By Yuliia Dysa and Anna Voitenko
KYIV/EASTERN UKRAINE, Ukraine (Reuters) -As buildings change hands in chaotic fighting in Ukraine’s eastern stronghold of Pokrovsk, defending forces said this week that drones alone could not hold off Russian advances and more soldiers were needed to prevent the enemy infiltrating further.
The situation, they said, was difficult, but not yet fatal for Ukraine in a city Russian forces have been trying to capture for around 18 months.
Open-source maps show more than half of Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub in eastern Ukraine, as a grey area controlled by neither side, with Russian troops close to cutting off supply routes in and out.
In rare firsthand remarks from people engaged in the battle, three Ukrainian servicemen described urban clashes and fluid dynamics when they spoke to Reuters on Monday and Tuesday.
Hus, a drone squad commander from the 68th Jaeger brigade, said on a video call from his dugout on the outer edges of Pokrovsk that there was no conventional front line in the city.
“Here, one building is held by our side, the next occupied by the enemy, and in a few hours it swaps,” he said on Monday, giving only his call sign in line with Ukrainian military practice.
Some servicemen Reuters spoke to said a shortage of troops was a key challenge as Ukraine seeks to hold the city – as it has been in other urban battles where Russia eventually prevailed.
SITUATION DETERIORATING BUT NOT CRITICAL
According to Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps, Russia has at least 11,000 troops in the vicinity of Pokrovsk, with thousands more in surrounding areas. Ukraine is heavily outnumbered, but officials do not disclose details of Ukrainian troop levels.
Hus said that several days ago, his unit was moved from positions in Pokrovsk to the outskirts as the situation was “steadily deteriorating”. Kyiv deployed special forces to the city last week in a sign of the precariousness of the situation.
Russia has been saying for over a week that Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk are encircled and called on Wednesday for them to surrender. Ukraine denied its troops were surrounded, saying it had strengthened its units in the city.
Hus, as well as Lambada and Filosof – call signs of two soldiers from a drone unit working with the 7th Rapid Response Corps who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday – said Russian statements about events in Pokrovsk were not true.
“They like to do these things on credit, so to speak. They raised the flag and hid somewhere, as if there were a lot of them, but in reality, this is not the case,” said Filosof, who spoke at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.
Filosof, speaking, like Lambada, while on rotation from Pokrovsk and about to head back to the area, said the city could remain contested for some time to come and the situation was not yet critical.
“I’m telling you, five men are on the way, but only one makes it. He reaches the city, goes inside a building and waits for someone else to join him,” Lambada said of the Russian troops.
He added that the majority of them were killed as they tried to advance into Pokrovsk.
SHORT ON INFANTRY
Russia has amassed forces in and around Pokrovsk, sending in groups of three to five troops for weeks, Ukrainian officials have said.
Several factors made it possible. But it was the lack of people to control all the loopholes in defences that let the Russians through, two of the soldiers Reuters spoke to said.
“It is the foot of an infantryman that marks, so to speak, where we hold our ground, not a drone in the sky,” said Hus.
Lambada said drones “run the show”, but when asked what was needed to defend Pokrovsk, he replied: “People who are motivated, truly motivated. Who want to defend, who want to fight, who want to kill Russians.”
Vast areas of Pokrovsk lie in ruins. The Russian military has been inching towards the city since the middle of 2024, attacking it with drones, missiles and artillery.
From a pre-war population of about 60,000, around 1,200 residents remain – without power, heating, reliable food supplies and evacuation routes.
“It’s all the same, the same tactic, wipe everything out,” Lambada said of the Russians.
Two other sizeable Ukrainian cities – Bakhmut and Avdiivka – were captured by Russia earlier in the war, and both were left in ruins.
The three servicemen stood ready to defend Pokrovsk and continue to fight should it fall.
Hus, talking just hours after a Russian strike claimed the life of a member of his squad, was emotionally drained, and he dreamed of reuniting with his loved ones.
“But now my place is here,” he said.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv and Anna Voitenko in eastern Ukraine; Additional reporting Tom Peter, Editing by Mike Collett-White and Philippa Fletcher)
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