Russian forces pressuring Pokrovsk as ‘last battles’ rage
By Dan Peleschuk
KYIV, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Russian forces are trying to advance around the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Kiev’s military said on Monday, hoping to conclude a months-long campaign to capture the strategic center as Moscow tries to seize the entire Donetsk region.
Ukraine has struggled to stop Russia’s slow advance around Pokrovsk and elsewhere along the 1,200 km (746 mile) front line as it comes under US pressure to reach a peace deal to end the four-year war in ongoing talks.
Kiev’s General Staff said on Monday that its forces were still holding the northern part of the city of Pokrovsk, which had a pre-war population of 60,000, and were also defending the smaller nearby city of Myrnohrad.
Pokrovsk, a railway junction, has been the scene of violent clashes since last year. Its fall would be the biggest battlefield victory since Russia captured the eastern city of Avdiivka in early 2024.
Moscow claimed to have captured Pokrovsk late last year, which Kiev denied.
Analysts say Russia has seized only 1.3 percent of Ukraine’s territory since early 2023, but aerial bombardments have severely damaged the national energy network in recent months.
Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps, which oversees defense in the region, said Russia was “putting pressure on the Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad region” by exploiting “inadequate” Ukrainian air defenses, using guided bombs and controlling heights and flanks with greater manpower.
Ukrainian open source researchers DeepState said Russian infantry was advancing towards the northern part of Pokrovsk and trying to advance towards the nearby village of Hryshyne.
The group, whose map shows almost all of Pokrovsk and much of Myrnohrad is under Russian control, described the current clashes as “the last battles” for the two cities.
‘MATTER OF YEARS’
Nearly four years after its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, Russia occupies almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine occupied before the war.
Russia demands that Ukraine give up the remaining 20% of the industrialized Donetsk region it failed to capture, but Kiev refuses to do so.
Moscow has vowed to continue fighting until the war achieves its goals and said the territorial issue was of “fundamental importance” to ongoing US-brokered peace talks.
Polls show that a majority of Ukrainians say it would be unacceptable to cede the rest of Donetsk, which includes the heavily defended, so-called “fortress cities” of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, in exchange for peace.
“[E]”Even under these conditions, the capture of the entire Donetsk region remains a matter of several years for Russia,” he said.
“Fighting for the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk build-up could take up to three years and come at the cost of huge losses for the occupying forces.”
(Additional reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Gareth Jones)
