A slow death War of attrition leaves Pokrovsk devastated and deserted

For a time, Pokrovsk was a haven, a wartime Ukrainian boom town because of its strategic position in the east, 30 miles from the front. But that was before the summer of 2024, when a rapid Russian advance engulfed the industrial centre in a shattering duel that is only now reaching its endgame.

- Dan Sabbagh

The 18-month battle for Pokrovsk epitomises the state of the Ukraine war today: a struggle of attrition in which gradual Russian advances have been made at extraordinary human cost. The fight has shown that Russia cannot easily capture urban areas, but it has also drained Ukraine, and consequences are emerging elsewhere.

Such has been the level of destruction that Pokrovsk is no longer even strategically significant. Its population is decimated, its industry destroyed. It has become a bloody signpost as peace negotiations restart.

"There are fairly strong military arguments for Ukraine giving up ground," said Nick Reynolds, a land warfare research fellow at the Rusi thinktank. "But politically, Ukraine recognises that giving up territory won't necessarily stop the war. Giving up land would mean fighting the same battles on different terrain."

An industrial town, with a prewar population of 60,000 and five-storey communist apartment blocks in its centre, Pokrovsk was already significant before the Russian invasion. A mine 6 miles to the west was the largest supplier of coking coal, a vital raw material for steel-making. Producing 6m tonnes a year, the mine and its sister site employed 10,000 people.

Residents deserted the town rapidly after Russia launched its full-scale assault in February 2022. But while the invaders swept through the south and eastern edge of Ukraine, the prewar lines held in Avdiivka, 30 miles southeast. As the frontlines stabilised elsewhere, Pokrovsk's location made it strategically important.

Its railway station became a distribution hub for the region, while its roads were the principal connection from the central city of Dnipro to Kramatorsk and Ukraine's fortress belt in Donetsk province, bringing troops and supplies forward and ferrying casualties back.