Ukraine deploys special forces as Russia advances

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have launched helicopter strikes and counterattacks in an attempt to ease pressure on a key eastern city, as the Kremlin seeks a decisive battlefield victory while putting U.S. efforts for peace on hold.

The street battles were taking place in Pokrovsk, a transportation and logistics center whose capture could serve as a launching point for the Russian army to threaten nearby major cities. It would also give Vladimir Putin new leverage at a sensitive diplomatic moment, as the Russian leader intends to seize the entire wider Donetsk region.

Putin’s forces have been fighting for control of Pokrovsk for more than a year, but now appear on the verge of a breakthrough with the front lines in the city increasingly blurred.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces must surrender to save themselves, claiming they are “surrounded” by Russian forces in the city, which was once home to about 60,000 people but is now largely abandoned and destroyed.

It said Russian forces were advancing north into Pokrovsk, preventing multiple Ukrainian attempts to break the siege.

Ukraine rejected the idea of ​​encircling its forces. President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops on Tuesday in the nearby Dobrobillya region, where Ukrainian forces are launching a counteroffensive to try to get Russia’s attention.

NBC News was unable to independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.

However, Ukrainian military officials and soldiers on the ground acknowledged that the situation in Pokrovsk was increasingly challenging.

“The situation is difficult,” Sgt. Liana Kononchuk of the Ukrainian unit operating in Pokrovsk told NBC News via WhatsApp this week. “We are trying to control it,” the 31-year-old said. “But unfortunately, the situation has become worse recently.”

“Until now, there is no permanent line of defense as such,” she said. “The enemy is infiltrating north with one, two or three units at a time, thus trying to undermine the front line,” Kononchuk added.

Her comments match the assessment of the Ukrainian open source mapping project Deep State. Its latest map showed that Russian forces had penetrated into the city from the south, but most of the area remained a disputed gray zone controlled by neither side.

Ukraine has deployed additional resources to try to repel the Russian attack, including a special forces operation using US-made Black Hawk helicopters to restore supply routes, according to a spokesman for the 7th Rapid Response Corps, which is leading the defense effort.

Kononchuk hopes that these reinforcements will stabilize the situation. She added: “The logistical situation now is very complex. Rotating locations is difficult, and evacuating the wounded is even more difficult.”

The Ukrainian commander supervising the city’s defense, Colonel Yevhen Lasychuk, said via WhatsApp on Monday that Moscow’s claims of encirclement are false and part of Russia’s propaganda “game.”

Lasichuk said that there are between 200 and 300 Russian soldiers inside the city.

He added: “They are trying to penetrate the city to obstruct the main logistical points.”

Lasychuk stressed that despite the complications, Ukraine is still able to reach its forces in Pokrovsk.

He added: “Our Defense Forces units recently conducted airdrops.” “This certainly doesn’t look like an encirclement.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces repelled a Ukrainian special forces landing and killed all 11 soldiers who arrived by helicopter.

Influential Russian military bloggers have reported extensive use of drones and smaller mobile units to disrupt Ukrainian defenses.

While the exact situation on the ground remains unclear, military analysts said losing Pokrovsk would be a bitter blow to Ukraine as it seeks greater American support.

“Losing Pokrovsk will make Ukrainian logistics on this front complex, increase the risk of loss or withdrawal from nearby positions, and require restructuring of defensive lines,” Viktor Kivlyuk, a retired Ukrainian colonel who now works at the Kiev-based Center for Defense Strategies, said in an interview.

Pokrovsk would be Russia’s most important territorial gain since it captured the eastern city of Avdiivka in early 2024. Capturing it could cause a “domino effect,” but it would still be a limited strategic gain that was unlikely to change the overall balance of the war, Kivlyuk said.

Other experts said this could strengthen Putin’s negotiating position after Trump canceled the planned summit and imposed new sanctions on Russia last month.

“Moscow could also try to use any battlefield gains to pressure Ukraine at the negotiating table and convince Trump to accept Russia’s terms,” Mykola Beliskov, a researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, said in an interview.

“Ukraine is in a difficult position,” said Beliskov, who is also a senior analyst at Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian NGO. “Politically, it is difficult to withdraw from territory – especially when the enemy tries to turn local military successes into broader strategic and diplomatic victories.”

But in practice, he said, controlling the area was now “very difficult.”

Darina Mayer reported from Kyiv and Elmira Aliyeva from London.