Last night, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces informed the President of Russia, of the seizure of the Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk (Donetsk) and Vovchansk (Kharkov) during a visit by the president to the military command of the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
“The forces of the Vostok (East) military group liberated the city of Krasnoarmeyesk (Russian name for Pokrovsk) and continue to annihilate enemy units in Dimitrov (Mirnograd, satellite city of Pokrovsk),” Gerasimov said during the meeting, broadcast on Russian public television and broadcast by the EFE Agency.
Putin, dressed in a military uniform during the visit, thanked the military for taking this city and highlighted the importance of this sector of the Ukrainian front since “it will allow the solution of all the main missions set out from the beginning when we began the special military operation.” In addition, other senior generals reported on the situation in various sectors of the Ukrainian front.
The commander of the Center military group, Valeri Solodchuk, reported on the annihilation of the enemy forces blocked in the cities of Pokrovsk and Mirnograd, giving details of the capture of the southern area of the second city. “At this moment the search and annihilation of the remains of the small enemy groups that are trying to hide within the city” of Pokrovsk is being carried out, the general said.
“At this moment the search and annihilation of the remains of the small enemy groups that are trying to hide within the city is being carried out”
In addition, Solodchuk pointed out that conditions are created so that Ukrainian soldiers can surrender to Russian forces and denounced that many of them are killed with drones by their comrades in arms when they try to surrender.
Andrei Ivanáev, commander of the Eastern military group, commented on the situation in the regions of Zaporizhia and Dinpropetrovsk, where Russian troops reached the Gaichur River and began the battle for Huliaipole, an important Ukrainian stronghold in Zaporizhzhia. Putin thanked the commanders and forces for the success achieved and ordered to guarantee the troops everything necessary to fight in winter conditions.
not so fast
Despite the announcement by the Russian Federation, experts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a reference center in this conflict, based in Washington (USA), that we cannot speak of total control of the cities claimed by Putin.
“It has not yet been confirmed that Russian forces have taken the entirety of Pokrovsk, despite having operated in the city for more than 120 days,” the document states. “It is still unclear whether Ukrainian forces could occupy dispersed and limited positions in the north of Pokrovsk,” he details. “The 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces reported on December 1 that Russian forces had become embroiled in urban warfare in Pokrovsk, contrary to previous claims by the Russian military and political leadership that Russian forces had encircled Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk. The corps reported that Ukrainian forces killed 1,221 Russian servicemen and wounded 545 in the Pokrovsk agglomeration in November 2025, including 519 dead and 131 injured in Pokrovsk alone,” he adds. Russian forces have suffered “significant casualties” in their months-long campaign to take Pokrovsk, he recalls.
According to this report, Ukrainian forces maintain main and alternate rotation routes in Myrnohrad (east of Pokrovsk) and have recently rotated troops in the city. Statements from its commanders “indicate that Ukrainian forces are likely to retain the ability to resupply forces within Myrnohrad, despite the Russian interdiction of Ukrainian land lines of communication (GLOC) between Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad.”
ISW itself “has not yet observed evidence confirming that Russian forces have completed the capture of Pokrovsk at the time of writing,” just last night. “The Kremlin may have announced the seizure of Pokrovsk prematurely on December 1, as it has done with numerous other settlements in Ukraine, as part of a cognitive war strategy to influence the Russian-American negotiations in Moscow on December 2,” he adds.
A key knot
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Pokrovsk has been a priority target of the invader’s attacks in this so-called “special military operation.” Because? Because it is the gate of , especially crucial for the control of the Donetsk area. It has been the scene of intense fighting since February 2022, with clashes in and around the city, but this is the first time it has truly been taken.
In addition to its strategic location on the map, the city is a notable industrial center, with an economy based on the coal industry. It is home to the mines of the Metinvest business group, which house the largest coal seam in Eastern Europe.
And there is transport: it is a crucial node due to its role as a link and distribution between national railway companies.
Russia’s seizure of Pokrovsk would open the door to future Russian offensive operations towards, for example, Kramatorsk or Sloviansk, or west towards Pavlohrad, due to its location, and would represent the most significant symbolic gain since , in 2024. These cities, once an important artery of the industrial heart of the Soviet Union, have been deserted after the collapse of their heavy industries, but have left a 50-kilometer network of tightly clustered towns, steel mills and factories, which Ukraine has spent more than a decade turning into militarized bastions.
All this would give Putin more strength, in addition, in the peace negotiations he maintains with the Government of , at the request of the . More power on the battlefield means more pressure in the offices and more possibilities of taking a bite out of Ukrainian sovereignty.
