Russian and Ukrainian forces battled on Tuesday and Wednesday in the shattered eastern city of Pokrovsk, a transport and logistics hub that both sides view as strategically decisive in the nearly four-year-old war.
Ukraine said intense combat continued in sectors critical to its frontline supply routes, with special forces and additional equipment deployed. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited troops in the area, including nearby Dobropillia, where Ukrainian units are engaged in counteroffensive operations. He noted efforts to stabilize defensive lines and coordinate units while reinforcing supplies and fortifications.
Russia, which has sought to seize Pokrovsk for more than a year, said its forces were advancing in multiple districts and clearing Ukrainian units from residential areas and nearby settlements. The Defence Ministry described Ukrainian troops as surrounded in parts of the city and also reported pressure near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian officials have denied any encirclements in Pokrovsk, insisting reinforcements are arriving. Reuters could not verify battlefield accounts from either side.
Pokrovsk, once home to roughly 60,000 people, has largely emptied as fighting intensified. Control of the city could provide Moscow a platform to push toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, major Ukrainian-held centers in the Donetsk region. DeepState, a Ukrainian mapping project, indicated Russian gains but showed large areas of contested control. It described the situation as critical.
Russia has framed Pokrovsk as a gateway to securing full control of remaining Ukrainian territory in the Donbas. Moscow has employed pincer movements and small mobile units aimed at disrupting logistics, creating zones where control is uncertain and costly to defend. Ukraine says territorial shifts remain limited, while Russia argues its forces hold the initiative.
Peace efforts remain stalled, and neither side has achieved a decisive breakthrough. Both continue to marshal resources for what appears to be a prolonged, grinding campaign, with the strategic calculus shaped as much by accumulated strain as by territory recovered or lost.
