#pokrovsk

#pokrovsk

For a time Pokrovsk was a haven, a wartime Ukrainian boom town because of its strategic position in the east, 30 miles (48km) from the front. But that was before the summer of 2024, when a rapid Russian advance engulfed the industrial centre in a shattering conflict, a duel only now reaching its endgame. The 18-month battle for Pokrovsk epitomises the current state of the Ukraine war: an attritional struggle in which gradual Russian advances have been made at extraordinary human cost.

Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said Russian forces have also captured the city of Vovchansk in Kharkiv. Russian forces say they have captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub that has been under siege for almost two years. The Kremlin announced the news in a Telegram post on Monday, citing Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

For Ukraine, the logic of this war has never changed: make Russia pay dearly for every metre. Force them to bleed for ground, and in Pokrovsk, that strategy is paying dividends. Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Pokrovsk was a town of 80,000, a logistics hub and administrative centre in western Donetsk. Now it's a shattered shell. What remains is not a city, but a position: roads, supply routes, and terrain that shape the wider fight.

Zelenskyy, in his October 26 nightly video address, said Russia had concentrated large numbers of forces around Pokrovsk and the nearby Myrnohrad community in the long-fought-over area in eastern Ukraine. "It is there, near Pokrovsk, that the Russians have concentrated their main strike force -- a significant number of enemy troops," Zelenskyy said. "Of course, this creates a difficult situation in Pokrovsk and all nearby areas -- fierce battles in the city and on its outskirts. There are enemy reconnaissance and sabotage groups in the city."

The operation was carried out late on Friday, according to a statement on the Telegram messaging channel. The agency, which is known by its acronym HUR, described it as a "serious blow" to Russia's military logistics. HUR said its forces struck the Koltsevoy pipeline, which spans 250 miles and supplies the Russian army with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.