Ukrainian troops launched counterattacks and cleared the center of the city of Pokrovsk of Russian troops, offering a strong response to the Russian offensive that aims to capture this strategic industrial and logistics center in the eastern Donbas region, according to the latest news from this front.
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In a statement issued on Sunday, the 7th Air Assault Corps (AFU) said that infantry assault teams, supported by drones and artillery, cleared the Pokrovsk railway station, the pedagogical college and the central areas of Soborni Square of Russians.
The AFU's 425th Assault Infantry Regiment, a unit trained in urban warfare tactics and deployed by the command as a “paratrooper” formation to intervene in critical sectors, led the operation, the 7th Corps statement said.
Assault troops “liberated the center of Pokrovsk,” wrote Major Valentin Manko, commander of the AFU's assault infantry troops.
The heaviest fighting was done by the 425th Regiment, but small commando teams from special operations forces, other assault infantry units and air assault troops, including paratroopers from the 25th Airborne Brigade, also contributed to the “victory,” he said.
The patrols and raids to clear territory and buildings believed to be harboring Russian troops were “deliberate and precisely planned … and continue,” Manko said.
“The city center is being cleaned,” he relayed. “I ask the whole country to pray for them (Ukrainian stormtroopers) and support them in continuing their mission.”
A source within the 425th Assault Infantry Regiment confirmed to the Kyiv Post that clearing operations in Pokrovsk were continuing, but declined to provide details. Several Ukrainian news platforms gave credit to the 425th Assault Infantry Regiment for the feat. Other Russian infantry troops are still moving freely in the southern districts of the city of Pokrovsk, and clearing operations are progressing slowly, according to reports.
The presence of Ukrainian drones in the sector is strong, and Kremlin forces in the city cannot receive reinforcements, a pilot operator deployed in the Pokrovsk sector told the Kyiv Post. Also, according to the statement of the 7th Air Assault Corps, the advance of the Ukrainian troops in the center of the city left the Russian troops still hidden in the areas, isolated and without access to the resupply of food and ammunition.
The main Ukrainian media channels have confirmed that the operation to clear and control Pokrovsk city center and that fighting is still ongoing in the southern districts. Ukraine's Hromadske news agency, citing Ukrainian soldiers in Pokrovsk, reported on Monday that Russian troops remaining in the city were under pressure following attacks by Ukrainian infantry units and drones (FPVs) and bombers. Russian troops remained in Pokrovsk “unable to settle,” Hromadske reported. Manko reported for his part that the Russian troops still in Pokrovsk “are in a very difficult situation”.
A Russian Defense Ministry report issued Monday morning made no direct reference to the fighting in Pokrovsk. Russian troops, according to this official Kremlin statement, “repulsed” eight attacks launched by elements of the 425th Assault Regiment and the 81st and 95th Air Assault Brigades from Ukraine.
A situation report released Monday morning by the General Staff of the Army of Ukraine (AGS) described the fighting in Pokrovsk as substantial, with almost a third of all frontline clashes in the past 24 hours taking place in this sector. All Russian attacks have been repelled and the situation around Pokrovsk is generally stable, the official statement said.
Veteran AFU infantry units were deployed to Pokrovsk in late October and early November to counter Russian infiltration and conduct “search and strike” operations. The 7th Assault Infantry Corps claimed, without providing evidence, that its troops, in clearing operations in Pokrovsk in November, killed or wounded 378 Russian soldiers and took many prisoners. Ukraine's 3rd Special Operations Regiment, an elite commando unit operating in the Pokrovsk sector, reported Monday that its operatives in a recent raid bypassed a Russian defensive strongpoint, killed and captured Russian soldiers and reached an isolated Ukrainian unit to evacuate the wounded.
The action allegedly took place on the southern outskirts of the city of Pokrovsk.
Despite a flurry of reports that the city center had come under Ukrainian control, independent fighting monitoring group DeepState showed no significant change in battle lines in its map released late Sunday.
The main US network CBS, in its report on Sunday, citing an anonymous US government employee, reported: “The official indicated that the Russian advance in the eastern front city of Pokrovsk, which is a logistics hub for Ukraine, was not a positive sign for Kiev's defensive prospects.”
Dynamic situation
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which tracks developments on the frontline daily, on Saturday assessed the fighting in Pokrovsk as “serious and dynamic” as Russia seeks to capture the city and encircle Ukrainian troops in Mirnohrad to the east. The panel cited an account of an active-duty Ukrainian soldier who said on Friday that Pokrovsk was “completely lost”.
DeepState, a popular Ukrainian blog that follows the war, shows that Russia controls the south and west of Pokrovs, stopping roughly around the pedagogical school and square referred to by the 7th Air Assault Corps.
Russian forces “have amassed a large number of troops to capture this relatively small Ukrainian city,” Ukraine's General Staff chief, Major General Andri Hnatov, told German newspaper Die Zeit in an article published on Saturday. “We continue to fight and try to eliminate the enemy forces that have managed to break into the city. There are about 400 of them.”
