Defense of Pokrovsk: is there a threat of encirclement of the city?

For the Russians, it is important to capture Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region primarily from a propaganda point of view, and from a military point of view, the occupiers are interested in the city as one of the key logistics hubs, but there is currently no talk of the operational encirclement of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

This was announced on the air of “Pryamoy” by Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army.

“The Russians are in a hurry for autumn. They really want to start urban battles this month, I think. And, obviously, that’s why they are accelerating their intensity of combat operations. We see that sabotage and reconnaissance groups have been actively involved, trying to penetrate Pokrovsk. Actually, that’s where they are dying. The DRG should be followed by attack aircraft, which will try to penetrate the city in small groups, trying to start urban battles, gain a foothold in these positions and expand bridgeheads,” Bratchuk noted.

In his opinion, it is important for the Russians to capture Pokrovsk primarily from a propaganda point of view, and militarily, the occupiers are interested in the city as one of the key nodes of Ukrainian defense.

“For the Russians, obviously, the occupation of any settlement does not matter whether 8 people or 8 thousand lived there. For them, any ruin of a Ukrainian settlement is a victory, primarily in terms of information, and they are trying to inform the whole world about this. Speaking from a military point of view, Pokrovsk and Myrnograd are of interest to them as our defense hub, which has been holding out for several months in a row,” explains the spokesman for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army.

“Mirnograd is the gateway to Pokrovsk. Pokrovsk is further on Kostyantynivka and the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, that is, the Donetsk region. Today, the enemy’s priority is unchanged, which is why he has concentrated more than four combined arms armies here… More than 110 thousand personnel have gathered in this area, and we see that the enemy is trying its best to attack,” Bratchuk added.

Therefore, he emphasizes, the task of the Ukrainian Defense Forces is to hold out as long as possible and prevent the collapse of the front.

“Now we cannot talk about some kind of semi-encirclement. There is no such thing. An operational encirclement, when the enemy can, God forbid, disrupt logistics, then other situations will arise and, let’s say, other decisions will be made. And today the enemy is trying to do everything with our logistics to “minus” it,” informs Serhiy Bratchuk.

As a reminder, the Russian occupiers have concentrated most of their forces in the Pokrovsk direction, where they are trying to take the city into semi-encirclement . As Viktor Tregubov, spokesman for the Khortitsa Special Operations Command, explained, the enemy has made some progress between the cities of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka, but the Ukrainian military there is trying to destroy as many enemy troops and equipment as possible in order to slow down the offensive.

Earlier on the air of “Pryamoy”, military-political analyst, co-chair of the public initiative “Prava sprava” Dmytro Snegirev reported that the situation in the Pokrovska direction has deteriorated sharply after the resignation of Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykhailo Drapaty. Currently, the enemy is using the tactics of small assault groups trying to gain a foothold in urban areas, which threatens to flank the Pokrovska agglomeration .

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