Vladimir Putin on Tuesday claimed full control over the key Ukrainian<\/a> city of Pokrovsk – though the claim was instantly denied by Kyiv<\/a>. <\/p>\n For months, Russian and Ukrainian forces have fought house-to-house for the so-called fortress city in eastern Ukraine, once a vital logistics hub for the Ukrainian army<\/a>, now a ruin separating the Russians from what remains of free Donetsk.<\/p>\n Victory would hand leverage to Putin at a critical time in the war, as a delegation of senior officials from Washington arrives in Moscow to talk through the narrowing paths to peace.<\/p>\n Still, nothing is decided; Ukraine\u2019s 7th Air Assault Corps hit back on Tuesday with blistering attacks in the south as corps in the north dug in and held their positions.<\/p>\n Ukraine continues to overachieve in resisting Putin\u2019s unrelenting pressure on the Donbas<\/a>, but the loss of a strategic centre at this moment in deliberations would weaken Kyiv\u2019s position as it pleads for guarantees on its future.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A soldier holds a Russian flag in Pokrovsk (Russian Defence Ministry)<\/p>\n Where is Pokrovsk?<\/p>\n Pokrovsk <\/a>is a road and rail junction in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region with a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. Today, most civilians have fled. All children have been evacuated. <\/p>\n It was previously an important logistics hub for the Ukrainian army, as it is situated on a key road the troops used to supply other embattled outposts along the frontline.<\/p>\n Ukraine’s only mine producing coking coal – used in its once vast steel industry – is around six miles (10 km) west of Pokrovsk. A technical university in Pokrovsk, the region’s largest and oldest, now stands abandoned, damaged by shelling.<\/p>\n Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst with Finnish open source intelligence organisation Black Bird Group, says Pokrovsk does not hold the strategic importance it once did, due to fierce fighting and significant destruction in the town. <\/p>\n \u201cCurrently it\u2019s a battlefield full of destroyed buildings. So the role of Pokrovsk is that Ukraine tries to hold on to the city so that they can keep the corridor to Myrnohrad open, to delay the Russian advance as much as possible,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Why does Russia want Pokrovsk?<\/p>\n Russia wants to take the whole of the Donbas region, which comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukraine still controls about 10 per cent of Donbas – an area of about 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) in western Donetsk.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Russian-defence-ministry-shows-video-of-its-soldiers-in-centre-of-Ukraines-Pokrovsk-iff32lh4.jpeg\")
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