14 Months On, Ukraine Holds Pokrovsk "With No Imminent Collapse," Angering Putin

Bakhmut - remember that? It was 2023 and the last time Russia captured a major Ukrainian stronghold. Then, in August of 2024, the Russians were finally reported to be about 8 miles from Pokrovsk and about to take it. That was 14 months ago. 

So here we are, almost November 2025 - and Ukraine still holds Pokrovsk having decimated the Russians' alternating infantry infiltration and mechanized assault attempts in turn, as recently as yesterday and the Institute for the Study of War reports no indications of 'imminent collapse of Ukrainian defenses in the area.' Whatever the ultimate outcome of this battle, Ukrainian troops' defense has savaged Russian units,  frustrated the Kremlin and contributed to the Trump administration's attitude change about the inevitability of Russian victory which has led to the latest sanctions. JL

David Stern and Anastacia Galouchka report in the Washington Post:

In August last year, Russia appeared to be on the verge of capturing Pokrovsk. Moscow’s troops advanced to eight miles from the city limits. Estimates varied of how long Pokrovsk could hold out — from a few weeks to a few months. The fact that Ukrainian troops remain in the city after all this time has frustrated Russia’s plans. “Institute for the Study of War has not observed evidence to support Gerasimov’s claims,” of surrounded Ukrainian forces, adding that although Russian troops were “making gains near Pokrovsk”, these “do not portend the imminent collapse of Ukrainian defenses in the area.”

In August last year, Russia appeared to be on the verge of capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. Moscow’s troops advanced to around eight miles from the city limits, and inhabitants hurriedly evacuated. Estimates varied of how long Pokrovsk could hold out — from a few weeks to a few months — but the city’s fate appeared to be sealed.

The Ukrainians’ hold, however, is looking increasingly tenuous. Small groups of Russian soldiers have infiltrated the city, and fierce street battles are taking place as the defenders try to track them down and force them out.

Nevertheless, the very fact that Ukrainian troops remain in the city after all this time has frustrated Russia’s plans, Kyiv says.

“We’re holding the city for now. It’s stable chaos in there,” said a Ukrainian major, whose brigade was “stationed in and around the Pokrovsk front,” adding that there were no plans to retreat.

The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly, said that somewhere between “200-250” Russian forces “had accumulated on the south side” of the city. “The current combat situation is street fighting.” Ukrainian special forces and assault units had arrived to bolster defenses and “clean out” the Russian troops, he added.

Combat medics treat a Ukrainian soldier who was shot on the Pokrovsk front this month. (EPA/Shutterstock)

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “as soon as they crawl out” from their hiding places, or “as soon as there is fire from one point or another,” the Russian forces “are found and destroyed.” He added that Pokrovsk has become Moscow’s main military objective and that Russia was pulling resources from other areas of the front line to take it.

If Pokrovsk fell, it would be the largest city to be taken by Russian forces since the bloody battle for Bakhmut in May 2023 — the last major Russian victory in the grinding war. “People are trying to compare it to Bakhmut, but these are different situations,” said the major defending the city. “Here, there aren’t as many of them, and most of them are just hiding somewhere in basements.”

 

Pokrovsk is a key link in the chain of fortress cities keeping Russia from conquering the entire Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, one of its main objectives in the war. Russia has made Ukraine giving up the rest of Donetsk a condition of any ceasefire.

Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces 7th Corps, which is fighting in Pokrovsk, said in a Telegram post Monday that “there is currently no full control over any of the districts of Pokrovsk.”

“The defenders of Pokrovsk are actively resisting the occupiers in the city,” it said, adding that their numbers were “reinforced with new units, including assault troops, artillery, UAV crews, and other components of the defense forces.”

Russian officials painted a vastly different picture — one in which Moscow forces are on the cusp of a major rout of Ukraine’s military. On Sunday, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the Russian armed forces chief of staff, told President Vladimir Putin that the Kremlin’s forces had encircled close to 5,500 Ukrainian troops in the Pokrovsk direction and another 5,000 near Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region to the north.

Gen. Valery Gerasimov reports to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. (Kremlin.ru/Reuters)

However, in its daily roundup of the conflict in Ukraine, the D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War said on Sunday that these claims were probably false.

“ISW has not observed evidence to support Gerasimov’s claims,” the report said, adding that although Russian troops were “making gains near and within Pokrovsk” and the nearby town of Myrnohrad, these probably “do not portend the imminent collapse of Ukrainian defenses in the area.”