As part of a wider strategy to capture as much Ukrainian land as possible, the Russian military is making progress toward an important Ukrainian town.

Pokrovsk has been in the crosshairs of the Russian military leadership for months. However, a determined Ukrainian resistance has kept the Russian forces at bay and has prevented the fall of the town.

Now, the Russian forces have renewed their efforts to capture Pokrovsk by attacking from multiple directions.

The Battle of Pokrovsk

“Russian forces recently cut the T-0504 Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka highway east of Pokrovsk and the T-0406 Pokrovsk-Mezhova highway southwest of Pokrovsk as part of their efforts to envelop Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad,” the Institute for the Study of War assessed in its latest estimate of the conflict.

The Russian military has been trying to capture Pokrovsk for the past several months. The town is a key point in the Ukrainian defensive line. If it fell to Russian hands, the Ukrainian military’s ability to attack and defend in that part of the contact line would be seriously frustrated.

Thus far, the Russian forces have been unable to capture the town through frontal assaults. As a result, they are trying to bypass Pokrovsk and approach from the flanks in an attempt to surround the town and force the Ukrainian defenders to withdraw. The Russian military leadership does not want to get tied down in another protracted urban fight. And most urban fights are protracted. As such, the Russian military leadership is trying to avoid an urban fight altogether.

Pokrovsk is a main logistics hub, and a lot of resources pass through there.

“Russian forces likely intend to interdict Ukrainian ground lines of communications (GLOCs) into Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in order to force Ukrainian units to withdraw from the towns in future months,” the Institute for the Study of War added.

A think-tank based in Washington, D.C., the Institute for the Study of War has been providing daily and accurate updates on the tactical, operational, and strategic aspects of the conflict.

Russian Casualties

Meanwhile, the Russian forces continue to take extremely heavy losses on a daily basis.

Over the past 24 hours, the Russian military, paramilitary units, and pro-Russian separatists took approximately 1,330 casualties killed or wounded, according to the data released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. In addition, the Russian forces lost approximately 83 tactical vehicles and fuel trucks, 72 unmanned aerial systems, 48 artillery pieces and multiple launch rocket systems, 11 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 3 main battle tanks, and 1 piece of special equipment damaged or destroyed.

Overall, the Russian forces have lost more than 810,000 men killed or wounded in the fighting. If the current rate of casualties persists, Moscow will have lost over 850,000 men by the third-year anniversary of the conflict, on February 24, and well over 1 million by the end of this year.

In 2024 alone, the Russian forces lost over 400,000 troops in what was the deadliest year of the conflict. And yet, Moscow managed to replace those troops in an almost one-to-one ratio.

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ). He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.