Fierce and unrelenting battles are unfolding in the Pokrovsk direction of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Oblast, where Russian commanders are reportedly shooting their own soldiers who refuse to fight, according to multiple Ukrainian military sources.
As of May 2025, the area around Pokrovsk has become one of the most heavily contested parts of the eastern front. Russian occupation forces have launched continuous assaults in a desperate attempt to reach Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Ukrainian defenders report repelling as many as sixty four Russian attacks in a single day.
Army TV and Euromaidan Press reveal disturbing details from the battlefield. Russian troops, including wounded and terrified soldiers, are being forced into armoured vehicles and thrown into Ukrainian fire without adequate support or escape options. When a Russian infantry fighting vehicle caught fire, the soldiers inside hesitated to exit. Ukrainian drones were watching. But so were their own commanders. One captured Russian soldier confessed that anyone who refused to advance or attempted to retreat would be shot by their own officers. Before a recent assault, the troops were lined up and warned that any hesitation would be met with violence. One soldier who hesitated was shot in the legs and still forced into the assault.
Yuliia Stepaniuk, head of communications for Ukraine’s 117th Separate Heavy Mechanised Brigade, confirmed these accounts, stating that fear of Ukrainian drones is real, but Russian soldiers fear their own commanders even more. Many know that the only slim chance of survival is to surrender.
Since the Kremlin’s forces captured the ruins of Avdiivka over a year ago, the Russian dictator’s military has focused intensely on Pokrovsk. With a pre war population of sixty thousand, the city is a strategic anchor point in eastern Ukraine, linking key towns and cities that stretch north to the Russian border.
The Russian army of occupation, estimated at six hundred thousand troops, continues to send wave after wave of tanks and armoured vehicles into Ukrainian defences. These efforts, however, have largely failed. Ukrainian forces successfully repelled attacks in more than a dozen areas including Yelyzavetivka, Promin, Novoukrainka, Kotlyne, Udachne, Novotoretske, Novooleksandrivka, Troitske, Kotliarivka, Lysivka, Dachen, Uspenivka, and Andriivka.
The Khortytsia operational strategic group reported that the Russian forces are still amassing troops for further assaults, despite suffering massive losses. The conditions on the Russian side have become so desperate that command has resorted to brutality and coercion, forcing unfit, scared, or wounded soldiers into what they know could be their final moments.
