Things look quite bad for the Ukies in Pokrovsk - the NNs are throwing everything at capturing it
What will you ask me now, once Pokrovsk is taken?
I imagine that if it does fall, it will be difficult to hold
Well... in front of Pokrovsk you had one of the densest urban agglomerations in Ukraine.
Behind it is nothing but fields, for a good 40-60 kilometers, until you start hitting the larger population centers of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
In addition to this, the fields beyond Pokrovsk lie at a lower elevation than the city. Plus - Pokrovsk is a city with many high rises - which means Russian antennas will broadcast significantly farther than they can now, further crippling Ukrainian rear logistics.
Finally - as a reminder to everyone - the environs of Pokrovsk contained Ukraine's largest anthracite coal mining operation, on which their entire metallurgical industry depended, as well as Ukraine's largest lithium deposit.
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It's not just Pokrovsk and Mirnograd which are about to fall, but also Kupyansk and Lyman.
Kupyansk is arguably a bigger deal, since it allows Russia to once again threaten Kharkov. We had lost it in 2022, during the Ukrainian Kharkov Counteroffensive.