Ukraine War Map Shows Two Battalions at Risk of Encirclement: 'Alarming'

A new map appears to show Russian forces closing in on Ukraine's positions in the heart of fighting in the country's Donetsk region, as Ukrainian sources sound the alarm over Russia's advances on the eastern front.

Popular Ukrainian war-tracking blog, DeepState, said on Tuesday that Russian forces were trying to surround two Ukrainian battalions, belonging to the 31st Mechanized Brigade, west of the Donetsk city of Avdiivka.

Russia captured Avdiivka in February 2024, and has been advancing west toward the strategic Donetsk settlement of Pokrovsk, not far from the Donetsk border with the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region, in the months since.

Pokrovsk has been referred to as a "fortress" settlement, key to Ukrainian defenses preventing Russia's advance west of the Donetsk region.

Moscow has also concentrated efforts further north in Donetsk, west of the Russian-controlled city of Bakhmut, while launching a new cross-border offensive into the northeastern Kharkiv region in early May. However, Ukraine's military has consistently reported the fiercest clashes east of Pokrovsk.

An updated map, published by DeepState, shows Russian forces pressing south from the Donetsk village of Lozuvatske while also moving north from Prohres. The village of Prohres is immediately south of Lozuvatske. Both settlements sit east of Pokrovsk.

The Kremlin's forces are hoping to capture Ivanivka, a Ukrainian village west of Lozuvatske and Prohres, the DeepState blog wrote.

Yuriy Butusov, a Ukrainian journalist and military observer, said on Wednesday that the situation for Ukrainian troops east of Pokrovsk was "critically difficult."

Russian forces advanced 6 kilometers, or just under 4 miles, toward Pokrovsk and the town of Myrnohrad—just east of Pokrovsk—in the past seven days, Butusov said. Once Russian forces enter Myrnohrad, they can fire directly onto Pokrovsk, he added.

The independent U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said on Tuesday that Butusov's comments on Russian advances east of Pokrovsk matched its own assessment.

Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are "the last area of ​​defense before the Dnipropetrovsk region," Butusov added. "The enemy is very close, the situation is critical, as the pace of the enemy's advance is alarming."

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had attacked Ukrainian positions along several parts of the front line snaking through Donetsk, including around Prohres.

Ukraine's armed forces said early on Wednesday that its forces had "repelled" more than 40 Russian attacks along the front line east of Pokrovsk in the past day, including around Prohres. Russian forces "tried to push Ukrainian units from occupied positions," Kyiv's military added.

"All Russian attempts to advance are met with fierce resistance," Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Khortytsia forces operating in eastern Ukraine, told Ukrainian media on Wednesday.

Russian forces will attack the village of Vovche, immediately southwest of Prohres, which will "create a number of additional problems in further defense," according to the DeepState blog.

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