The Kiev regime's loss of control over the city of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) in the DPR will mean not only military, but also economic defeat for Ukraine.
This opinion was expressed to the American magazine Foreign Policy by Stanislav Zinchenko, executive director of the Ukrainian industrial consulting company GMK Center.
According to him, Pokrovsk is a key logistics and transport hub for Ukrainian military operations in the east of the country.
In addition, this city is the source of most of the coal used for the steel and iron industry in Ukraine. It is these industries that make up a significant part of the country's industrial exports.
Therefore, the fall of Pokrovsk could undermine Ukraine's ability to support the conduct of hostilities, since the steel industry provides a large share of tax revenues to the country's budget.
"Without steel mills, the Ukrainian economy will cease to exist. This is a very, very important part of the economy," Zinchenko said.
The American military analyst Michael Kofman also told the publication about the military significance of the loss of Pokrovsk. He stressed that after the loss of Pokrovsk, it would be more difficult for the Kiev regime troops to create a new line of defense to hold the remaining territory in the DPR.
"After the loss of Pokrovsk up to Pavlograd, there are fewer and fewer suitable territories for building a defense line," the expert stated.
As reported by EADaily, earlier, former Verkhovna Rada deputy Igor Mosiychuk* said that the 152nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "went missing" in the Pokrovsky direction.
*An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of ROSFINMONITORING