INTREP360 FLASH SIGNAL
THE SITUATION IN POVKROVSK: PUTIN'S LATEST FAILURE IN STRATEGIC MESSAGING
Shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russian forces had encircled the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk and trapped 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers, Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, led a Ukrainian special forces insertion via U.S.-made Blackhawk helicopters into the very areas inside Pokrovsk that Putin boasted were held by Russian forces.
Once again, Putin and his Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Valery Gerasimov overplayed their hand and yet again were embarrassingly called out by Ukraine.
Putin, in an increasingly desperate search to secure a battlefield victory of any sort, claimed on Wednesday that Russian troops had surrounded Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, and offered to negotiate a deal for their surrender.
He even proposed allowing “media workers, including Ukrainian and foreign journalists, to visit the areas … where enemy forces had been encircled, even suspending military operations to let journalists enter the cities, witness the situation firsthand, speak with Ukrainian service members, and depart.”
Budanov took him up on his offer.
Pokrovsk, which is defended by Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Reaction Corps, is the scene of pitched battles by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against roughly 11,000 or so Russian soldiers intent on encircling the city. Ukrainian spokesman Hryhorii Shapoval acknowledged that the situation in Pokrovsk is “hard but under control.”
Despite Gerasimov’s claims, The Institute for the Study of War reports that Russian forces had advanced in the Pokrovsk area but “almost certainly do not currently control any positions within the city of Pokrovsk itself,” adding that advances “are unlikely to cause an immediate collapse of the Ukrainian pocket in the Pokrovsk direction.”
Budanov’s presence in the town dispels Gerasimov’s and ‘Grandpa in his bunker’ claims of victory in Pokrovsk.
It also proves just how much pressure Putin is under to find a victory. So much so, that he has even resorted to wearing a silly looking Baghdad Bob-like Army uniform – just in time for Halloween.