Russia has claimed full control of Pokrovsk, but Ukrainian forces say they still hold the northern part of the strategic eastern city, where fierce urban fighting continues.
Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps said on Wednesday that Russian forces mounted an unusually large mechanised attack earlier in the day, using armoured vehicles, cars and motorcycles in convoys that tried to push from the south into the northern sector of the city. A source in the unit told Reuters that about 30 vehicles were used in the convoy, the largest such formation seen inside Pokrovsk to date; previously Russian advances inside the city had used only one or two vehicles at a time.
Video shared by the 7th Corps showed heavy vehicles bogged in snow and mud, drone strikes on Russian troops, explosions and burning wreckage. The unit said Russian forces attempted to exploit rain and fog but had been pushed back.
Kyiv maintains its troops still control the northern part of Pokrovsk despite Moscow’s assertion of full capture. Russian units have been probing and pressing into the city for months in small infantry groups as part of Moscow’s broader effort to seize the industrial Donbas region. Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskii said the situation around Pokrovsk remains difficult, noting that Russia has massed some 156,000 troops in the area and staged buildup operations under cover of poor weather.
The Institute for the Study of War’s Russia team lead, George Barros, said Moscow is amplifying the importance of Pokrovsk’s capture to portray battlefield advances as inevitable — a narrative he warned is being echoed by some participants in a US-led peace proposal. The Kremlin has also stepped up cognitive warfare aimed at presenting Russian military and economic resilience amid a war of attrition against Ukraine.
Russia has paid a heavy material price in its push toward and around Pokrovsk. Analysts estimate Russia has lost more than 1,000 armoured vehicles and over 500 tanks in the Pokrovsk area since the October 2023 offensive operations aimed at nearby Avdiivka, which fell to Russian forces in early 2024 after intense fighting.
Separately, US President Donald Trump said he had exchanged “pretty strong words” with the leaders of France, Britain and Germany about Ukraine and that talks planned over the weekend on a proposed US peace plan risked “wasting time.” The initial US plan, widely seen as favoring many of Russia’s demands, was criticized by Kyiv and European allies and has been revised. Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday they had sent an updated draft of the plan back to Washington.