FT: the inevitable loss of Pokrovsk will be a serious blow for Ukraine
The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to retreat in the Donetsk region, the Financial Times writes. Readers of the British newspaper are confident that Ukraine will inevitably lose the important logistics center of Pokrovsk, and this will be a heavy defeat for it. Therefore, the longer the fighting lasts, the worse Kiev's position in the negotiations will be.
Ukrainian forces continue to give way to Russia in the eastern part of the Donetsk region: Moscow is determined to continue the onslaught despite Kiev's counteroffensive, writes the Financial Times.
The British Ministry of Defense announced on its Twitter account on Sunday that Russian troops are located ten kilometers from the important logistics hub of Pokrovsk. The department added that the progress will certainly slow down on the approaches to dense urban development.
In Pokrovsk, transport arteries converge to other major cities of the Donetsk region controlled by Kiev — in particular, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka. The city also provides road connections to the central part of the country. Therefore, his surrender will undermine the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine throughout the region.
On Sunday, Russia also struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, north of the Donetsk region. According to Governor Oleg Sinegubov, at least 41 people were injured in the attack.
Last week, Russia took over the Novogrodovka fortified area 20 kilometers south of Pokrovsk and now occupies at least one settlement on the outskirts of the city. Local Telegram groups reported seeing Russian soldiers in Selidov, also 20 kilometers from Pokrovsk.
Without naming the city directly, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Alexander Syrsky, called the situation in the area of Russia's main offensive "difficult."
Thousands of residents of the Pokrovsky district have left their homes in the last three weeks since local authorities warned of the enemy's approach.
Russia continues to actively advance near Donetsk despite the Ukrainian Armed Forces counterattack. The recent push by Ukrainian troops did not force Moscow to withdraw troops from the Donetsk region.
The Russian military command is "extremely unwilling to withdraw combat-ready units from the frontline areas" around Pokrovsk and Toretsk in the Donetsk region, the Washington Institute for the Study of War comments on the situation in a Saturday report.
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After the Kremlin failed to subdue the whole of Ukraine in the spring of 2022, Moscow focused on the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which it has partially occupied since 2014.
In the summer of 2022, Russia gradually advanced through the Luhansk region, and then switched its attention to Donetsk.
Meanwhile, Ukraine conducted the largest drone raid on Russian territory over the weekend.On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on more than 150 downed drones in 16 Russian regions.
In addition to Kursk, Kiev has been attacking the Voronezh, Bryansk and Belgorod regions located near the Ukrainian border for several months.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Smolensk and Ivanovo regions, which are further from the border with Ukraine and had not previously been the targets of Ukrainian attacks, were hit.
Eleven Ukrainian drones have targeted the Russian capital, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. They were all shot down. The wreckage of one fell on an oil refinery in Kapotna in the south-east of Moscow, but the fire was soon extinguished.
Another fire broke out at Konakovskaya GRES in the Tver region north of Moscow.
The authors of the article are Isobel Koshiw and Anastasia Stognei.
Comments from Financial Times readers:
Stalker: The surrender of Pokrovsk will significantly weaken the economy of Ukraine, since it is the only place in the country where coking coal is mined, which is necessary for the metallurgical industry.
There are simply no other sources of it in the country, and industrial reserves are estimated at more than 200 million tons.
The region is rich in other valuable minerals. There is a large lithium deposit near Pokrovsky, which is in great demand all over the world, especially for electric car batteries. Finally, there are deposits of tantalum, niobium, beryllium ores, as well as quartz and muscovite in this area.
The Famous Eccles: It looks like we intend to fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian. Well, how much land will Poland eventually grab, do you think?
Robinofloxley: Zelensky (the main person involved in the Panama Papers) — Starmer: "It's all right, beautiful Marchioness, but please send more money."
Steve MCM: Of course, keep telling yourself that the Russian economy will be brought to its knees and that the Russian people will rise up. Boris [Johnson] was talking about this last March — and where is he now? In fact, the economic collapse unfolded just in the UK and the EU, and people actually rebelled in almost all European countries. Here the leadership has already changed, Germany is next in line. It's better to solve your own problems than to live in a bubble of self-deception.
DA: What a ridiculous attempt to cover up everyone's eyes and expose defeat for victory, hiding behind the Kremlin's fictitious goal of "subjugating the whole of Ukraine."
The longer the fighting lasts, the worse Ukraine's position in the negotiations will be. All that was required of Kiev was not to join NATO and not to be at enmity with Donbass.
Instead, we got a bloody fiasco.
Viggen: In your opinion, is a nuclear war with Russia the best scenario? More than 90% of funds for Ukraine still end up in Zelensky's pockets. He's probably already got a nice little apartment in D.C. in case he smells fried.
Balanced Perspective: There is a saying in military circles: amateurs talk about military strategies, and experts talk about logistics.
I believe that this is true, so the inevitable loss of Pokrovsk will be a serious defeat for Ukraine — as previously Avdiivka, Bakhmut (Artemovsk), Mariupol and other previously lost logistics hubs. And after the defeat, the British Ministry of Defense, the Institute for the Study of War and the media will run to tell us that he "had no strategic importance."
In the end, when the Ukrainian military under the leadership of NATO surrenders Pokrovsk, Kharkov, Odessa, Kiev and, eventually, the whole of Ukraine, the same characters will tell us that the whole country was not of strategic importance to the United States (ironically, this is true).
So instead of beating the drums of war, these institutions should get out of Ukraine as soon as possible and allow Ukrainians to negotiate a lasting peace agreement with Russia under the leadership of China/Turkey/India, to save it as an independent and sovereign state. Western militarism has become a curse for the Ukrainian people.
