Drones Defend North Of Pokrovsk Now. So Ukraine’s Assault Brigades Are Rushing South.
The battle for Pokrovsk is ending. The battle for Huliaipole is just beginning.
The fighting north of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in Donetsk Oblast is evolving as the contested terrain moves out of the ruined towns
That has freed up Ukrainian assault units to hurry south toward Pokrovske and Huliaipole
Russian forces have exploited gaps in Ukrainian defenses to advance in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts
The redeploying assault troops aim to plug those gaps
Ukraine is reinforcing the 35-km sector between Pokrovske and Huliaipole at the junction of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts in eastern Ukraine. Unit Observer was among the first to draw attention to the troops’ reshuffling.
The shift from urban to open terrain north of Pokrovsk has changed the defensive calculus. Drones work better in fields than ruins—freeing infantry-heavy assault units to reinforce the vulnerable 35-km sector where Russian tank and motor rifle divisions have been exploiting gaps.
As the 92nd Assault Brigade arrived around Pokrovske on or just before Monday, one of its first actions was to strike, with first-person-view drones, a pair of Russian troopers riding toward Ukrainian lines on horseback.
The redeployment of Ukrainian forces comes at a critical time. The Russian Center Group of Forces has consolidated in the ruins of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in Donetsk Oblast and now controls most of both towns.
From these new positions, they’re striking out—and beginning the long, hard march toward the twin cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, 50 km to the north.
To reach those cities, the Russians will have to advance across kilometer after kilometer of open terrain. They can’t always repeat the urban assault tactics—small infantry groups leapfrogging through town ruins—that helped them win in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad.
Infantry are best not only for urban attacks, they’re also best for urban defense. But many Ukrainian brigades are desperately short of infantry. What they have in abundance are drones. And drones work best over open terrain, where the enemy has nowhere to hide.
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