Kremlin Burns Through Its ‘Elite’ Near Pokrovsk — Moscow Wants a Victory, Even if It’s Made of Corpses

“Russia has pulled some of its most combat-ready forces from the Zaporizhzhia front to the Pokrovsk axis, including the 76th Airborne Division, according to the analytical department of the Right Cause public interest group. The simultaneous movement of marine units suggests a rotation rather than a buildup, highlighting the strain on the occupiers’ manpower.”

Currently, the naval infantry units of the occupying power have suffered the heaviest personnel losses. For instance, the Russian 810th Naval Infantry Brigade has already lost the equivalent of four full battalion-sized units. The losses are catastrophic. Undermanning, high fatalities, and the creation of new battalion tactical groups from untrained personnel — including ship crews — have sharply reduced the brigade’s combat effectiveness.

Calling these units “marines” is increasingly misleading, as they are now staffed in part by former prisoners who, under a decree issued by the Russian dictator, are allowed to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence directly in the courtroom. In practice, Russians should forget about the Marines as a professional force.

Today’s Russian “marines” are, in effect, penal units — the military equivalent of formations such as “Storm Z” or “Storm V.”

At the same time, the redeployment of the 76th Airborne Division shows that the Russian occupiers have virtually no operational reserves left. This is telling. Despite their numerical advantage in both the Zaporizhzhia and Pokrovsk sectors, Russia is using its most combat-ready formations — including naval infantry — as operational reserves and as assault units. Yet assault operations in dense urban environments are not the Marines’ role and fall outside their doctrinal tasks.

A similar situation is observed with airborne units, which are effectively being thrown into “meat assaults.” Therefore, it is currently impossible to speak of the occupiers having any genuinely combat-ready formations, especially given the scale of their losses. In the Pokrovsk sector alone, according to Ukrainian data, the enemy loses about 500 personnel per day. Another 300 are lost daily in the Zaporizhzhia sector.

Regarding Pokrovsk specifically, it is necessary to refute claims made by some foreign analysts about the alleged seizure of the city by Russian forces.

The Ukrainian Defence Forces continue to hold their positions in Pokrovsk. Reports by certain Western analysts that the occupation forces have taken full control of the city are false. Furthermore, Ukrainian troops are successfully eliminating enemy personnel from so-called assault groups, inflicting significant losses.

According to the Special Operations Forces, despite heavy shelling of industrial facilities and attempts by the enemy to entrench themselves there, SOF operators carried out successful special operations and eliminated the Russian troops who had pushed forward to the designated position

Additionally, in the Pokrovsk area, a tactical group from the 3rd Special Operations Regiment carried out a direct operation at an industrial facility. During aerial reconnaissance, operators detected enemy troops infiltrating the mine. After waiting for favorable weather conditions, the group set out to execute the mission. What followed was a clear sequence: contact, practiced CQB maneuvers, and elimination of the target. The operation was supported by UAV teams providing overwatch and FPV strikes.

Assessing the significance of the Pokrovsk axis—and the city of Pokrovsk itself—it should be emphasized that for the Russian dictator, this is now primarily a political objective.

The situation in the Pokrovsk sector has intensified. Russian occupation forces are pursuing political, not military, goals as they push forward. The Kremlin urgently needs to showcase “tactical successes” ahead of a renewed negotiation phase. For this, capturing major cities such as Pokrovsk or Myrnohrad is essential. Yet, as we can see, the reality is far removed from the dictator’s triumphant claims about Pokrovsk being “fully under occupation control.”

Putin’s claims of control over Pokrovsk are nothing more than an attempt to impress domestic audiences and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Statements about the “capture” of Pokrovsk or the “encirclement” of Ukrainian troops are purely information operations aimed at shaping public opinion to fit Kremlin interests. All of this messaging is tailored either to the Russian domestic audience or to the American president. Yet the latter is well-informed about what is actually happening near Pokrovsk.

The statistics on the intensity of fighting in the Pokrovsk district reinforce this assessment.

Over the past week, the number of military engagements has surged: from roughly 150 clashes per day to 270. And yet, in the past 24 hours, the total number of clashes has decreased along the entire length of the Russian-Ukrainian front.

Meanwhile, despite unfavourable weather conditions that limited the full use of the “drone wall” tactic in the Pokrovsk sector, Ukrainian defenders have stabilized the logistical situation by deploying special forces from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and the Special Operations Forces. These units are now working to expand the army’s logistical capabilities and maintain defensive positions.

The fact that an enormous grouping of 150,000 occupying troops still cannot seize Pokrovsk, in my view, clearly indicates that they have almost no fully combat-ready units left.

Another telling detail in the Pokrovsk sector is that among the 150,000 Russian troops concentrated there, there are no truly combat-capable units capable of conducting effective assault operations. This underscores the degraded combat capacity and low morale of the occupation forces.

As a reminder, on December 2, the Russian dictator allegedly visited one of the command posts of the joint grouping of Russian troops, where he was informed about the supposed capture of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region and Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region.

In turn, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that “the bravura statements of the leadership of the aggressor country about the ‘capture’ of these settlements by the Russian army do not correspond to reality.”

As a reminder, the General Staff reported that units of the Ukrainian Defence Forces continue to hold difficult sections of the front – Pokrovsk, Vovchansk, and Kupyansk – and that Russian claims of “capturing” these cities do not correspond to reality.

Earlier, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, stated that the main tasks of the Ukrainian military in Pokrovsk are the gradual seizure of control over certain areas and the support and protection of existing logistics routes.

Incidentally, the situation in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, remains tense. Russian troops are seeking to create conditions for a complete encirclement of the city.

As is known, Russian troops are actively strengthening their positions in Pokrovsk and accumulating resources capable of conducting surveillance and launching strikes throughout the entire settlement.