As Ukraine focusses on Pokrovsk, strategic towns in Zaporizhzhia region left vulnerable to Russian encirclement
Antonia Langford16 November 2025 7:05pm GMT
Russia has seized territory in south-eastern Ukraine while Kyiv’s forces were focused on defending a key front-line city to the north.
Moscow’s defence ministry said on Sunday that it had captured two settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, exposing the strategically important towns of Orikhiv and Huliaipole to a possible encirclement by Russian forces.
Holding off Russian advances on that section of the front is key to shielding the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine has been grappling to keep the 630-mile front line stable, while bolstering defences in Donetsk, particularly around the besieged city of Pokrovsk, which appears poised to fall imminently.
Ukrainian troops have increasingly been diverted further north to reinforce the key city – leaving its defences along the south-eastern front more vulnerable to sustained Russian attacks.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s armed forces chief, this week warned, with unexpected candour, that the front-line situation in the region had “significantly worsened”.
Within the region, Russian forces have advanced some 19 miles over the course of six weeks, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
The Telegraph was not able to independently verify Russia’s most-recent claimed advances and Ukraine has not yet commented, but it follows confirmed advances in the region.
Moscow has concentrated much of its firepower on encircling Pokrovsk, aiming to finally capture the city before winter sets in to give Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, his biggest battlefield conquest for more than two years.
Pokrovsk has descended into a contested grey zone, according to the latest battlefield maps, with house-to-house battles taking place inside. Ukraine says that between 300 to 500 Russian troops used the dense fog to infiltrate the city.
With Ukraine continuing to suffer severe manpower shortages, there are growing calls for Kyiv to withdraw its troops from Pokrovsk to avoid unnecessary casualties and refortify other parts of the front. In the past, Ukrainian generals have faced criticism for waiting too long in the face of political pressure.
Kyiv has downplayed losses
Meanwhile, Russia has more quietly been making territorial gains at the intersection of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, where defence has been comparatively de-prioritised.
Russia occupies around 70 per cent of Zaporizhzhia region, primarily in its east and south, though Ukraine retains control over its regional capital of Zaporizhzhia.
Kyiv has at points downplayed losses, but earlier this week a military spokesman admitted that Ukrainian forces had been withdrawn from positions around five settlements to more “defensible positions”. The retreat, he said, came amid fierce Russian artillery strikes, unfavourable weather conditions and manpower shortages.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, visited troops in the region on Thursday, describing the situation near the town of Orikhiv as “one of the most difficult” on the extensive front.
Serhiy Sternenko, a prominent Ukrainian military blogger, said that the country is “heading towards a strategic-scale catastrophe” amid Russian breakthroughs in the south east.
“Under the current circumstances, and without global changes not only at the level of military command but also in the political approach to defensive warfare, it is only a matter of time before Russian tanks roll into [the city of] Zaporizhzhia or Dnipro,” Mr Sternenko wrote on X.
“Our defence is falling apart. Amid deafening silence about it,” he concluded.
Russian advance has ‘accelerated in recent weeks’
Russian forces may attempt to encircle Huliaipole from the north east, trying to degrade Ukraine’s defences in order to make rapid advances through infiltration tactics, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think-tank.
Moscow has targeted local supply lines and Ukrainian drone operators and is making an effort to exploit Ukraine’s weakened fortifications to mass small-group assaults in the small but strategic city which has been a fixture of the front line since the early months of the war.
Michael Kofman, a military analyst, said that while attention has been fixed on Pokrovsk, much of the Russian advance has taken place “further south west at the [Zaporizhzhia]-Dnipro-Donetsk border, and has accelerated in recent weeks”.
“Ukrainian defences around Huliaipole look increasingly incohesive. This area appears to be a lower priority for Russia, and Ukraine… Counter-attacking in Pokrovsk means few forces are available to stabilise the situation anywhere else, like [Zaporizhzhia]”, Mr Kofman said.
However, he noted that Russian forces are continuing to “underperform tactically”, largely due to units “claiming positions and advances that never took place”.
Some analysts have suggested that Russia is pushing forward in an attempt to force Ukraine to deploy resources to the Zaporizhzhia region, diverting them from Pokrovsk.
“Serhiy Sternenko, a prominent Ukrainian military blogger, said that the country is “heading towards a strategic-scale catastrophe” amid Russian breakthroughs in the south east.
“Under the current circumstances, and without global changes not only at the level of military command but also in the political approach to defensive warfare, it is only a matter of time before Russian tanks roll into [the city of] Zaporizhzhia or Dnipro,” Mr Sternenko wrote on X.
“Our defence is falling apart. Amid deafening silence about it,” he concluded.”
What if this guy is right?
Will anyone help?
We know the answer.
As for Krasnov, he is delaying sanctions (if they happen at all) to enable his bum-chum to maximise gains and give something for the bastard to crow about.
Comment from :
Max Kelada
Ms Langford is parroting Russian propaganda. Polrovsk is not due to imminently fall. Ukraine has successfully prevented its encirclement and Russian forces are at their wits end as they keep having thousands of casualties in their failed attempt to take the town. Why is she quoting a Ukrainian blogger as an authority on Ukrainian military progress and not quoting Russian bloggers who make equally dire assessments of the Russian army? She’s obviously biased or exhibiting extraordinary naïveté. Get it through your head Ms Langford, Russia has failed to take Pokrovsk and will not take the city of Zaporizhzhia. Good god – the standard we have to endure now as readers of the Telegraph.
Philip Alexander
The USA should give all of their A10 tankbuster ground attack aircraft to Ukraine. They are specifically designed to attack troops and armour on a front line. They would be a game changer.
Graham Boyd
“However, he noted that Russian forces are continuing to “underperform tactically”, largely due to units “claiming positions and advances that never took place”.”
Surely not.
Nobody wants to have territory occupied, but Huliaipole is 24 sq km out of 604,000. No doubt Russia will claim that Ukraine should surrender as a direct result.
David R Crawford
Where are those Tomahawks Trump?
Blast a few more of Putin’s oil refineries and there will be no fuel for supplying any Russian advance.
Russia can’t have that many donkeys etc to fill the gap.