“60% of Pokrovsk is already under Russian control”: Ukrainian soldiers described the situation at the front

Russian forces now control about 60% of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian soldiers told the outlet Hromadske.

One of the officers began the interview with blunt words:

“Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are already f***ed, to put it briefly.”

“Everything that’s marked grey on DeepState’s Pokrovsk map should be painted red. Roughly 60% of the city is under Russian control. The enemy is already in Rodynske and Myrnohrad. The situation is bad,” said a senior officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces operating in the Pokrovsk sector.

According to Ukrainian troops, Russian forces are setting the tempo and dictating the initiative in the battles for the city, seeking to move into the rear of Ukrainian positions.

The accounts of fighting resemble earlier battles for other cities — uncollected bodies, drones constantly overhead, and confusion over who is friend or foe.

“It’s not just sabotage groups here. When you enter positions, drones are flying overhead nonstop, there are dead soldiers lying around that no one removes, there’s heavy mining and artillery fire along supply routes. There are all kinds of problems with access. It’s demoralizing,” said Valeriy, a drone pilot.

According to the soldiers, logistics in Myrnohrad are now almost entirely under Russian fire control, and the fall of one city will inevitably mean the loss of the other.

“If Pokrovsk falls — Myrnohrad is gone. If Myrnohrad falls — Pokrovsk is gone. You can’t separate these two cities. Considering that Russian troops feel completely at ease north of Pokrovsk and northeast of Myrnohrad, they can cover the remaining distance between them with FPV drones. They’re doing everything to ensure that even if the city isn’t fully encircled physically, it’s still trapped with no way out,” said a serviceman from the 38th Marine Brigade.

One officer noted that the situation is not being covered in the media, because “everyone only wants good news.”

“If the weather’s sunny and allows us to fly, maybe up to ten missions a day happen. But when it rains all day, we lose 30–40 people. We keep saying we need reinforcements, we need drones — they’re cutting our supply lines, moving in. Everyone loves only good news. A month ago, I was already saying we needed to regroup, which would mean shifting units and giving up some territory. But no one wants to do that,” said a Ukrainian officer.

Another senior officer warned that between 1,000 and 1,500 troops could be encircled if an urgent regrouping isn’t carried out — while some soldiers believe it’s already too late to fix the situation.

However, commanders believe that reinforcements could still stabilize the front.

Ivan Stolyarchuk, head of communications for the 32nd Brigade, stated that special forces alone won’t save the city if mechanized brigades fail to hold the flanks and maintain supply lines, which are under severe pressure but not yet fully cut off.