Ukrainian military authorities insist their forces are holding out in the frontline eastern city of Pokrovsk amid fierce fighting against an assembled force of some 170,000 Russian troops.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are holding Pokrovsk,” Ukraine\u2019s commander-in-chief, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, wrote on Facebook on November 1.<\/p>\n
“A comprehensive operation to destroy and dislodge enemy forces from Pokrovsk is ongoing,” he added a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the fight for the mostly destroyed city \u201cour priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russians want to turn our entire country into what they are doing to Pokrovsk, what they are doing to Kupyansk, and other towns and communities,\u201d Zelenskyy said on October 31. \u201cThey must be halted where they have reached \u2013 and destroyed there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said Russian forces had assembled some 170,000 troops in the Pokrovsk area and that they were suffering heavy losses. He did not speak on Ukrainian troop levels or losses.<\/p>\n
Following Western media reports, Kyiv confirmed that special forces had been deployed to the strategic city — which had a prewar population of some 70,000 — as Russian forces claimed to have encircled Ukrainian defenders there.<\/p>\n
Russia Troops Infiltrate City<\/strong><\/p>\n Estimates suggest that between 200 and 400 Russian soldiers are now embedded within the Donetsk region city\u2019s eastern districts, using urban terrain, basements, and civilian disguises to evade Ukrainian detection.<\/p>\n Like the region\u2019s major cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, which remain under Ukrainian control, Pokrovsk holds significant military value, providing Ukrainian forces with vital supply routes.<\/p>\n Analysts warn that the city\u2019s fall could open a route west into Dnipropetrovsk for Russian forces, putting Ukraine\u2019s southern regions at risk.<\/p>\n