CNN
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Russia has gathered 110,000 troops near Pokrovsk as part of its efforts to take over the strategic eastern Ukrainian city, the Ukrainian military chief said on Friday.
Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday that the area around Pokrovsk is the “hottest place” along the 1,200-kilometer (745 miles) frontline that runs east.
The Russians had been trying to capture Pokrovsk for almost a year, making offensive attacks one after another. However, despite having distinct advantages in terms of the number of troops and weapons available, Moscow failed to take over the city.
Pokrovsk is a strategic target in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his goal is to partially occupy the eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Kiev and his allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of stagnating peace efforts, allowing his troops to seize more Ukrainian territory.
Although not a major city, Pokrovsk sits on the main supply roads and railways that connect with other military hubs in the region. Along with Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, they will form the backbone of Ukrainian defence in parts of the Donetsk region, still under Kyiv’s control.
About 60,000 people lived in Pokrovsk before the war, but most have left in three years since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine’s last operating Koh mine was in Pokrovsk, and many of its employees were staying in the area to continue doing so. When they were forced to close early this year, they began to leave too.
The WAR Institute (ISW), a US-based conflict monitor, said Ukrainian defence operations in Pokrovsk late last year forced Russia to abandon its original plan to take over Pokrovsk in a frontal attack.
ISW said this was because Ukrainian forces began using drones as an integral part of their defensive strategy, consolidating drone operators and ground forces.
At the same time, Russia was unable to significantly increase the number of troops in the region as it was trying to contain the surprising invasion of Ukrainian troops into its own territory in the southern Kursk region.
Silsky told reporters last week that at one point, Kursk’s operations had pulled back nearly 63,000 Russian troops and around 7,000 North Korean troops.
“This has allowed us to reduce pressure on the enemy’s main fronts and reorganize our troops. And the capture of enemy Pokrovsk, announced in September 2024, has not yet happened thanks to Operation Kursk,” he said.
Instead of continuing to attack the cities directly, Russian forces began surrounding the cities from the south and northeast.
In its latest assessment on Friday, ISW said the Russian troops continue to attack with 1-2 soldiers’ small fires, sometimes motorcycles, with all-terrain vehicles and buggies.
In a statement issued Friday, Sirksky said Russia continued to plunge into the administrative borders of the Donetsk region.
“They want to do this not only for achieving some operational outcomes, but primarily for empirical purposes. To achieve psychological effects: to place the infamous “Russian soldier’s feet” there, plant the flag and trumpet another pseudo-‘Victory’,” he said.
