Ukraine sends special forces as Russia closes in on Pokrovsk

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00:00Well, indeed, the situation has been quite chaotic there for a few days now,

00:04with very contrary information we've been receiving, and understandably so,

00:08because they come on the one part by the aggressor, by Russia,

00:12and on the other part by the army which is defending this city, the Ukrainian army.

00:17So you've mentioned this operation that seems to have taken place in Pokorovsk,

00:22where we've seen those videos of a helicopter bringing Ukrainian special forces

00:28at an undisclosed location.

00:31Nobody from the press, at least, could identify if that video was indeed within Pokorovsk

00:37or nearby in the satellite city of Myrnograd, for example.

00:41But Kiev claims that those people are part of a larger operation

00:45to try and maintain the logistics for its army,

00:49because we've heard over the past few days that logistics have been the main challenge

00:55for Ukrainians to maintain amidst this renewed offensive by Russians.

01:00Moscow said that this operation has failed, which is, as you mentioned, something that Kiev denies.

01:07On Kiev's side, President Zelenskyy had said that Ukrainian forces are fighting

01:11and are outnumbered by 1 to 8, 8 in favor of Russia,

01:16and that around 200 Russian soldiers are within the city, have managed to infiltrate the city.

01:26And unfortunately, there's a fighting going on, but there's also the remaining civilians.

01:31Almost nobody stayed in Pokorovsk.

01:33It was a city that I visited last in January.

01:38And last summer, there were still 60,000 people, at least, including displaced people from cities

01:44further east of that population.

01:47Almost nobody remains.

01:48But those who do, there are elderly people.

01:51There are people who cannot leave their relatives.

01:53There are people who don't have the means to leave.

01:55And among those people, we've seen videos circulating of crimes that have been committed by Russian troops

02:04infiltrated in the city.

02:06I mean by that, that civilians have been executed in the streets around the sector of the station.

02:13So that's also the reality.

02:14Once Russia comes to a Ukrainian city and it claims to liberate it,

02:19the reality for people under that occupation, it is often torture.

02:23It is often being murdered by the occupier.

02:27And this is why the Ukrainian troops are fighting not only to defend a strategic position,

02:32as is Pokorovsk.

02:33It used to be a logistic hub of utmost importance in Donetsk region,

02:38but also because people living under Russian occupation would then face those treatments by the Russian occupier.

02:47Emmanuel, this has been an advance over a year in the making from Moscow.

02:51It has tried and failed many times to actually get its hands on Pokorovsky.

02:56You talk about its strategic position.

02:58If it falls, what does that mean for the rest of Donetsk?

03:02I'm thinking the likes of Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, these crucial cities that remain in Ukrainian control.

03:08Well, you know, with Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, Pokorovsky was one of the three main fortresses of Donbass,

03:19of the free part of Donbass that remains within the hand of Ukrainian troops.

03:24So, of course, the loss would be felt by the Ukrainian army.

03:27But you've mentioned it as well.

03:29Russians have been closing in on Pokorovsky for over a year.

03:32And that is far from a victory in itself.

03:35Russia doesn't have the means to conquer the city.

03:38So what it does is that it completely destroys it.

03:41It transforms it into rebel.

03:43It kills civilians who are remaining.

03:46And if we look at the timeline, it has been over a year,

03:50which means that we're very much still in this war of attrition,

03:53which is very costly for the Russian side in equipment, in personnel also.

03:59And we see that even if at the time the Ukrainian army doesn't manage to repel the aggressor,

04:07we see also that Russia, as many personnel as it has, as many equipment it has,

04:13and it's much more than Ukraine, 8 to 1,

04:16it still doesn't manage to completely, you know, overwhelm the Ukrainian army.

04:21So we will see those cities that have become garrison cities of Kramatorsk and Slovians

04:27coming under way more pressure.

04:30But they already are.

04:31It's always, it's already very difficult to be in those cities

04:35because they are under daily threat of glide bombs, daily threat of FPV drones.

04:42So this is going to be probably lasting for another week, another month.

04:47What we see in Pokrovsk is just what Russians have done in other cities of the front-end area here in Ukraine.

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