Ukrainian Commandos Rush Into Pokrovsk To Hold Escape Corridor Open For Fleeing Garrison
Pokrovsk is about to fall. A recent attack by the 425th Assault Regiment wasn’t an effort to save the city. No, it supported a wider retreat.
A Ukrainian assault company marched south into the contested center of Pokrovsk
But it wasn’t a counterattack
Elite Ukrainian forces have deployed into Pokrovsk to help cover a wider retreat from the city
Pokrovsk and neighboring Myrnohrad could fall to attacking Russians any day now
When a company from the Ukrainian 425th Assault Regiment raised a Ukrainian flag on the city council building near the center of Pokrovsk on or just before Wednesday, it may have looked like Ukrainian forces were counterattacking in the embattled city.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The survivors of Pokrovsk’s Ukrainian garrison are, in fact, trying hard to escape the ruins of the once-thriving mining city. To give the survivors of the 68th Jaeger Brigade and 155th Mechanized Brigade a fighting chance to escape to the new Ukrainian line north of Pokrovsk, several elite—but very small—units have deployed into the city.
They include that company from the 425th Assault Regiment. Don’t mistake the company’s jaunt into the city center for a counteroffensive. It’s actually the covering effort for a belated general retreat. After a year of hard fighting, the battle for Pokrovsk “is coming to an end,” observer Thorkill noted.
The Russian Center Group of Forces suffered shocking casualties marching on Pokrovsk from the ruins of Avdiivka, 40 km to the southeast, starting in the spring of 2024. The Russian group bled for every meter it advanced, but thanks to its sheer size—its 100,000 or more troops outnumber the local Ukrainian forces five to one—it did advance.
By the new year, it was on Pokrovsk’s outskirts. By this summer, Russian infantry had begun infiltrating Pokrovsk in growing numbers—taking advantage of wide gaps in Ukrainian defenses to dart into the city, hunker down in some basement and await reinforcement.
A Russian incursion north of Pokrovsk in August drew Ukrainian reserves away from the city. Renewed Russian mechanized assaults this fall—following a long pause in mech attacks that allowed the Kremlin to stockpile vehicles—kept up the pressure north of Pokrovsk.
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