Columns of cars, vans and NGO trucks are leaving Pokrovsk, carrying civilians and whatever else can be salvaged from the Russian siege. This city in eastern Ukraine had already lost most of its population. It is now a ghost town, just as Bakhmut was in the summer of 2022, also in Donetsk province, when there were only a few weeks left before the start of the months-long battle that devastated it. “It is the same scenario as Bakhmut but in a different location. History repeats itself,” reflects Sasha, an officer in a Ukrainian infantry unit who prefers to preserve his last name for security reasons.
Last Thursday was one of the days off for Sasha and his men, who rotate in the trenches at the front. The meeting with EL PAÍS was held in front of the only shopping centre in Pokrovsk, a key bastion of the Ukrainian defences. There is no one on the street; the military administration has imposed a curfew that only allows civilians to move around in public for four hours a day, between eleven in the morning and three in the afternoon.
Only three months ago, the mall was a popular place for military personnel shopping or eating in the restaurant. The first sign that the invaders were getting dangerously close came about two months ago: troops were banned from visiting the mall. In July, the enemy was 22 kilometres from Pokrovsk; now it is eight kilometres away. The mall closed its doors in August.
The main access bridge to Pokrovsk from the west, from Ukrainian-controlled territory, was destroyed by Russian missiles between Thursday and Friday. Military vehicles have to make a long detour on dirt roads in poor condition that slow down speeds and cause queues, an easy target for enemy drones. A rocket also hit the town’s main power substation on Thursday. The power in Pokrovsk is now out.
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“The Russians follow the same tactics. First they clear out a town by hitting it with artillery, aerial bombs and missiles. Then they send in their reconnaissance units to gain access to the town without being detected,” explains Lancet, the code name of a lieutenant in the 14th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard.
When war approaches a city, the same scenes of despair are repeated. Volunteers from the NGO Save the Children load a truck with furniture from an educational institution against the clock before the curfew begins. A bank branch near the train station has been ransacked. At the station gates, Alina Gorska cries because all her belongings have been stolen. She also cries because the train service has been cancelled because of the risk of being attacked. Now she has to find someone who will take pity and get her out of there.
Gorska’s journey is a reflection of the permanent anxiety and transition of millions of Ukrainians: born in the city of Donetsk, she moved to study psychology in kyiv. When she wanted to return home, the war in Donbas had already broken out and the provincial capital was taken by pro-Russian separatists. Her parents stayed there and she no longer maintains communication with them. She moved to Ocheretine, 30 kilometres from Pokrovsk, but left there at the end of 2023 in the face of the Russian advance. Since then she has lived in Mirnograd, a town adjacent to Pokrovsk, until this summer, when the proximity of the invader also made it unsustainable to stay there. And now she is fleeing again, to kyiv, where a friend will let her have a room. She is 34 years old and her idea is to start a new life in Poland.
Change on the front
Sasha and his men are certain that Pokrovsk will be the scene of an urban battle, but they believe that it will not happen as soon as the Kremlin wanted. The objective of the commander-in-chief of the Russian forces, Valeri Gerasimov, was to control the city in the next few weeks, before the autumn rainy season. But officers from three different Ukrainian regiments consulted by EL PAÍS indicate that Russian progress has been slowed. This assessment is in line with what the Ukrainian General Staff has communicated this week. The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Sirski, expressed confidence on September 5 in an interview with CNN: “In the last six days, the enemy has not advanced a single meter in the direction of Pokrovsk. Ukraine has managed to stop the Russians’ ability to maneuver and receive reinforcements from other fronts. We have seen that the intensity of the offensive and its artillery have declined.”
For the past two weeks, President Volodymyr Zelensky has been asking citizens to be patient in order to see one of the main objectives of the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian province of Kursk achieved: that the enemy be forced to transfer troops from the Ukrainian front to Kursk. Until this week, there has been no evidence that this has happened. This newspaper met in Pokrovsk with a senior officer of the GUR, the intelligence services of the Ministry of Defense. On condition of anonymity, this source explained that part of the Russian air force has been able to leave Donetsk for Kursk, and that the invader’s troops in reserve, which could have joined the assault on Pokrovsk, have instead been redirected to Kursk.
This GUR officer says that the main change has been that the Ukrainian army has learned to read which sectors the defences should be reinforced in order to contain the Russians. His main function is to analyse the coordination between the brigades operating on this front. He admits that things have improved a little since the disasters in the protection of Avdiivka, taken by the Russians last February, and in Ocheretine. “The main problem is that the Russians have decided that they want to take Pokrovsk at all costs, and they are better off than us, they have more resources in almost everything, especially in men to send to die.”
Lancet believes that the situation has become calmer in recent days because neither army has enough infantry for constant combat. “We both have tired troops,” says this lieutenant, although he admits that his greatest concern is the new recruits who are arriving in the army under the new mobilisation law: “We have lost many experienced soldiers, and those who are arriving now are less motivated and less prepared.”
On a farm outside Pokrovsk, a unit of the 59th Motorised Brigade operates a Kazhan bomber drone. In a shed they have an arsenal of shells that they drop on the enemy, most of which are anti-tank mines converted into bombs. The group commander, who also has the code name Kazhan, smokes while a kitten plays at his feet. A colleague of his rubs his hands with walnut leaves: he says it is a habit he has left over from his adolescence, when he tried to use the scent of these leaves to prevent his mother from discovering that he had been smoking. Both note that the Russians are “going slower” because the Ukrainian defences are better positioned than they were a few weeks ago. Zelensky said in September that Russia had moved 60,000 soldiers from Ukrainian fronts such as Donetsk to Kursk. Kazhan lets out a laugh and says that his unit has not detected that the Russians have fewer infantry in the direction of Pokrovsk.
Not everyone agrees with the optimistic messages being conveyed by the Ukrainian political and military leadership. Mikola Melnik, commander of a company of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, wrote a harsh criticism on Facebook on October 6: “The commander-in-chief [Sirski] and the supreme commander [Zelenski] “They have reported that the situation in Pokrovsk is stabilizing. Well, if this is stabilization, I am a ballet dancer. The Russians continue to advance; they do not have the strength to attack Pokrovsk, Selidove and Kuakhivka simultaneously, so they are selecting a priority to break through our defense.”
Drone Warfare
Bond is the code name of the pilot of a Leleka reconnaissance drone in the 59th Motorized Brigade. EL PAÍS accompanied his unit on Friday on a mission to identify two Russian howitzers. The front is 13 kilometers away and a symphony is playing around from a multitude of Ukrainian cannons. Bond says that “the situation has been calmer for a few days,” but his experience tells him that it is because the invader is testing what weak points there are in the Ukrainian defenses in order to place all its strength there. “The Russians even know when we rotate our men on the front line, and it is because they have spies and because they can intercept our communications.”
The Leleka drone flies at an altitude of two kilometres over a lunar landscape and over villages that are now rubble. The drone heads towards an area where it believes the two Russian cannons are located. After half an hour of flight, it identifies the enemy and provides the coordinates to the artillery. On the screen, it can be seen how the Ukrainian shells miss by about 200 metres. The commander of the drone team explains that the reason for this is the strong wind and the progressive loss of accuracy of the Ukrainian howitzers after years of use.
The drone will not return to the unit either, it is lost after running out of battery during the return flight. Bond believes that there is still a long way to go to improve coordination between Ukrainian forces, between drones, artillery and anti-aircraft defence systems. The moment of the farewell with the journalist is marked by a radio warning, a Russian reconnaissance drone is in the area. Anti-aircraft machine guns begin to be heard; in a few minutes it will be the invader’s artillery that fills the place with explosions.
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