Ukraine risks losing Pokrovsk, one of its last major defences in eastern Donetsk Analysis by ABC News

Ukraine faces an increasingly dire situation in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, where its forces are struggling to repel Russia’s months-long offensive aimed at capturing the Donetsk region, according to the latest analysis by David Brennan and Patrick Reevell from ABC News.

Once home to around 60,000 people, Pokrovsk has become a central battleground in Russia’s effort to seize all of Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian troops continue to hold parts of the city, but Russian forces are closing in from both the north and south, threatening to cut off the main supply routes. Ukrainian military reports say those roads are now under near-constant drone fire, making it difficult to deliver reinforcements or withdraw troops safely.

Fighting has now reached the streets of Pokrovsk. Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi described the situation as “difficult,” noting that Russian troops are paying a heavy price to fulfil “the Kremlin dictator’s task of occupying Ukrainian Donbas.”

During a visit to the nearby Dobropillia sector this week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reaffirmed that Ukrainian forces would “do our utmost to keep it Ukrainian,” calling the defence of Pokrovsk vital to the country’s territorial integrity.

Ukraine’s General Staff estimates that since the start of 2025, Russia has lost about 200,000 soldiers killed or wounded in the Donetsk region — most of them around Pokrovsk and Kupyansk. While those figures cannot be independently confirmed, Western intelligence broadly aligns with Kyiv’s casualty estimates.

Russian Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov recently told President Putin that as many as 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers were “encircled” near Pokrovsk — a claim rejected by Ukrainian officials and even questioned by some Russian analysts.

The battle for Pokrovsk mirrors earlier fights for Bakhmut and Avdiivka, where Ukrainian troops held out for months before ultimately retreating amid heavy losses. Analysts say the same pattern is now unfolding, with Russian forces advancing slowly but at enormous human cost.

Some Ukrainian and Western commentators have criticised Kyiv’s decision to defend Pokrovsk so fiercely. Military analyst Paroinen said, “The Russians are already too deep and in too many numbers inside Pokrovsk for Ukrainians to be able to throw them out.”

Still, Ukrainian officials defend their strategy. Lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of Zelenskyy’s party, said the goal is “to make the Russians lose more of their soldiers and to save our soldiers.”

But frustration is mounting among military insiders. Vitalii Deineha, founder of the Come Back Alive Foundation, warned that “we have practically already lost Pokrovsk,” arguing that continuing to hold Myrnohrad “makes no sense.”

“We should not be afraid of rating drops,” he added. “There will be no elections next year — there will be war again. And someone will have to fight it.”

By Tamilla Hasanova