Military authorities in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Friday urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because the Russian army is quickly closing in on what has for months been one of Moscow’s key targets in the war.
The call for people to get out as soon as possible came as Kyiv’s forces are trying to divert the Kremlin’s military focus to Russian soil by launching a bold incursion across the border into the Kursk region.
The urgency also underscored the high-stakes gamble Ukraine is making by taking the war into Russia with its ongoing assault that started Aug. 6. The attack was a daring attempt to change the dynamics of the 2½-year conflict, but it could leave Ukraine’s shorthanded defence at the mercy of Russia’s push.
The Kremlin’s forces have had battlefield momentum and superior forces in Eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region since the spring.
Strategists have noted Ukraine is wagering it can cope with the strain on its resources in Kursk without sacrificing Donetsk, while Russia apparently reckons it can contain the incursion without needing to ease up in Donetsk.
“Both cannot be right,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, on Thursday. “The outcome hangs in the balance.”
‘Advancing at a fast pace’
Russia’s slow slog across Donetsk this year has been costly in terms of troops and armour, but its gains have mounted up.
Pokrovsk, which had a pre-war population of about 60,000, is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would compromise Ukraine’s defensive abilities and supply routes. It would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the Donetsk region than ever before.
Evacuations in the Donetsk region around Pokrovsk have become increasingly urgent in recent weeks.
Ukraine continues to hold and expand its control over Russian territory, nine days after it launched a surprise cross-border attack. Moscow says it will bring the incursion to an end, but there’s no sign of that happening yet.
Pokrovsk officials said in a Telegram post Friday that Russian troops are “advancing at a fast pace. With every passing day, there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned on Thursday that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region were “facing the most intense Russian assaults.”
“Priority supplies — everything that is needed — are being sent there,” Zelenskyy said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
That same day, authorities told people to start evacuating the town.
People offered shelter in western Ukraine
Pokrovsk officials were meeting with the residents to provide them with logistical details on the evacuation. People were offered shelter in western Ukraine, where they will be hosted in dormitories and separate houses prepared for them.
“As the front line approaches Pokrovsk, the need to move to a safer place is becoming increasingly urgent,” the local administration said.
In Kursk, meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have taken full control of Sudzha, Zelenskyy said Thursday. It’s the largest Russian town to fall to Ukraine’s forces since the start of their incursion 10 days ago, and the success raised Ukrainian spirits while embarrassing the Kremlin.
A family who fled from Sudzha showed on Russian state TV the shattered windows of their car, the result of an attack while on the road.
“At the turn they were shooting, there were mines, we drove around the mines. Then we were driving further, the drone hit us in Bondarevka,” said Nikolai Netbayev.
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