Russian forces are around 3 kilometres to the south of the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. It is a road and rail hub in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, with a pre-war population of 60,000 people. Ukraine estimates that around 11,000 of them remain in the city.
Pokrovsk lies on a key road used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts including Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region. Ukraine’s only mine that produces coking coal – used in its steel industry and vital for its pre-war economy – is just a 20-minute drive to the west of Pokrovsk.
An industry source said last week that Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest BV had halted some of the mine’s operations because of the proximity of Russian troops advancing on Pokrovsk. Its complete closure could more than halve Ukraine’s steel output, the country’s steelmakers’ union has warned.
Pokrovsk has hosted since 2014 an important technical university, the largest and oldest in the wider region. Damaged by shelling, it has now suspended its operations.
Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and sees taking control of Pokrovsk as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into Russia. Kyiv and the West reject Russia’s territorial claims as illegal and accuse Moscow of prosecuting a war of colonial conquest.
Control of Pokrovsk, which the Russian media call “the gateway to Donetsk”, would allow Moscow to severely disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area.
Squeezing the Ukrainian military’s access to the road network in the vicinity would make it harder for Kyiv’s troops to hold pockets of territory on either side of Pokrovsk, which could allow Russia to consolidate and advance the front line.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander, has said his troops in and around Pokrovsk have prepared for the approaching Russians by repeatedly strengthening their defensive positions and he has spoken of sending new reserves, ammunition and equipment to bolster the defenders.
Russian forces have taken villages and other settlements south of Pokrovsk in recent months and Ukraine says Moscow has been throwing everything it has at trying to break through while sustaining huge losses. Moscow says Ukrainian forces are taking serious losses. Neither side discloses full casualty figures.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Pokrovsk in November where he spoke to troops defending the city and handed out military awards.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
