For an entire year, Ukrainian troops prevented Russian vehicles from reaching Pokrovsk. That changed this week.
David Axe
Nov 8, 2025
A Peaky Blinders drone operator.
- For the first time, a Russian vehicle has infiltrated Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine
- Winter fog reportedly obscured the truck as it motored into the city
- Exhausted and outnumbered, the Ukrainian garrison in Pokrovsk cannot defeat every incursion
- As more and heavier Russian troops reach the city, a Ukrainian retreat is probably imminent
A thick fog blanketed Pokrovsk and neighboring Myrnohrad on Thursday. For the Russians, it was a long-awaited opportunity—to rush more forces past Ukraine’s drones and into the embattled settlements.
They succeeded more than they failed. For the first time since the Russian Center Group of Forces arrived on the outskirts of Pokrovsk around a year ago, the Russians managed to get a vehicle into Pokrovsk. A truck.
That truck’s crew immediately got to work removing obstacles from a road on the southern edge of Pokrovsk. Potentially clearing the way for more Russian vehicles to motor into Pokrovsk as the long, bloody battle for the city enters its final phase.
Why the weather now favors Moscow’s forces
A surveillance drone from Ukraine’s Peaky Blinders unit managed to get a clear view of the truck. But it seems conditions were too nasty for attack drones to strike the vehicle. “Unfortunately, the bad weather is now playing into the hands of the occupier,” Peaky Blinders reported.
“If earlier we saw the infiltration of Russian troops into Pokrovsk exclusively on foot,” the drone unit added. “At most, there were sometimes attempts to break through on a motorcycle. Today, through the fog, we noticed the first Russian military pickup in the city. They took their time throwing down the barricades and drove through the streets of Pokrovsk.”
·
Video from the Ukrainian National Guard’s Peaky Blinders unit of a Russian truck in Pokrovsk. https://t.me/gostrikartuzy/1211
Russian strategy shifts from mechanized assault to infiltration
Key developments in Russia’s Pokrovsk offensive
- Late 2024: Russian forces reach city outskirts but can’t penetrate defenses
- Early 2025: Switch to infantry-only infiltration on foot and motorcycles
- Fall 2025: Weather deterioration enables more successful infiltrations
- 6 November 2025: First Russian vehicle (truck) enters Pokrovsk under fog cover
The truck’s arrival was a long time coming. The Russian group of forces reached Pokrovsk’s outskirts in late 2024 but struggled to slip infantry into to the city—to say nothing of getting vehicles in. The Russians outnumbered the Ukrainians five to one, but Ukrainian drones, mines, and artillery blasted every Russian assault group.
In early 2025, the Russians switched their strategy. As the weather warmed and the ground firmed up, Russian field armies parked their surviving armored vehicles and began sending infantry toward and around Pokrovsk on foot or on motorcycles.
·
As the situation in Pokrovsk becomes critical, and AFU reinforces the pocket to stabilize the flanks, there’s considerable attention now to how this battle is unfolding. A few thoughts on the situation. 1/
These infiltration tactics were extremely costly in lives and light equipment.
Tens of thousands of Russians have been killed, wounded, and captured around Pokrovsk. But the Ukrainian garrison in Pokrovsk struggled to keep infantry in every fighting position.
If a Russian infiltration team could get across the drone-patrolled no-man’s-land and reach the edge of Pokrovsk, it could shelter in a basement and await reinforcements.
“The situation around Pokrovsk deteriorated over time as Russian forces kept infiltrating through the southern part of the city,” explained Michael Kofman, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, D.C. “Ukrainian positions grew increasingly thin.”
The coming of fall, with its wetter, colder, and cloudier weather, was a turning point. “Worsening weather enabled Russian troops to get more men into the city in recent weeks,” Kofman added.
Why exhausted Ukrainian defenses couldn’t stop every incursion
But even as more Russian infantry sneaked into Pokrovsk, Ukrainian forces in and around the city managed to defeat a fresh wave of Russian mechanized assaults. The long break in vehicular operations had helped the Kremlin stockpile thousands of tanks and other vehicles—and many of them have staged around Pokrovsk.
