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Today, there are interesting updates from the Pokrovsk direction.
Here, the Ukrainian forces started eliminating the isolated pockets of Russian soldiers near Dobropillia one by one, liberating numerous villages in the process. The Russian high command suddenly understood the real situation on the ground and launched desperate waves of mechanized attacks to reach and save the encircled troops.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have launched a major counteroffensive near Dobropillia, collapsing some of the Russian pockets and liberating several key settlements. The breakthrough began with the liberation of Kucheriv Yar, a village that had been under partial Russian control for weeks. Ukrainian paratroopers from the Air Assault Forces conducted the operation, evacuating ten civilians under fire after coordinating their pickup via drone. Geolocated footage shows Ukrainian troops raising the national flag over the settlement and capturing more than fifty Russian soldiers, all now added to Ukraine’s prisoner-exchange fund.
Momentum did not stop there and Ukrainian troops advanced eastwards, liberating Zatyshok and the surrounding territory. Footage shows Ukrainian assault groups, supported by reconnaissance and strike drones, capturing seven Russian troops during a house-clearing operation. The General Staff reported that forty-four Russian soldiers were killed, eight wounded, and nine captured during these attacks. Drone footage from these villages shows treelines covered with Russian bodies — grim proof of the intensity of Ukrainian fire and precision.
However, such clearing operations take time, as the Russians have expanded their use of drones to supply encircled troops from the sky, dropping small containers of food, ammunition, and medical supplies. Though insufficient for sustained combat, this has prolonged the survival of the trapped units. Moreover, the Ukrainians have avoided rushing in to prevent triggering the Russian high command's attention. This approach meant Russian generals continued receiving falsified reports indicating stability, while Russian forces were gradually attrited to prepare for the final clearing operation.
Local commanders, desperate to save their careers, sent several reinforcement attempts that only resulted in more massive losses. These localized decisions further weakened Russian cohesion and ensured Ukraine could dismantle the encircled formations methodically, one pocket at a time.
When Ukrainian forces finally began clearing the remaining pockets, the veil lifted for Russia’s high command. Overnight, what they believed to be secure positions rapidly vanished from the map one after the other. Shocked by reports of simultaneous collapses, Russian commanders ordered emergency mechanized counterattacks to reconnect with encircled troops. For three days, they launched assault after assault near Shakhove, turning the area into a graveyard of armor.
Despite trying to use the poor weather to their advantage, wave after wave of Russian armored vehicles failed to achieve anything, as the Ukrainians had mined the area and drones were in the air to finish off any surviving vehicles. Ukrainian drones captured many Russian bodies in the aftermath. They tried to break through a narrow passage in the engineering barriers but remained there forever.
In the panic, some of them crawled into an anti-tank ditch, trying to reach a better position with some sort of protection, but they fell into a death trap with an illusive sense of cover. Due to the lack of protection from above, the anti-tank ditch made them an easy target for the Ukrainian drones. Additional footage shows Ukrainian snipers now positioning themselves in recently liberated tree lines, setting up to rain down heavy fire on any Russian soldier moving into their field of vision.
Overall, the Russian tactic to conceal battlefield realities from the high command has backfired spectacularly. When the truth surfaced, with pocket after pocket collapsing, the response was to throw even more forces into the grinder, skyrocketing the losses. The First Azov Corps reported that within one week in its area of responsibility alone, they counted 1226 Russian soldiers killed, wounded and captured, along with 23 armored and 130 other vehicles, 39 artillery systems, and 226 drones. Given the scale of cooperation among multiple Ukrainian formations defending Pokrovsk, total Russian losses are several times higher as precise counts are impossible to make at the current time.
Videos from Russian soldiers themselves show endless fields and roads littered with their fallen comrades, a devastating testament to the collapse of Russia’s all-around defense near Dobropillia.
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