Russia Advances: Several Ukrainian cities face imminent capture

“In eastern Ukraine, Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad, and Kupiansk could soon fall. Will the Ukrainians at least manage an orderly retreat? Criticism of the army leadership is mounting.

 

Several cities in eastern Ukraine are threatened with imminent Russian capture. The Ukrainian mapping service Deepstate already designates large parts of the mining town of Pokrovsk as a "gray zone," meaning it is controlled by neither Ukraine nor Russia. The access roads to neighboring Myrnohrad are also likely already under Russian fire control.

 

So far, the Ukrainian army has always managed to retreat in such cases, and there have been no mass captures of encircled soldiers since the capture of Mariupol in the spring of 2022. Nevertheless, Ukrainian military observers reacted with sharp criticism to the situation. Blogger and drone supplier Serhiy Sternenko referred on Thursday to the lost cities of Avdiivka, Vuhledar, and Sudzha. In each of these cases, "our soldiers withdrew at the last moment with heavy losses and left behind their property and equipment." The same thing is happening again now, as if no one had learned from past mistakes.

 

Ukrainian Army Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi visited a command post in the Pokrovsk sector on Thursday and spoke of a "complex situation." According to the official statement, Syrskyi ordered that supply and evacuation routes be secured. "However, the top priority is saving the lives of our soldiers," Syrskyi was quoted as saying. The Ukrainian armed forces also face the potential loss of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. A defeat in the city, which was recaptured in 2022, would likely also result in the fall of neighboring towns east of the Oskil River.”