Ukraine is continuing to fight for Pokrovsk and “landed earlier this week” a special-forces unit from the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry (GUR MO) to take part in combat in the area, Reuters reported , citing two Ukrainian military sources.
It happened “as Russia said it had encircled Kyiv’s forces in the area,” the report said.
Russian troops have been advancing toward Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region for more than a year. Seizing this key road and rail hub could open the way for Moscow to push deeper into eastern Donbas, which Russian forces are seeking to fully occupy.
Reuters, citing a source in the 7th Air Assault Corps of Ukraine’s armed forces, said GUR MO commandos “landed in Pokrovsk several days ago on a Black Hawk helicopter” in an operation complicated by Russian drones. In video reviewed by Reuters, at least 10 service members are seen descending from a helicopter into a field. The agency could not confirm the location or the date of the footage.
A few hours later on November 1, Russia’s Defense Ministry issued a statement claiming Russian troops had “thwarted the landing from a helicopter of GUR special operations forces about 1 km northwest of the outskirts” of Pokrovsk. “All 11 people who disembarked from the helicopter were killed,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the situation in Pokrovsk, where Russian forces are advancing, difficult. According to him, a total of 170,000 Russian troops are concentrated in the area, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
On October 30, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi denied Russian claims of encircling Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region. “The situation is difficult, but the statements of Russian propaganda about the alleged ‘blockade’ of Ukraine’s Defense Forces in Pokrovsk, as well as in Kupiansk, do not correspond to reality,” Syrskyi wrote that day on Telegram after a trip to the Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad area.
“The Russian occupiers who entered Pokrovsk are mostly hiding,” Ukrainian armed forces officer Serhii Tsekhotskyi said November 1 on Kyiv24. He said those Russian troops are waiting for reinforcements and support. “They understand where they’ve ended up. We hear this from intercepts, from what they’re trying to pass to their main forces. They’re also not telling the truth, because their task is to save their lives,” the officer said. Tsekhotskyi added that “very active measures” are underway in the city. “No one intends to surrender Pokrovsk,” he said.
Earlier, the Suspilne TV channel, citing a source, reported that GUR special units had entered Pokrovsk and “began clearing” areas “strategically important for Ukrainian logistics.” At the same time, according to a senior Ukrainian officer, Russian forces already control about 60% of Pokrovsk and are pushing into the nearby towns of Rodynske and Myrnohrad.
In turn, a Ukrainian drone pilot who left Pokrovsk told Ukrainian media that Ukrainian troops on forward positions in the city are “basically encircled” due to the constant infiltration and buildup of Russian forces.
