Ukraine’s leaders are under pressure to order an urgent retreat from the eastern city of Pokrovsk and the neighbouring town of Myrnohrad, as Russia’s invasion force tightens its grip on the area and threatens to close all escape routes for its defenders.
Pokrovsk became Russia’s main target after it occupied the town of Avdiivka, 50km to the east, in February 2024, and its capture would be Moscow’s most significant battlefield success since it took the ruins of Bakhmut, 75km northeast of Pokrovsk, in May 2023.
All three places were heavily fortified military hubs for the Kyiv-controlled part of Donetsk region, and Ukraine clung to them even in the face of impending defeat so as to inflict maximum losses on the enemy and buy time to prepare deeper defensive lines.
Assessed Russian presence in Ukraine, based on data from the Institute for the
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