Ukraine Deploys Special Forces to Defend Embattled Eastern City

Ukraine has dispatched special forces to the eastern city of Pokrovsk, which is currently facing intense Russian assaults involving thousands of troops, the country’s top military commander announced on Saturday.

Pokrovsk, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, sits along a critical supply route for Kyiv’s forces and has been a strategic target for Moscow for more than a year. Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials reported that hundreds of Russian soldiers had infiltrated the logistics hub, with others advancing on its outskirts in a pincer-shaped manoeuvre, according to battlefield maps published by the Institute for the Study of War.

The city’s fall would mark a significant propaganda victory for the Kremlin, which has rejected US appeals to halt its nearly four-year-long invasion and continues to intensify ground operations across eastern Ukraine.

“A comprehensive operation to destroy and displace enemy forces from Pokrovsk is under way,” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote in a Facebook post.

“By my order, consolidated groups of Special Operations Forces are operating in the city,” he added, without providing further details.

Footage circulated on social media appeared to show helicopters flying above Pokrovsk, while another video, purportedly filmed by a Russian drone, showed figures disembarking from a helicopter that had landed in an open field.

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces are elite military units trained to conduct covert missions, including sabotage, reconnaissance, and diversionary operations.

Syrskyi acknowledged that Pokrovsk was under immense pressure from an “enemy group thousands strong” but rejected claims that Russian troops had fully encircled the city. “There is no blockade,” he stated. “We are doing everything possible to maintain logistics.”

Before the war, Pokrovsk was home to around 60,000 people. Today, it lies largely in ruins — an almost deserted wasteland scarred by months of relentless fighting.

For over a year, Russian forces have been grinding forward along the front line in slow, costly battles that Kyiv and its Western allies argue offer little real strategic value. Moscow now occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

Ukraine’s announcement regarding Pokrovsk came as new data revealed that Russia launched more missiles at Ukrainian targets in October than in any month since early 2023.

According to an AFP analysis of Ukrainian air force data, Russia fired 270 missiles during October — a 46 per cent increase from the previous month — marking the highest total since Kyiv began releasing such figures early last year.

These strikes, aimed primarily at Ukraine’s vulnerable energy infrastructure, have plunged hundreds of thousands of residents into darkness for the fourth consecutive winter, forcing authorities to impose rolling blackouts across all regions, including the capital.

Kyiv and its allies accuse Moscow of deliberately targeting civilians in an attempt to exhaust public morale — allegations the Kremlin denies.

The same data showed that Russia also launched 5,298 long-range drones in October — about six per cent fewer than in September but still close to record highs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” intended to demilitarise the country and block NATO’s expansion eastward.

Kyiv and European leaders, however, insist the conflict is an unprovoked and illegal land grab — the largest and deadliest war on European soil since the Second World War. Tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed, and millions of Ukrainians displaced since the invasion began.

Ukrainian officials reported that Russian missile and drone strikes on Saturday alone killed at least two people, underscoring the continued human toll of the conflict.