Ukraine’s army continues to inflict massive casualties on Russian forces trying to capture Pokrovsk. Vladimir Putin‘s army has been trying to capture the eastern city for the past 21 months, as it looks to secure a major breakthrough before the winter.
The besieged city is known as the “gateway to Donetsk” and is a key logistical and transport hub for Ukraine‘s army on its eastern front. Its fall would be a bitter pill to swallow for Kyiv, which has rushed in special forces to try and shore up its defences. However, it looks increasingly likely that the Kremlin’s army will take its first major city since the fall of Bakhmut.
Despite the difficult situation, Zelensky’s troops continue to exact a very high price for every inch of territory taken.
Ukraine’s lethal drone units have turned the city’s perimeter into a coordinated kill zone. The UAVS are able to detect Russian soldiers hiding under rubble, making no place safe in the besieged city.
The specialist drone unit Birds of Madya claims to have killed 8,005 Russian troops in October alone.
One video clip shared to social media channels shows the bodies of 39 Russians lying dead in the city’s rubble, along with remains of six motorcycles and a quad bike.
GUR special forces added 1,500 Russian casualties in a single month, using fibre-optic drones to overcome electronic warfare. In addition, they destroyed 39 artillery systems, 18 air defence assets, 20 tanks, and 532 vehicles.
Defence analysts are unceasingly pessimistic about Ukraine’s chances of holding the city, even as the army’s commander-in-chief Oleksander Syrskyi insists the fight is not over.
Researchers for the Institute for the Study of War say it is simply a matter of time until the inevitable happens.
However, they note that Russian forces are struggling to focus on a single decisive objective in the Pokrovsk direction.
Instead is simultaneously attempting to close the encirclement of the wider Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad pocket while also attacking within both towns.
