The silent, moonless black is broken only by the whirr above of a Russian drone.
Dmytro is yet to receive any patients at his tiny two-bed field hospital near Pokrovsk, and that is not a good outcome any more. Dawn begins to break – the twilight in which evacuation of the wounded from the front lines is safest – but still none arrive, and the enemy drones swirl incessantly above.
“We have a very difficult situation with evacuation,” said Dmytro. “Many of the injured have to wait days. For Russian drone pilots, it is an honor for them when they kill medics and the injured.”
This night, the frontline wounded do not arrive. The saturation of Moscow’s drone in the skies above – already palpable at this stabilization point 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the Russians – has likely made it impossible for even armored vehicles to safely extract the injured. Up the road, the fight rages for the key town of Pokrovsk – in the Kremlin’s crosshairs for months, but now at risk of encirclement.
Across eastern Ukraine, Russia’s tiny gains are adding up. It is capitalizing on a series of small advances and throwing significant resources into an emerging summer offensive, one that risks reshaping control over the front lines.
Over four days reporting in the villages behind Kostiantynivka and Pokrovsk – two of the most embattled Ukrainian towns in Donetsk region – CNN witnessed the swift change in control of territory. Russian drones were able to penetrate deep into areas Kyiv’s forces once relied upon as oases of calm, and troops struggled to find the personnel and resources to halt a persistent enemy advance.
The Russian momentum comes as US President Donald Trump radically shortened his deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to make peace from 50 to up to 12 days. Trump expressed said he was ”very disappointed” in Putin and suggested the Kremlin head had already decided not to entertain the ceasefire the US and its European allies have demanded for months.
The reduced timeframe was welcomed by Kyiv and may provide a greater sense of urgency in Western capitals over diplomatic or military support for Ukraine. But it seems unlikely to alter Moscow’s course, where its superior manpower, tolerance for casualties, and vast military production line is beginning to reap dividends. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week Russian forces were “not advancing,” but acknowledged the circumstances across the frontline were “tough.”
The sense of an evolving crisis was most acute around the town of Pokrovsk, unsuccessfully assaulted by Moscow for months at great cost in Russian life. One Ukrainian commander serving near the town described “a very bad scenario,” in which troops in the adjoining town to Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad, risked “being surrounded.” The officer added Russians had already moved into the nearby village of Rodynske, and were on the edges of Biletske, endangering the supply line for Ukrainian troops inside Pokrovsk – assessments confirmed by a Ukrainian police officer and another Ukrainian soldier to CNN Tuesday.
The commander, who like many officials spoke on condition of anonymity discussing a sensitive topic, said they feared a siege was likely, similar to Avdiivka and Vuhledar last year, where “we held out to the last and lost both cities and people as a result.”
Viktor Tregubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia group of forces active in the area, told state television on Tuesday there “is constant pressure all along the entire eastern front. Right now, it’s absolutely everywhere.” He said Russian troops assaulted mostly on foot. “If someone is killed, others immediately follow.”
While Moscow’s forces have made only incremental gains over recent months – seizing small settlements to little strategic avail – the pace of their advance has accelerated, according to open-source mapping by DeepState. More perilously for Kyiv, recent progress has been strategically advantageous, making the encirclement of Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, and Kupiansk to the north, a palpable threat in the weeks ahead.
