Ukraine lets Pokrovsk fall and risks seeing the entire Donbas fall. He knows this like no one else and is doing everything possible to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
One flies low and drops a series of soldiers onto an open field. With Pokrovsk’s resistance at stake, a series of special forces men were deployed to the lost city in the middle of Donetsk, in the hope of being able to contain the Russian pressure.
There is one of the last bastions of Donetsk, as well as an essential logistics platform for the transport of all types of means.
With Pokrovsk falling, Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia’s fury, which may have an open path to advance towards Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Kostyantynivka, the last strongholds of the region that still resists in the Donbass.
Having achieved this objective, Russia is on the verge of gaining full control of the Donbass, the region where it is fighting until well before 2022 – the Wagner Group entered there in 2014 to, as it said, support the separatist forces in Donetsk and Luhansk.
And even though the Kremlin has doubled its objective to what it calls “liberation” of the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, without a doubt, the conquests of Donetsk and Lugansk are Vladimir Putin’s greatest flags.
As has been typical on both sides, what is happening in Pokrovsk is a matter of perspective. For Russia there is a siege and total pressure on the city, while Ukraine guarantees that the scenario is very different.
The differences in narrative even extend to the case of that helicopter. The head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine guaranteed this Saturday that “there is no siege or blockade” of the city, stressing that “everything possible is being done to maintain logistics”.
The situation is difficult, this has already been admitted, but Oleksandr Syrkskyi believes that not only is it possible to resist there, he even points to the expulsion of Russian forces from the city. These same forces, he added, are falling to assault units, drone operators and Ukrainian special forces.
“The enemy is paying the highest price for trying to fulfill the Kremlin dictator’s order to occupy the Donbass”, he reiterated, whilst underlining the need for more troops, weapons and systems to be able to continue repelling the enemy.
And the reference to Vladimir Putin does not come in vain, much less in Pokrovsk, where an Associated Press journalist caught an arrow target with the face of the Russian president. Here, even in moments of leisure one thinks about the enemy.
But speaking from the same helicopter, Russia announced that 11 of the special forces soldiers who landed in the field were killed. The Kremlin therefore devalued what Ukraine presented almost as a secret weapon to protect Pokrovsk, in an operation launched by the secret services and which was directly coordinated by the spy of spies, Kyrylo Budanov.
According to , a US-based think tank that does a thorough daily analysis of what is happening on the ground, there are four factual things: Russian forces are intensifying an offensive in and around Pokrovsk to conquer the city; Ukrainian forces conducted an aerial assault operation west of Pokrovsk on 31 October; close combat, urban terrain and weather conditions are impacting drone warfare on both sides and impacting Russia’s infiltration tactics; Russian forces have recently managed to advance in four directions, including Pokrovsk.
Data from October 20, 2025
Notes: “Assessed” means that the Institute for the Study of War has received reliable and independently verifiable information demonstrating Russian control or advances in these areas.
Sources: Institute for the Study of War with the AEI Critical Threats Project; LandScan HD for Ukraine, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Graphics: Henrik Pettersson, Renée Rigdon, Lou Robinson and Rachel Wilson, CNN
The Russian attacks take place, according to ISW, in several locations around Pokrovsk, with drone battalions and a rifle brigade trying to destroy Ukrainian military vehicles.
What is certain is that geolocated images have already confirmed that Russia is in the center of Pokrovsk, with the ISW estimating that around 60% of the city is already in Moscow’s hands, with Ukrainian forces maintaining their position in important defense points.
This is already one of the most important battles of the war, certainly the most relevant of the last year, risking to go down in history like Bakhmut or Avdiivka, centers of all the action for months that ended up falling to Russia. If the same thing happens in Pokrovsk, the entire Donbass will be at risk.
