'The Largest Battle of the Entire War' Is About to Begin in Eastern Ukraine

Russian and Ukrainian forces surge toward Pokrovsk

A soldier with the Ukrainian 93rd Mechanized Brigade, deployed around Pokrovsk. 93rd Mechanized Brigade photo

After weeks of reinforcement on both side, there are a lot of troops, drones, vehicles and artillery packed into the villages and forests around the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

For six weeks since a major incursion by a Russian motor rifle brigade, chaotic fighting has raged all along the 50-mile-long no-man’s-land threading from Pokrovsk’s southern neighborhoods east and north toward the villages of Rodynske and Dobropillya, which control one of the two main supply lines into Pokrovsk.

But the main fight looms as Russia finishes a theater-wide reshuffling of forces. “On the Pokrovsk direction, Russian troops concentrate all available forces, including those from Kursk Oblast [in western Russia] and operational reserves,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies reported.

“Russia has been moving forces into position in Pokrovsk for weeks/months at this point,” American analyst Andrew Perpetua noted. “They are preparing for what could end up being the largest battle of the entire war.”

With 150,000 Russians taking up positions opposite 50,000 or more dug-in Ukrainians, the bloodletting could be staggering. And the implications for the 43-month wider war could be profound. “You should not misread what is going on,” Perpetua stressed.