Russia has amassed approximately 110,000 troops near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday. The area around Pokrovsk is considered the “hottest spot” along the 1,200-kilometer front line that runs across the east.
Russian forces have been trying to capture Pokrovsk for almost a year, staging one grinding offensive after another, but despite having a clear advantage in terms of troops and weapons, Moscow has failed to take over the city.
Pokrovsk is a strategic target for Moscow, sitting on a key supply road and railroad that connects it with other military hubs in the area. Together with Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk, it forms the backbone of Ukrainian defenses in the part of Donetsk region still under Kyiv’s control.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his goal is to seize all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk that his forces partially occupy.
Syrskyi told reporters last week that at one point, the Kursk operation pulled back nearly 63,000 Russian troops and some 7,000 North Korean troops. “This allowed us to weaken the enemy’s pressure on the main fronts and regroup our troops.
And the enemy’s capture of Pokrovsk, announced back in September 2024, has not yet taken place, thanks in part to our Kursk operation,” he said. Instead of continuing to attack the city directly, Russian troops then began encircling the city from the south and northeast.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its most recent assessment that Russian forces were continuing assaults with small fireteams of one to two soldiers, sometimes on motorcycles, in all-terrain vehicles, and buggies.
Syrskyi said Russia continued to try to break through to the administrative border of the Donetsk region. “They want to do this not only to achieve some operational results but primarily for demonstrative purposes. To achieve a psychological effect: to put the infamous ‘foot of the Russian soldier’ there, plant a flag and trumpet another pseudo-‘victory,'” he said.