Ukrainian forces hold ground in Pokrovsk amid intense Russian assault

Ukrainian forces are holding their positions in Pokrovsk as the fiercest fighting is raging in the northern part of the eastern Ukrainian city, Kyiv said.

The Ukrainian authorities have further denied reports that Russian troops managed to encircle the embattled city in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Ukraine's General Staff spokesperson, Major Andrii Kovale, told Ukrainian media outlets that access to Pokrovsk remains open and that troops, including wounded soldiers, are being rotated in and out.

The Ukrainian military said in a statement on Monday that “Ukrainian units are confidently holding their positions and destroying the occupiers on the approaches to the town.”

“Logistics to the town are complicated, but are being carried out.”

Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram that its forces were advancing on the town, noting gains in two of its districts.

A video circulating on Russian Telegram channels since Monday evening shows Russian assault troops on motorbikes and other light vehicles heading into Pokrovsk under the cover of fog.

Euronews could not independently verify or geolocate the video.

According to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence project DeepState, Ukraine's troops have less than 10 kilometres of an access point to keep logistics flowing into their pocket in Pokrovsk.

The US-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed that the situation in the area remains “difficult” as Ukrainian forces fight to hold the “shoulders of the pocket and Russian forces continue to advance in the area”.

“Ukrainian forces are simultaneously counterattacking within Pokrovsk and on its western outskirts to prevent further Russian advances on the southern shoulder of the pocket,” the ISW stated.

The think tank also said that Russian forces likely maintain fire control over Ukrainian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) into the pocket, complicating Ukrainian logistics.

“Russian forces appear to be working simultaneously to complete the encirclement of the entire pocket and to reduce the pocket itself. The prospects and timeline for those efforts remain unclear.”

Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russia was concentrating about 150,000 troops on a drive to capture Pokrovsk, dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk”.

He said mechanised groups and marine brigades were part of Russia’s offensive. “There are ongoing battles and fights raging on. There are fast manoeuvres carried out by the enemy all the time,” Syrskyi explained.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 27 October that Russian troops outnumbered Ukrainian forces eight-to-one in their offensive to capture Pokrovsk.

What is left of Pokrovsk?

Russia has been trying to occupy Pokrovsk for over a year amid the Kremlin’s efforts to capture the whole of the Donetsk region since the initial invasion in 2014.

The eastern Ukrainian town of some 60,000 before Russia's full-scale invasion of early 2022 has remained a target of key importance throughout the war.

The main battle for Pokrovsk began in mid-2024, following Ukrainian forces' withdrawal from Avdiivka in February of that year.

From there, they retreated towards Pokrovsk — formerly a significant logistics base and transport hub for Ukraine’s armed forces, where multiple roads and rail lines intersect.

Pokrovsk sits on a junction of several major roads, leading to Donetsk and Kostyantynivka in the east and Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia to the west.

Under relentless Russian assaults with constant drone and artillery attacks on a key highway and rail lines, Kyiv adjusted its logistics and redirected them to alternative supply routes, shifting the hub function from Pokrovsk, which by now has been almost entirely left in ruins.

The Ukrainian city also has symbolic value for the Kremlin.

Formerly one of Ukraine's strongholds on the eastern front, Pokrovsk is exceptionally close to what has been seen as Ukraine's deep rear.

Dnipro — one of the largest cities in Ukraine, with a population of around 1 million — is about 2.5 hours by car from Pokrovsk. For Kyiv, losing Pokrovsk could mean the war is closer to central Ukraine and its better-protected deep rear.

For Moscow Pokrovsk would be the largest city Russia has seized since Bakhmut in May 2023.

Occupying the city would also play into the Kremlin’s maximalist demands of getting closer to seizing all of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

Moscow’s relentless offensive in Pokrovsk and the intensified assaults over the past few weeks also demonstrate the Kremlin’s unwillingness to settle for a ceasefire in its war against Ukraine and put an end to its full-scale invasion, according to experts.