Pokrovsk is the main target of the entire operation that the enemy is conducting across a wide front in the Donetsk region, stretching from Chasiv Yar to the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
This was stated by Pavel Lakiychuk, head of military security programs at the Globalist Center “Strategy XXI,” during a broadcast on the FREEДОМ channel.
The expert reminded that six months ago, the Russians attempted a frontal assault to cut the Pavlohrad-Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka route in order to deprive the reserves and rear of the entire grouping of Ukrainian forces in the area of Kostyantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, as well as Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, and the entire frontline between them. However, the enemy was unsuccessful.
Pavel Lakiychuk noted that after this, the occupiers concluded that they needed to conduct this operation more seriously, with a larger number of forces, and that they needed to smooth out the flanks, expand the bulge, and shorten the frontline, which is currently happening in the same Kurakhove direction.
"This has allowed the enemy to wedge in south of Pokrovsk and begin actions to encircle it from the south and southwest. Essentially, the task at this stage remains the same – to cut the Pavlohrad-Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka line, the line of communication, the logistics line.
Where they do this is irrelevant to them. They will break through wherever they can first: either at the entrance to Pokrovsk from the side of Dnipropetrovsk region, or at the exit from Pokrovsk, at Vozdvizhenska, towards Myrnohrad, or, if neither of these works, then through urban battles directly in Pokrovsk itself," said Pavel Lakiychuk.
According to the expert, the enemy continues its advance on all three fronts, although it has not achieved very serious successes, despite having a superiority in forces and equipment.
