Fighting has intensified in eastern Ukraine, around the frontline city of Pokrovsk. Russia carried out another overnight strike on Kyiv, hitting civilian infrastructure.
Rescue teams continued searching through the rubble on the morning of November 15, but the drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital killed at least seven people, said the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
Ukrainian authorities said that three missiles and 135 drones were launched overnight, while the country’s air defense shot down all but one missile and 41 drones. The attacks came after an even more intense barrage the previous night — 430 drones and 18 missiles — which killed six people and injured at least 35 others.
Meanwhile, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that 265 clashes had occurred in the last 24 hours between Russian and Ukrainian forces along the frontline.
Nearly half of those took place in the villages and areas around Pokrovsk, a city with key road and rail junctions that has been under the threat of encirclement by Russian forces for most of the year.
Ukrainian troops have come under increasing pressure in Pokrovsk in recent weeks, with General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top military commander, visiting the units fighting to defend the city in the eastern Donetsk region.
Syrskyi said Ukraine’s main goals were to regain control over several areas, protect supply and evacuation routes, and establish new defensive lines.
“There is no issue of Russian control over the city of Pokrovsk or an operational encirclement of Ukrainian defensive forces in this area,” Syrskyi said during his November 13 visit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is not against withdrawing from Pokrovsk under these “very difficult” conditions, but that such a decision belongs to the commanders on the ground.
“No one is being asked to die for the sake of ruins. I will support our soldiers, especially the commanders who are there, in however they can control the situation, or if it becomes too costly for us. What matters most to us are our soldiers,” Zelensky told Bloomberg in a recent interview.
Earlier this week, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its forces had pushed Ukrainian troops out of towns and villages south of Pokrovsk, which is still home to around 7,000 residents — down from more than 60,000 before Russia’s full‑scale invasion in 2022, writes RFE/RL.
Pokrovsk is considered strategic for Moscow, as capturing the area could provide a launchpad for further attacks northward toward Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, the two largest remaining Ukrainian‑controlled cities in Donetsk region.
In an analysis of recent battlefield maneuvers around Pokrovsk, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington‑based think tank, said Russian forces continue advancing in the area, but the way Ukraine chooses to counterattack and reposition its forces will determine how strategically significant the fall of Pokrovsk would be for the next phase of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“Russian forces are likely to collapse the pocket around Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, but the importance of capturing these cities will depend on the circumstances and the manner of Ukraine’s potential withdrawal,” the report said.
