Pokrovsk Center Confirmed Cleared By Ukraine, Halted Russians "Can't Dig In"

Multiple sources are confirming this morning that counterattacking Ukrainian assault units have cleared the center of Pokrovsk and are holding. 

Remaining Russian infiltrators appear unable to dig in to establish their presence and are on the run. These reports reaffirm scattered information which started to be received last week that stories about Ukrainian withdrawals were premature and inaccurate. JL

Stefan Korshak reports in the Kyiv Post:

Counterattacking Ukrainian troops have cleared the center of the city of Pokrovsk in a setback to the Russian offensive, news feeds reported on Monday. Veteran Ukrainian infantry units were deployed to Pokrovsk in late October and early November to counter Russian infiltration and conduct “search and strike” operations.  Ukraine’s 425th Assault Regiment, a unit trained in urban warfare tactics and often deployed as a “fire brigade” sent to critical sectors, led the operation. "The center of the city is cleared." Russian troops left in the city are under pressure from attacking Ukrainian infantry, FPV and bomber drones and are in difficult situation as they “aren’t able to dig in.” 

Counterattacking Ukrainian troops have cleared the center of the city of Pokrovsk in a setback to a major Russian offensive launched almost a year ago to capture the strategic industrial and logistics hub in the eastern Donbas region, news reports and battle information feeds reported on Monday.

A statement first released by the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s (AFU) 7th Air Assault Corps on Sunday reported assault infantry teams backed by drones and artillery had cleared the Pokrovsk city railway station, pedagogical college, and central Soborny Square areas of Kremlin troops.

The AFU’s 425th Assault Infantry Regiment, a unit trained in urban warfare tactics and usually deployed by Ukrainian leadership as a “fire brigade” formation sent to critical sectors, led the operation, the 7th Corps statement said.

 

Major Valentyn Manko, commander of the AFU’s assault infantry troops, in a Sunday statement, said that combat teams had “cleared the center of Pokrovsk.” The hardest fighting was faced by the 425th Regiment, but small teams of special operations commandos, other assault infantry units, and air assault troopers, including paratroopers from the 25th Airborne Brigade, participated in the “victory,” he said.

Patrols and attacks to clear territory and buildings thought to contain Russian troops were “deliberate and precisely planned…and continuing,” Manko said.

 

The center of the city is cleared,” he said. “I ask the whole country to pray for them (Ukrainian assault troops) and support them as they continue their mission.”

A source at 425th Assault Infantry confirmed to Kyiv Post that clearing operations in Pokrovsk were continuing but declined to give details. Multiple Ukrainian news platforms credited the 425th Assault Regiment for clearing central Pokrovsk of Russian troops. Other Russian infantry was still at large in Pokrovsk’s southern districts, and mopping up operations are proceeding slowly, reports said.

 

Ukrainian drone presence in the sector is strong, and Kremlin forces in the city aren’t able to receive reinforcements, an operator-pilot deployed in the Pokrovsk sector told Kyiv Post. The 7th Air Assault statement, likewise, claimed that Ukrainian advances in the center of the city had left Russian troops still hiding out there, isolated and cut off from food and ammunition resupply.

Major Ukrainian media confirmed the 7th Air Assault clearing operation had established control of the Pokrovsk city center and that combat was still in progress in southern districts. A Monday report by Ukraine’s state-run Hromadske news agency, citing Ukrainian soldiers in Pokrovsk, reported that Russian troops left in the city are under pressure from attacking Ukrainian infantry squads and first-person view (FPV) and bomber drones. Russian troops left in Pokrovsk “aren’t able to dig in,” Hromadske reported.Manko said Russian troops still in Pokrovsk “are in a very difficult situation.”

A Russian Defense Ministry Monday morning situation report made no direct reference to combat in Pokrovsk. Russian troops, according to that official Kremlin statement, “repelled” eight attacks launched by elements of Ukraine’s 425th Assault Regiment and 81st and 95th Air Assault Brigades.

 

A Monday morning situation report published by Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) described fighting in the Pokrovsk as substantial, with almost one-third of all engagements taking place across the front in the past 24 hours, flaring up in that sector. All Russian assaults were repelled, and the situation around Pokrovsk is generally stable, that official statement claimed.

Hundreds of Russian infantry, infiltrating in small groups and bypassing Ukrainian defensive positions, took over Pokrovsk’s southern and central districts in late September and early October. The operation, taking advantage of bad weather grounding Ukrainian drones, cut Ukrainian supply lines and made unsafe movement inside the city, and placed long-term control of Pokrovsk by Kyiv’s forces in potential jeopardy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) commander Oleksandr Syrsky personally visited units defending in the Pokrovsk sector in November to discuss with local commanders a looming tactical disaster.

Veteran AFU infantry units were deployed to Pokrovsk in late October and early November to counter the Russian infiltration and conduct “search and strike” operations. The 7th Assault Infantry Corps statement claimed, without providing evidence, that its troops in clearing operations in Pokrovsk during November had killed or wounded 378 Russian service personnel, and captured several.Ukraine’s 3rd Special Operations Regiment, an elite commando unit operating in the Pokrovsk sector, on Monday reported its operators in a recent raid overran a Russian defensive strong point, killed and captured Russian soldiers, and broke through to an isolated Ukrainian unit to evacuate wounded.

 

Images from that officially released content showed a four-man commando team identified as an element of 3rd SO’s Sword Group unit penetrating a barbed wire barrier and applying skilled fire and movement tactics to assault bunkers and capture a Russian service member. Two Russian soldiers died in the action, and there were no Ukrainian casualties, that report said.

The action reportedly took place in Pokrovsk’s southern outskirts. Kyiv Post reviewed the footage and found that the report was likely authentic and recent battle footage, but that it was not possible to confirm the combat video was recorded in the Pokrovsk sector. Most Ukrainian military information platforms on Monday reported that the engagement account was authentic.

Battle video and content published by the National Guard Brigade Rubizh on Sunday detailed an October operation taking place to the north of Pokrovsk, near the village of Dobropillia, where Rubizh’s scout/reconnaissance unit surrounded a Russian fortification network and captured 12 Russian prisoners. Russian soldiers profiled in the video told an interviewer they were tired and their parent unit had stopped supplying them.

 

Not all sources confirmed Ukrainian progress in Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian lawmaker Hanna Maliar, a long-time critic of Syrsky, in a Sunday evening statement, questioned whether the AFU was telling the truth about capturing the city center: “But for some reason (i.e. AFU dishonesty about the actual battle situation) independent civilian experts see surrounded (AFU) troops, encirclement and betrayal.” 

The independent battle watch group, DeepState, in its Sunday evening situation map, despite the wave of reports that the center of the city had come under Ukrainian control, showed no significant change to battle lines.

The major US network CBS, in its Sunday report, citing an unnamed US government worker, reported: “The official indicated [to CBS] that the Russian progress in the eastern frontline city of Pokrovsk, which is a logistics hub for Ukraine, was not a positive sign for Kyiv’s defensive prospects.”

 

The Ukrainian milblogger Bohdan Myroshnykov, in a Sunday Telegram post on operations around Pokrovsk, warned readers the Pokrovsk battle, although seeing Ukrainian progress, isn’t over.

“Let’s all keep a friendly silence on Pokrovsk. Please. Everything is a little different from how some hyper fire-eaters want to portray it. The price of every piece of information released too early can cost the life and health of our soldiers,” Myroshnykov wrote.