Near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine
–
The quiet, moonless black is broken only by the cry above the Russian drone.
Dmytro has yet to receive patients at his small two-bedfield hospital near Pokrovsk, but that is no longer a good result. The Dawn begins to break – Twilight, where evacuation of injured people from the frontline is the safest – but it has not yet arrived, and the enemy drones are constantly swirling up.
“Evacuation can be very difficult,” Dmytro said. “Many of the injured have to wait a few days. For Russian drone pilots, it’s an honor for them to kill the doctor and kill the injured.”
No frontline injuries will arrive tonight. The saturation of the sky Moscow drone above is already palpable at this stabilization point at 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the Russians, which may have made it impossible for even armored vehicles to safely extract injured people. Follow the road, the battle will furious for the main town of Pokrovsk.
Across the eastern part of Ukraine, small Russian interests are supplemented. It is leveraging a series of small advancements to cast important resources on new summer attacks.
He has been reporting for more than four days in the village behind Kostiantynivka and Pokrovsk. This is two of the most suffering Ukrainian towns in the Donetsk region, and CNN witnessed a rapid change in territorial control. Russian drones were able to penetrate deeply into the areas where Kiev’s army once relied on as a gentle oas, and the army struggled to find personnel and resources to stop the enemy’s sustained advancement.
Russia’s momentum comes as US President Donald Trump fundamentally shortens the deadline to ease Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deadline from the 50th to 12 days. Trump said he was “very disappointed” in Putin, saying the Kremlin’s head has already decided not to enjoy the ceasefire the US and its European allies have been demanding for months.
The shortened time slots may be welcomed by Kiev and may provide a deeper sense of urgency in the western capital than diplomatic or military support for Ukraine. However, it appears unlikely that they will change courses in Moscow. The Moscow course is beginning to enjoy dividends with its outstanding talent, tolerance towards the victims and a vast military production line. Ukrainian President Voldymi Zelensky said last week that the Russian military “has not made any progress,” but admitted that the situation on the frontline is “severe.”
The evolving sense of crisis was the most serious around the town of Pokrovsk, and was attacked by Moscow for several months at great cost in Russian life. One of the Ukrainian commanders serving near the town explained a “very bad scenario.” There, the army of the adjacent town risked “enclosed” by Milnorad, Pokrovsk. The officer had already moved to the nearby village of Rodinke, on the edge of Biretsk, putting the supply line of Ukrainian forces within Pokrovsk at risk.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, many officials, the commander feared that a siege would be as likely as Avdivka and Vhredahl last year, on the condition that they discussed sensitive topics.
“There’s been constant pressure along the entire Eastern Front. It’s absolutely everywhere now,” Viktor Tregubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia forces group, which operates in the area, told state television on Tuesday. He said that Russian troops had assaulted them mainly on foot. “If someone is killed, the others will follow soon.”
According to open source mapping by Deepstate, Moscow’s troops have not achieved a small settlement in recent months, but have taken away a small share of settlements with a small strategic use, but the pace of progress has accelerated. More dangerous for Kyiv, recent advances have been strategically beneficial, making the siege of Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka and Kupiansk to the north a clear threat in the coming weeks.
The collapse of these three towns will create three separate crises for Kiev. First, they are urban areas defending the rest of the Donetsk region, controlled by Ukraine, without which the military would not have shelter and hubs for supply. Second, their losses to Moscow will liberate a considerable number of Russian troops and push hard against Kramatarsk and Sloviansk, the largest Donetsk towns under Ukrainian control. Third, this loss exposes Kiev’s army and defends farmland between the Donetsk region and its major city, Dnipro, that barely open farmland is in the way.
The pace of Moscow’s advancement, or at least the increased penetration of their attack drones into civilian regions, was spotted on Tuesday by CNN in the eastern town of Dubropyria. The town was hit by a sustained attack by Russian drones two weeks ago, bumping into multiple civilian targets. Locals have been waiting for police evacuation in town, looking worriedly in the sky, saying that the threat from the drone has quickly grown in the last few days.
Police officers expressed surprise at the rapid clarification of Ukraine’s control, informing CNN that private bus services to the city had suddenly ended on Monday due to security situations, allowing locals to leave their armored police vans or their own vehicles. On Saturday, local officials advised parents to evacuate the child themselves. But by Tuesday, they had dozens of children and residents banished by ferry. One elderly resident in the village of Billetzke was evacuated on Tuesday, saying his home was burned in a drone attack on Monday.
Kiev also faces serious challenges in the town of Kostiantinivka, where its forces quickly saw Russian advances southeast and southwest last week. The Russian FPV attack drone could easily target vehicles in the town, killing a civilian driver on Sunday despite the fact that the explosiveness on the device was not explosive.
Vasyl, commander of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, said he has not been sent new personnel for eight months, and is forced to restock frontline positions for only two men with drones, freeing up food, water and ammunition.
“No one wants to fight,” he said. “The old staff are left, they are tired and want to be replaced, but no one is replacing them,” he accused Ukrainian officers of giving their bosses an inaccurate frontline report. “A lot hasn’t been told, it’s hidden,” he said. “We don’t tell a lot to the states. Our state doesn’t tell a lot to people.”
Further north, near Kupiansk, about 60 miles east of Ukrainian second city Kharkiv, Russian forces ran north of the town, threatening the important supply roads of Ukrainian forces to the west and seizing the village of Radkivka. A Ukrainian source in the city described the situation as “very fast movement,” with Russian analysts saying their troops are on the outskirts of the town.
The accumulation effect of the Ukrainian personnel crisis, the turbulence of Kiev and uncertain supply of weapons with the Trump White House, is a complete storm that has broken in the face of the vitality and persistence of Russian summer attacks, and its progress is no longer progressive, rebuilding competition and approaching part of his goal.
