Today, there is interesting news from the Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk Oblast.
Here, Russian ratio of losses hit a staggering number of 20 soldiers for every meter gained in the tree lines and in the streets, crashing face-first into the Ukrainian wall of drones.
As the Russian casualty rate shatters the morale of their soldiers, who now beg others not to join the army in their last videos, Russian commanders continue to deploy more operational reserves into the ever-growing disaster.
Near Myrnohrad, Russian forces have been trying for weeks to claw their way forward, hoping to turn the town into a staging ground for a push on Pokrovsk. The plan is to gain a foothold, expand positions, and use the town’s size to conceal ammunition depots, force groupings, and drone units operating close to the front.
Simultaneous with the Dobropillia breakthrough, Russians thought to use their armor again in the hope that Ukrainians were too distracted and this could prove successful. However, in practice it has been a disaster, as every attempted armored push toward Myrnohrad has ended with Ukrainian firepower destroying Russian vehicles long before they could even reach the contact line.
Dozens of geolocated videos show smoking wrecks scattered across fields, showcasing the failing strategy, with Russians now forced to resort to pure infantry assaults once again.
Between the Russians and their goal stands what soldiers on the ground call the wall of drones. Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, with their tall buildings and industrial complexes, provide perfect launch sites and relay points for these operators. Drones swarm across no-man’s land, hitting Russian infantry not only as they cross open ground but also inside shelters, making even waiting in hidden positions deadly.
Soldiers of Russia’s 155th Marine Brigade recently complained in a video that their shelter was destroyed by a Ukrainian kamikaze drone, leaving them concussed but alive, at least this time.
Yet the drones are not the only powerful tool in the Ukrainian arsenal, as Ukrainian airstrikes are equally devastating with their crushing precision. Videos from Myrnohrad show MiG-29 jets delivering J-dam guided bombs. In one case, two such munitions struck a mine building packed with Russian assault troops, obliterating them in seconds.
Another strike targeted a separate strongpoint, and as one of the bombs failed to completely destroy the target, Ukrainian drones quickly followed to finish the survivors. The synergy is lethal, with aviation wiping out larger concentrations, while drones hunt down remaining infiltrators, ensuring no pocket of resistance survives.
As a result, the few Russians who manage to infiltrate forward often find themselves trapped and doomed. With drones flying overhead there is no place to hide, and one geolocated video shows operators leading Ukrainian marines from the sky to Russian infiltrators hiding in an underground shelter.
Drones confirmed the target, and a small squad moved in, pinning the enemy with suppressive fire, then tossing a grenade inside, ending the fight instantly. Such fish in a barrel clearing operations are happening daily, eliminating remnants of Russian infiltration missions before they can regroup or fortify.
The cost for Russia is mindboggling, and Ukrainian officers report that for every single meter gained near Myrnohrad, 20 Russians die. One Russian soldier sent a video plea home confirming these statistics with the words that there were 20 of them at first, and that he is now the only one left. The rest are dead for what he calls not their war, as he continues with a warning trying to dissuade more people from joining the Russian army.
Ukrainian intelligence confirms that the Russian command is stripping operational reserves from other fronts, as well as pulling exhausted units straight from contact lines, and sending them to Pokrovsk. However, with drones watching every trench and precision bombs smashing every hideout, the losses only accelerate.
Overall, the defense of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad has become a demonstration of modern combined arms at its most effective. Drones saturate the sky, J-dams smash force concentrations, and ground troops methodically clear the shattered remains.
Russia’s dream of turning Myrnohrad into a launching pad has instead turned it into a graveyard, as each meter forward costs a platoon’s worth of lives, a pace impossible to sustain. No matter how many reinforcements the enemy diverts to this sector, the synergy shown by Ukrainian defenders ensures that every advance will bleed out, making sure that for Russia, progress is measured not in meters but in bodies.
In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.