanks in part to our Kursk operation,” he said. (CNN)
