The fight for the “gateway to Donetsk”. Difficult situation for Ukrainian troops on a day when Russia claims to have destroyed the special forces sent to Pokrovsk / Firm message from Kiev

The situation remains critical in Pokrovsk, the city in eastern Ukraine considered the “gateway to Donetsk”. Kiev says its special forces are continuing to fight to defend the city, while Moscow claims it has completely destroyed them and that more and more Ukrainian soldiers are surrendering, Reuters and BBC write

Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk, dubbed the “gateway to Donetsk,” since the summer of 2024 as part of its campaign to take full control of the Donetsk region, which it considers annexed. The city, which had 70,000 inhabitants before the war, was almost completely destroyed and depopulated.

The capture of Pokrovsk would represent Russia's most significant territorial gain inside Ukraine since the capture of the destroyed city of Avdiivka in early 2024 after one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Since then, Russia has made steady but slow progress in the intense fighting on the roughly 1,000-kilometer front that would have cost the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

Kiev says the fighting, though extremely costly, is at a standstill and territorial losses are minor, while Moscow claims it is still making important gains.

On the other hand, information circulating on sources among military bloggers claims that Russian forces control almost 60% of the city's territory.

A high-ranking Ukrainian officer in the Pokrovsk direction says that Russia controls approximately 60% of Pokrovsk and that the gray zone from Deep State's map should be marked as Russian-controlled. https://t.co/IuhVOYJAw2 pic.twitter.com/st098h3HOw

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) November 1, 2025

“We resist Pokrovsk”

“We are resisting Pokrovsk,” Ukraine's army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, wrote on Facebook.

“A large-scale operation to destroy and drive out enemy forces from Pokrovsk is underway,” he continued.

For his part, resident Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the defense of the city is the army's “priority”: “Pokrovsk is our priority. We continue to destroy the occupier… They must be stopped where they have arrived, and destroyed there.”

Ukraine announced it had deployed special forces to Pokrovsk earlier this week, landing a Black Hawk helicopter. At least 10 Ukrainian servicemen were seen disembarking from a helicopter in a field in a video seen by Reuters.

The Russians announced that they destroyed the Ukrainian special forces sent for defense

The Russian Defense Ministry's Zvezda publication said on Saturday that Ukrainian servicemen had begun surrendering inside the city of Pokrovsk and released a video of two men it said were Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the images or the time or place of the filming.

Kiev announced this week that it had sent a helicopter with a special forces team to Pokrovsk on a mission to halt the advance of Russian troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Saturday that its forces had killed all 11 members of the Ukrainian unit.

A Ukrainian military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied the report, saying the operation was ongoing.

Russia also announced that its troops repelled an attempt by a Ukrainian unit to break out of the town of Hrysîne, northwest of Pokrovsk. The fighting in that area is considered significant, as it could indicate that Russian forces are close to cutting off Ukrainian supply lines to Pokrovsk.

The Ukrainian military said the situation in Pokrovsk “remains difficult and dynamic” but that it had “managed to improve tactical positions in several districts of the city”.

Russia aims to conquer the entire Donbas region, consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukraine still controls about 10 percent of Donbas, an area of ​​about 5,000 square kilometers located in the west of the Donetsk region.

Pokrovsk, a key node for control of Donetsk

Russian officials say taking control of the northeastern towns of Pokrovsk and Kostiantînivka would allow Moscow's forces to advance north toward the two largest cities in the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

They described increasing progress in the Pokrovsk area in recent days. Reuters says it could not verify reports from the front because access is restricted on both sides.

The Deepstate map, created by Ukrainian analysts based on open-source imagery, shows Russian troops in full control of a small part of the southern city, with the rest marked as a “grey area” under neither side's control.

The deployment of special forces suggests that officials in Kiev are determined to try to keep the city, which Russia has been trying to capture for more than a year.

Local media reports that the head of Ukraine's military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, was in the region to personally oversee the operation.

Pokrovsk is a key transport and supply hub, and its capture could facilitate Russia's efforts to take over the rest of the region.

But Kiev also believes that such a conquest would serve Russia in its efforts to convince the United States that its military campaign is successful, and therefore that the West should give in to Moscow's demands.

Washington has increasingly expressed frustration with the Kremlin's inability to make progress in peace talks, culminating in US President Donald Trump's decision to impose sanctions on Russia's two biggest oil producers and cancel plans for a summit with Vladimir Putin.

Zelenski indicated that he would be open to Trump's proposal for a cease-fire that would freeze the war on the current front lines. Russia has publicly insisted that Ukrainian troops leave the rest of Donbas.

This is the Pokrovsk mine complex now. Two facilities are beyond repair, one is under Russian occupation, and Ukrainian forces hold the fourth under daily assault, the Peaky Blinders unit reported. pic.twitter.com/rRW7joBoi9

— WarTranslated (@wartranslated) November 1, 2025