More than a year after it first tried to capture Pokrovsk, Russia's army has launched a renewed push on the Ukrainian city in the eastern Donetsk region. Kyiv has been forced to deploy special forces to the strategically located logistics hub, which could be on the brink of falling to Russia. Here is what we know about the city and its significance to both Kyiv and Moscow. Watch.
00:01More than a year after it first tried to capture Pokrovsk,
00:05Russia's army has launched a renewed push on the Ukrainian city in the eastern Donetsk region.
00:11Kyiv has been forced to deploy special forces to the strategically located logistics hub,
00:17which could be on the brink of falling to Russia.
00:20Here is what we know about the city and its significance to both Kyiv and Moscow.
00:30Pokrovsk, home to 60,000 people before the war, is now a largely deserted wasteland, devastated by fighting.
00:40But its location makes it a coveted target for Moscow.
00:44Capturing Pokrovsk could set Russia's sights on further penetrating the Donetsk region
00:50towards Ukraine's fortress belt of cities, including Kramatorsk, Kostyantinivka and Druzhkivka.
00:57Kyiv has so far rejected Moscow's claims that its forces in Pokrovsk were encircled.
01:03But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has conceded that 314 Russian soldiers have infiltrated the city.
01:11Experts say that worsening weather enabled Russian troops to get more men into the city in recent weeks.
01:18Ukraine deployed elite special forces in a bid to stem Russia's advance on the city.
01:24But this may not be enough, as per experts.
01:27At a briefing earlier, Zelenskyy told reporters that there were 220 assaults on Pokrovsk in three days.
01:35Lying at the junction of important roads, Pokrovsk has been a key logistics hub for Ukraine through the war,
01:43vital for its supplies across the entire Donetsk region.
01:46Pokrovsk is also located near a major mine that until earlier this year was Ukraine's last producer of coking coal,
01:54a key pillar for the war-torn economy used in the production of steel.
01:59Pokrovsk is one of the major urban settlements in the approximately one-fifth of the Donetsk region,
02:09still under Ukraine's control.
02:11Were Russia to seize Pokrovsk, it may be able to redeploy forces towards other strategic cities in the region.
02:18It could also open the door to advances elsewhere on the front.
02:22Moscow-based independent military analyst Alexander Kramchikin told AFP capturing the city could
02:30provide Russia with a breakthrough, at least in this direction.
02:34However, experts were split on how much the capture of Pokrovsk could accelerate Russia's so-far grinding advance.
02:42Kramchikin said it was plausible that no fundamental changes will occur,
02:47and the same slow, eroding process that has been going on for two years will continue.
02:53Kopitko said capturing the city would provide other practical benefits for Russia's army.
02:59He said,
03:01It is better to face and endure the winter in a city, even if it is ruined, where there are basements to hide in, rather than in the open field.
03:10Hunkering there would also provide more protection from drones, he added.
03:15Aside from its military importance, the capture of Pokrovsk would provide a major propaganda boost for the Kremlin in its nearly four-year invasion.
03:28It would be one of Moscow's most significant territorial gains since the capture of Avdivka in February 2024,
03:37fueling the Kremlin's narrative that its forces are in the ascendant.
03:41For Ukraine, its army already outgunned and plagued by manpower shortages, losing Pokrovsk would deal a similarly heavy blow to morale.
03:51It could also put Kyiv on the spot with questions about the operation to defend the city.
03:56A respected military blogger, who also serves in the Ukrainian army, Yuri Butusov, recently slammed Kyiv's landing of special forces in the semi-encircled city.
04:08The landing of two detachments of fighters in an open area in a kill zone, in full view of enemy drones, is an illiterate tactical decision, Butusov said on social media.
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