With Russia on the verge of capturing Pokrovsk, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv faces a cruelly familiar choice. It could pull back, concede defeat and save lives. Or it could fight on, delaying a symbolic and tactical victory for Moscow but risking heavier losses of its own.
It’s a dilemma that has haunted the Ukrainian military throughout the war, as it has struggled to contain Russian advances. Ukraine chose to hold on amid grinding battles in cities like Bakhmut and Avdiivka, both of which ultimately fell to Moscow. Critics argued that a timely retreat could have saved soldiers, Kyiv’s most precious resource in a war of attrition against a much larger adversary.
Ukraine’s argument for holding cities as long as possible is that it forces the Russian Army to expend vast numbers of troops, leaving it weakened in the battles to come. There is also a political element, as the two sides wage a battle of narratives. Kyiv wants to prevent Moscow from claiming successes that could sap morale at home and that the Kremlin could use to persuade the Trump administration that supporting Ukraine is a losing wager.
If Ukraine keeps fighting for Pokrovsk, it risks being drawn into protracted urban combat as Russia continues to pour its superior resources into the battle. While Moscow has proved capable of replacing its losses through regular army recruitment campaigns offering sizable payouts, Ukraine has long struggled with troop shortages.
Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Myrnohrad said that they had received no orders to retreat, and that they were focused on inflicting as many casualties on attacking Russian troops as they could.
Pokrovsk, with a prewar population of 60,000, would be the largest Ukrainian city to fall since Bakhmut in May 2023. Its capture would give Russia a platform to push north and pursue its stated goal of capturing the Donetsk region, about three-quarters of which it already controls.