Putin's war depends on the bloodiest battle in Ukraine. The conquest of “gate to Donetsk” could take years and kill millions of people
On the front line of Ukraine, a relatively small but strategic city has become the scene of a decisive confrontation. Pokrovsk, nicknamed by the Russian press “the gate to Donetk”, is desperately defended by the Ukrainian army, while Moscow makes huge efforts to conquer it.
Ukrainian artillery at Pokrovsk/Photo: Profimedia
Former British information officer Philip Ingram, invited in an analysis broadcast on the YouTube channel of The Sun, describes the city as a “boiler” surrounded by three parts by Russian troops. If they were falling, Pokrovsk would give Kremlin a huge logistics advantage: control of a vital rail and road network for supplying the Donbas front.
“Russia tries to close the boiler and isolate Ukrainian troops from within. It is Putin's main objective, comparable to the Bahmut battle,” explains Ingram.
Bahmut, conquered by the Russians after months of fighting in 2023, was considered the bloodiest episode of the war so far. A similar scenario is now outlined in Pokrovsk: wear fights, continuous bombings and massive human losses.
Failed offensive and Moscow's calculations
A few weeks ago, just before a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Russia tried a quick maneuver to circle the city. The operation failed: the Ukrainian forces counterattat and broke the circle.
According to Ingram, the Russians did not have a solid plan to turn a punctual penetration into a real conquest. “To break a front, you need tracking bands. And Russia didn't have them,” he says.
Although Moscow also has other attack directions – including in Zaporojie – the concentration of forces remains on Donbas. “Russia has invested too much here. Pokrovsk is the key to control everything in the Donetk region, the last part of the Donbas that is not under Russian occupation,” points out the expert.
The estimates of the British intelligence services are bleak: the conquest of the whole Donets could take four more years and cost Moscow up to two million victims.
The lost air war and the failure of “Blitzkrieg”
The analysis also discusses another strategic failure of Russia: control of the air space. Although, on paper, the Russian aviation was clearly superior, Kiev managed to block the “blitzkrieg of the widow” that the Kremlin had prepared in the first days of the invasion.
“The battle for the sky of Ukraine was a story of calculation errors, but also of ingenuity and brutal adaptation,” says Ingram.
Trump's Plan for Peace
In this context, US President Donald Trump presented a plan to quickly conclude the war. He has announced that he will impose massive economic sanctions to Russia, but only if all NATO states are committed to stopping Russian oil purchases.
Moreover, Trump has asked the Alliance to adopt hard commercial rates against China, which he accuses indirectly supporting Moscow's war effort. “If NATO does what I say, the war will end quickly, and the lives will be saved,” the American leader said.
