Trench Art

Trench Art

Expect A Brutal Battle For An Underground Drone Base Near Pokrovsk

The mines near Udachne could help Russian forces cut Pokrovsk's supply lines

Oct 21, 2025
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3rd Special Purpose Regiment photo

There are two main supply lines threading into the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast. One winding from Pavlohrad, 60 miles to the west; the other threading south from Kramatorsk, 30 miles to the north.

Severing one of the lines may inflict enough pain on the Ukrainian brigades in and around Pokrovsk to compel Ukrainian commanders to finally call it quits in the ruined, nearly lifeless city—and order a retreat to the north. Severing both would definitely lead to a general retreat.

The Russians know it. It’s not for no reason they’ve been hurling entire battalions of tanks and other armored vehicles at the village of Shakhove, which anchors Ukrainian defenses on the southeastern edge of a chaotic salient northeast of Pokrovsk.

And it’s not for no reason they’ve also got their sights set on the mines just north of Udachne, a village five miles west of Pokrovsk. Udachne is pretty obviously under Russian control. The mines aren’t.

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