Ukrainian Commander Dismisses Encirclement Rumors Amid Ongoing Battle for Pokrovsk

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s leading military official refuted allegations regarding his forces being surrounded in Pokrovsk, as President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned the possibility of a tactical retreat to safeguard soldiers.

«There is no discussion about Russian domination over Pokrovsk or the operational encirclement of our Defense Forces,» stated Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine, in a Facebook post following his visit to the front lines.

He admitted that Pokrovsk remains a key target for the slowly advancing Russian troops, while Ukrainian forces are making efforts to «gradually» secure important areas and maintain supply routes.

The Moscow Times was unable to independently verify these assertions.

Previously home to around 60,000 residents, Pokrovsk has endured over a year and a half of ceaseless attacks by Russian forces. Its capture would enable Russia to progress northward towards larger Ukrainian cities and solidify control over the eastern Donetsk region, which it claims to have annexed in September 2022.

Open-source maps from the Ukrainian monitoring organization DeepState indicate that Russian troops are advancing from the north, east, and south, creating a semblance of partial encirclement.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov remarked on Thursday that «the positions of the Kyiv regime are worsening every day.»

Ukraine contends that Russia’s assertions regarding the inevitable capture of Pokrovsk form part of a disinformation strategy aimed at pressuring its Western allies into compelling a peace agreement with Moscow that would necessitate relinquishing control of the Donetsk region.

Zelensky indicated in a recent interview with Bloomberg that Ukrainian soldiers are not expected to «perish for the sake of ruins,» suggesting that commanders have the latitude to make decisions based on the evolving situation.