Russian forces use fog cover to push further into key Ukraine town

Thick fog enabled Russian forces to advance into the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s 7th Airborne Assault Corps says weather conditions, especially heavy fog, have prompted Moscow to intensify its efforts to bring increasing numbers to the devastated city and surround Ukrainian forces.

Russian forces spent more than a year trying to seize the city, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the fog favored Russian attacks and that the situation remains difficult.

Meanwhile, Army Commander Oleksandr Sirsky warned that the situation on the front line in the country’s southeastern Zaporizhia region had “worsened significantly”, with the loss of three settlements.

But Sersky said Russia was more active around Pokrovsk. A video clip circulated on social media showing Russian soldiers driving civilian cars and motorcycles on a foggy road.

The BBC verified the location where the video was filmed, which is the southern outskirts of the city on the Seldov-Pokrovsk highway.

For several days, fog obscured the view for aerial reconnaissance, says a drone pilot from the “Shershny Dovpusha” unit of the 68th Brigade with the call sign “Gos.”

He told the BBC that this was why the Russians “dared” to launch attacks using a column of vehicles, which would normally have been immediately eliminated by Ukrainian drones.

The Ukrainian drone pilot told the BBC that his unit regularly spotted and eliminated small Russian groups trying to advance on foot and motorcycles. He added that they also participated in repelling the attack shown in the viral video, which was said to have been filmed on Sunday.

Goss claimed that the convoy was partially destroyed, but weather conditions prevented video surveillance of the moment the attack was repelled, so he was not sure if the entire group was hit.

Seventh Corps claims there are now 300 Russian soldiers in Pokrovsk, although that is the number Zelensky initially shared last Wednesday. The video suggests that these numbers may have increased at that time.

Russian forces appear to be approaching most of Pokrovsk, according to maps drawn up by Ukraine-based monitoring group DeepState. Some observers say that its downfall is imminent.

Goss says that most parts of the city are now in a gray area that neither side fully controls. “We may hold our positions in one building, but the enemy could be in the next building,” he says. “They are trying to get behind our backs.”

Moscow is trying to encircle the city of Pokrovsk and the neighboring town of Mirnohrad in what is known as the “cauldron.”

Even if the “cover” is not closed, the Russians can continuously target all roads in and out of the cover using FPV drones.

To prevent such an encirclement, Ukrainian forces pushed the Russian forces back from Suvorov and Rudinsky on the eastern part of the “cauldron”, creating a larger gap between the Russian flanks.

Russian forces are trying to cut off logistical routes supporting Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk.

The Ukrainian drone pilot told the BBC that they are attacking supply routes, not only remotely using drones and artillery, but also by sending soldiers on the ground.

This tactic is called infiltration, and it has proven very successful, says Ukrainian military analyst Kostyantyn Mashovets.

He says Russian forces specifically targeted Ukrainian FPV pilots, so they don’t have enough resources to detect the movement of smaller Russian groups.

In an urban environment, Russian soldiers sometimes infiltrate by dressing as local residents or Ukrainian army uniforms, Machovets says. He adds that their main goal is to cause chaos among the Ukrainian defenders, which is then followed by an attack from the main forces of the Russian army.

The Kremlin is also trying to push in other parts of the front line – in Kubyansk in the northeast and in the Zaporizhzhya region in the south.

Viktor Trigubov, spokesman for the joint forces operation, denied Moscow’s claim that they had managed to besiege Kubyansk, but admitted the presence of Russian forces in the south of the city and that the situation was difficult.