That changed in the past month or so as Russia’s own creeping encirclement of Pokrovsk and neighboring Myrnohrad, and the growing number of Russian drones along this sector of the front, squeezed Ukrainian logistics. “Virtually every vehicle heading into the city comes under attack,” Ukrainian philanthropist Serhii Sternenko reported.
Even as Ukrainian defenses stiffened north of Pokrovsk, the defenses in Pokrovsk frayed for a want of people, supplies, and heavy weapons … but mostly people.
Given Ukraine’s continuing struggles to recruit enough fresh troops, it was probably only a matter of time before a Russian vehicle ran the gauntlet and arrived in Pokrovsk.
That time has come. It was already overdue for the surviving Ukrainians to retreat from Pokrovsk. Now withdrawal is even more urgent. “Losing the city now is far less critical than preserving the force,” Kofman wrote.
Why Ukrainian defenses are weakening in Pokrovsk:
- Dense fog reduced drone visibility and targeting
- 5:1 Russian numerical advantage around Pokrovsk
- Exhausted garrison stretched too thin across positions
- Overstretched logistics under constant Russian drone attacks
- Recruitment shortfalls preventing force rotation
A thick fog blanketed Pokrovsk on Thursday. Russian forces seized the moment—rushing a truck past Ukrainian drones and into the city for the first time in a year.
The truck crew immediately began clearing road obstacles on Pokrovsk’s southern edge, potentially opening routes for more Russian vehicles to follow.
For months, Ukraine’s drone operators stopped every Russian assault. But the Ukrainian garrison is stretched dangerously thin—outnumbered five to one, struggling to keep infantry in every fighting position.
Fall’s wetter, colder weather made it worse. Fog grounds drones just as exhausted Ukrainian defenses can’t cover every gap. Russia stockpiled hundreds of tanks waiting for exactly this combination: bad weather and weakened defenses.
“The situation deteriorated over time as Russian forces kept infiltrating,” explains analyst Michael Kofman. “Ukrainian positions grew increasingly thin.”
Ukraine’s recruitment struggles mean no fresh troops to rotate exhausted defenders. The breakthrough was inevitable.
This is a disaster.
The putinaZis are methodical and are sticking to a plan; which for them is working. They are advancing, taking and holding land. They don’t care how many orcs they lose or how long it takes.
The only thing that could change their calculus is if so many orcs each and every day get smoked that their foul occupation becomes untenable.
How many might that be? Start with 5000/day.
Ukraine needs firepower and manpower.
The putinaZi filth are supremely confident: look at the kuntz about to dance on the bones of the Ukrainian children they murdered at the theatre in Mariupol, which they have rebuilt and turned into a hellish putinaZi citadel.
We are going to be helplessly observing more and more horror and atrocities indefinitely.
Or until a strong ally with actual integrity comes along and says “enough is enough.”
The EP page on FB is swamped with fucking African trolls. I keep asking admin to zap them but to no avail. Sample :
Bhek’baba Tembe
“Russia is too steady and patient. dont care taking months and weeks slowly marching an inch foward per day but too sure of what the end results will be. we saw them in mariopole and bukhmat they know of what they are doing everything is stil going according to their special millitary plan, a dimitarisation project that got no time frame set for the complete dismatling of enemy millitary fortification sites and millitary assets and personnels to liberate the oppressed ukrainean citizens of russian origin cos they are the one who sommoned russia to come and helped them break out of ukraine rule that dicriminate, torture, kill and humiliate them based to the language they spoke and other traditional values.”
Sample reply :
Shawn Bushell
“Bhek’baba Tembe : you’re as backwards as the propaganda you follow. Just another African parrot that got out the cage. The free world will win & you’ve chosen your side.”
Well said Shawn.
More than half the world’s population: the shitholes part, are with putlerstan, while the civilised world fannies around worrying about fucking trannies and peddling climate lies.
The KP reports :
“At least 1,436 African nationals from 36 countries are fighting in Ukraine as part of Russia’s invasion force, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Sybiha revealed.
These are only the confirmed cases — the real number may be significantly higher.”
What is Europe doing? Discussing endlessly about finances, the climate, immigration, the economy, the tariffs … while the Ukrainian dam is holding back the floodwaters of death and destruction, protecting all of them with Ukrainian blood. No movie could be as absurd and bizarre as the world we live in.
Well said, well said