kyiv, Ukraine – Ukrainian troops have launched helicopter strikes and counteroffensives to try to relieve pressure on a key eastern city, as the Kremlin seeks a crucial battlefield victory with the American push for peace shelved.
Street battles were being fought in Pokrovsk, a transportation and supply center whose capture could serve as a springboard for the Russian army to threaten larger nearby cities. It would also give Vladimir Putin new leverage at a delicate diplomatic moment, when the Russian leader is determined to capture the entire Donetsk region.
Putin’s forces have been fighting to take Pokrovsk for more than a year, but now appear to be on the verge of a breakthrough with the front lines in the city increasingly blurred.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ukrainian troops should surrender to save themselves, claiming they were “trapped” by Russian forces in the city, which was once home to about 60,000 people but is now largely deserted and destroyed.
He said Russian troops were advancing further north toward Pokrovsk, blocking multiple Ukrainian attempts to break the encirclement.
Ukraine has rejected the idea that its troops were surrounded. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops Tuesday in nearby Dobropillia, where Ukrainian forces are carrying out a counteroffensive to try to attract Russia’s attention.
NBC News could not independently verify either side’s battlefield accounts.
However, Ukrainian military officers and soldiers on the ground have admitted that the situation in Pokrovsk is increasingly difficult.
“The situation is difficult,” said Sgt. Liana Kononchuk, of the Ukrainian unit operating in Pokrovsk, told NBC News via WhatsApp this week. “We are trying to control it, but unfortunately it has only gotten worse lately,” says the 31-year-old.
“At the moment there is no permanent line of defense as such,” he said. “The enemy is advancing north in one, two, three units at a time, thus trying to erode the front line,” Kononchuk added.
His comments coincide with the assessment of the Ukrainian open source mapping project Deep State. Their latest map showed that Russian forces had advanced further into the city from the south, but that most of the area remained a disputed gray zone controlled by neither side.
Ukraine has deployed additional resources in an attempt to stop the Russian assault, including a special forces operation using American-made Black Hawk helicopters to restore supply routes, according to a spokesman for the 7th Rapid Response Corps leading the defensive effort.
Kononchuk hopes that these reinforcements will stabilize the situation. “The logistical situation is now very complicated. Rotating positions is difficult and evacuating the wounded is even more difficult,” he said.
The Ukrainian commander overseeing the city’s defense, Col. Yevhen Lasiichuk, said via WhatsApp on Monday that Moscow’s claims of a siege were false and part of Russia’s propaganda “game.”
Lasiichuk said there were between 200 and 300 Russian soldiers inside the city.
“They are trying to cross the city to block key logistical points,” he added.
Lasiichuk stressed that, although difficult, Ukraine was still able to reach Pokrovsk with its troops.
“Our Defense Force units have recently carried out air landings,” he said. “This certainly doesn’t look like a fence.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that its troops repelled a landing by Ukrainian special forces and killed the 11 soldiers who arrived by helicopter.
Influential Russian military bloggers have reported extensive use of drones and smaller mobile units to disrupt Ukrainian defenses.
While the exact situation on the ground remains unclear, military analysts said losing Pokrovsk would be a blow to Ukraine as it pushes for greater US support.
“The loss of Pokrovsk would complicate Ukrainian logistics on this front, increase the risk of losing or withdrawing from nearby positions and require a restructuring of defensive lines,” Viktor Kevliuk, a retired Ukrainian colonel who now works for the kyiv-based Center for Defense Strategies, said in an interview.
Pokrovsk would be Russia’s largest territorial gain since it seized the eastern city of Avdiivka in early 2024. Its capture could trigger a “domino effect” but would still be a limited strategic gain that would likely not change the overall balance of the war, Kevliuk said.
Other experts said it could bolster Putin’s negotiating ability after Trump canceled a planned summit and imposed new sanctions on Russia last month.
“Moscow could also try to use any battlefield gains to put pressure on Ukraine at the negotiating table and persuade Trump to accept Russia’s terms,” Mykola Bielieskov, a researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, said in an interview.
“Ukraine is in a difficult position. Politically, it is difficult to withdraw from the territory, especially when the enemy is trying to turn local military successes into broader strategic and diplomatic victories,” said Bielieskov, who is also a senior analyst at Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization.
But, he said, in practical terms maintaining control of the area was now “extremely challenging”.
Daryna Mayer reported from kyiv and Elmira Aliieva from London.
