Ukrainian forces are quickly losing territory and are nearly encircled in Pokrovsk.
The nearly two-year-long battle appears to be nearing its end. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Tuesday that Russian forces had reached the central, northern, and northeastern regions of the city. Pokrovsk is considered pivotal to Ukrainian defenses in the Donbas region.
South Front reports Russian forces are tightening the encirclement of Ukrainian forces near the city center, and Kiev’s troops east of the city have retreated. “Unfortunately, everything is sad in the Pokrovsk direction,” wrote a Ukrainian drone unit calling itself Peaky Blinders on the messaging app Telegram. “The intensity of movements is so great that drone operators simply do not have time to lift the [drone] overboard.”
South Front said that Russian forces stepped up attacks along the frontlines in the Kharkiv region and made gains in other areas of the Donbas.
Antiwar.com’s Ted Snider explained that the loss of Pokrovsk will have three major impacts on Ukraine. “The first is that Pokrovsk is a key logistical hub, the loss of which would threaten the Ukrainian armed forces’ ability to supply their troops in the Donbas,” he wrote at the American Conservative. “The second is that, beyond Pokrovsk, Russian troops may find mostly undefended fields as they continue their march west across the Donbas. The third is that Pokrovsk is home to Ukraine’s only coking coal mine.”
As the Ukraine war is nearing the four-year mark, Russian forces continue to slowly take territory. Ukraine has failed to mount any effective offensive to retake its territory in three years.
While the frontlines have only slowly changed, the missile and drone war is escalating. Reuters reported on Thursday that operations halted at the Volgograd refinery. “The plant has been stopped. CDU-5 was on fire, there is some damage to the hydrocracker,” one of the sources explained.
The outlet added that Ukraine fired 75 drones at Russia over the past 24 hours. The Russian Defense Ministry said that it downed over 250 drones, and one civilian was killed.
