Pokrovsk: The city that changed the war in Ukraine

The Telegraph via Yahoo ^ | December 5th, 2025 | Memphis Barker

[Mariner]

Coming in the other direction, the soldiers looked exactly like the Ukrainian unit walking out of Pokrovsk after a 15-day deployment.

They wore the same blue armbands and carried the same equipment. One of the four men said “hello”.

But minutes later, a warning came over the radio: “Be careful, there is a group of Russian infiltrators in your area.”

“We passed right by them,” says Ivan, a 21-year-old machine gunner in an unmanned systems unit from the Da Vinci Wolves. “The men I saw matched the description exactly.”

Inside Pokrovsk, the dividing lines of urban warfare have faded. In their place is a fog of suspicion, terror and chaos, with small groups of Russian infiltrators interspersed with Ukrainian defensive forces.

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: azovnationalguard; sendanothertrillion

[Mariner]

An enormously informative article on the evolution of modern ground warfare...as we march ever closer to realizing Heinlein's vision of the Starship Trooper.

[iamgalt]

Telegraph via Yahoo? I don’t trust a word of it.

[NorseViking]

I’d say most of it is a bullshit. First, they have already lost the city but for some reason pretend that they didn’t.
Second, Russians do not infiltrate on bicycles in civilian clothes. The story is an aliby for Ukrainians who kill escaping civilians they want to keep in the cities as human shields.

[SaxxonWoods]

Pokrovsk is just a large logistics domino, not a change.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

An interesting posting. Thanks.

Telegraph UK uses Black Bird Group as a source. What of them?

Black Bird Group - interesting that the Finnish website is in English only. It is interesting that so much of the war between "Ukrainian" Ukraine and "Russian" Russia is being waged in the public discussion arena in English.

The Black Bird Group provides OSINT- and GEOINT-based services.

Black Bird Group Substack Also only in English

This substack seems to have taken a hiatus between March and November 2025.

I mention that this OSINT group in Finland works in English, for having looked at other OSINT groups, many operating in the US, all publishing in English. As to the Telegraph UK article, reading the comments at the bottom shows a first ( in the moment ) remark"

"Smee
3 hours ago
The West is winning the war on social media while losing the war on the ground. Meanwhile the money-laundering machine in Kiev continues to enrich the elite, who only want to escalate their proxy war regardless of the death and destruction of those they claim to support. There will be a day of reckoning.

Of course the war will end as it will end, however that is, but in the interim looking onto all the messaging on all sides is most interesting.

[Mariner]

Why does everyone see articles on the Ukraine war as “Putinista vs Zeeper”?

Those blinders limit their ability to see.

[BobL]

I felt bad for the (obviously) Russian-speaking old lady on the park bench (in the picture). For the first time since the Cold War, she has a chance to live under a friendly government (Russia), yet the Ukrainian soldier is trying to convince her (probably later forcing her), to again live under their tyranny.

[Mariner]

If you had read the article you would know the change is the method of warfare.

[SaxxonWoods]

I’m watching the change with interest.

[Owen]

Those drones. Electric motors.

No magnets, no motors.

China is deciding who gets magnets — BRICS-friendly drone makers or . . . others. They don’t choose others.

[palmer]

But warfare has changed. Today, the proliferation of drones means any such concentration of forces faces swift obliteration.

Seems to be the main point of the article. Warfare now boils down to if it's close and moving, shoot it. If it's farther away, shell it.

[adorno]

The story is an aliby for Ukrainians who kill escaping civilians they want to keep in the cities as human shields.

You have that exactly backwards.

It's the Russians who force Ukrainians to remain in the cities/towns, to use them as shields against Ukrainian counter-assaults. That's been the case since the beginning of the war.

[adorno]

Pokrovsk is just a large logistics domino, not a change.

It serves no logistical or military strategy, other than for Putin to declare a big victory, but only if he is successful in that action. Pokrovsk is still in Ukrainian hands, even as the battles for it continue. Russia has already lost over 100,000 troops in trying to take Pokrovsk, and hundreds more as the battles for the town continue.

[adorno]

In your world of fantasy, you continue to get things completely backwards.

Russia is the dictatorship and the aggressor and oppressor and a tyranny. Ukraine is none of those things, and never was since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

So, when’s the last time that your ‘friendly’ government in Russia held a real free and fair election? Chances are that, if Russia had held real elections, Putin would never have been president, and Russians would actually have freedoms compared to those in America.

[adorno]

Drones are everywhere in the world, and CRIBS and China cannot stop the production of such anywhere in the world.

[SaxxonWoods]

(Laughing). Whoo, you read the good stuff!

[adorno]

Laughing

Some people laugh to hide their real feelings and their tears. Keep laughing, but the truth cannot be hidden like your tears.

[SaxxonWoods]

A main logistics center with 5 highways and two railroads, heavily fortified and defended until the end. 10,500 Ukrainian troops encircled and out of the war for good trapped nearby. Russia asking that they be allowed to surrender to save their lives, Ukraine won’t allow it.

I’m just an observer. I would have preferred a stalemate with Russia giving up. But reality intruded and here we are.

[Brian Griffin]

https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-december-5-2025/

[adorno]

A main logistics center with 5 highways and two railroads, heavily fortified and defended until the end. 10,500 Ukrainian troops encircled and out of the war for good trapped nearby. Russia asking that they be allowed to surrender to save their lives, Ukraine won’t allow it.

Ukrainian troops encircled and out of the war for good...

Yet, I also see these kind of reports:

>Ukraine secures a shocking victory in Pokrovsk, repelling 51 attacks in the region as fighting intensifies. On December 6, the General Staff reported 184 total combat engagements and 1,180 Russian personnel lost in just 24 hours.

Ukraine's SHOCKING Victory in Pokrovsk!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0coqUTC14zE