Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold on to the key city of Pokrovsk, in one of the fiercest battles in eastern Ukraine, but commanders admit the Russians have more troops and firepower.
A man walks down a war-ravaged street in Pokrovsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, on Dec. 19, 2024. Behind him is the hotel Druzhba, which was destroyed by a Russian missile last summer. Pokrovsk was once home to 60,000 people. Now it's largely abandoned, with Russian troops active within a mile of the outskirts.POKROVSK, Ukraine — In the final hours of 2024, the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk suddenly went dark.
Asked about the danger his own team faces in Pokrovsk, Pipa said it's hard after nearly three years of war to remember what safety and normal conditions feel like."Our way of thinking about danger, the proper limits of danger, have moved and shifted and changed," he said. As NPR's team drove through the ghostly city, through sleet and rain in an armored car, there were Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who appeared to be barely hanging on. An elderly couple shuffled quickly down a sidewalk. A lone man rode his bicycle.One weary-looking Ukrainian soldier named Vitalii was driving a heavily damaged U.S.-made Bradley Fighting Vehicle on the outskirts of town.
As the city became a target for Moscow, shelling and missile strikes escalated. Local officials said in their year-end message on Dec. 30, that 95% of industrial facilities and 70% of homes have been damaged or destroyed. Barros, the analyst with ISW, said in 2024 Ukraine was forced to retreat. But its forces have also slowed Russia's advance, while killing or injuring as many as 30,000 Russian soldiers every month along the entire front, according to estimates compiled by Barros' group and other military analysts. He believes losses on that scale may be unsustainable for Moscow.
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