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The situation is deteriorating in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, where urban fighting is underway and all logistical routes are under enemy fire control. Over a thousand civilians remain in the city, which has become a trap. Some still try to escape Pokrovsk by car or on foot. However, they fall victim to Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRGs) infiltrating the city or to targeted attacks by Russian drones. Russians are also disguising themselves as civilians, which may amount to a war crime. This is reported by the Institute for the Study of War in its new report.
Kremlin propaganda constantly uses local residents of frontline cities in its narrative about the so-called "atrocities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" and the use of locals as "human shields" by the Armed Forces. In October 2025, it became known that a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group penetrated Pokrovsk and killed several civilians there. Propaganda rushed to shift the blame to the Ukrainian military.
News of the shooting of civilians in Pokrovsk by Russian soldiers broke on October 19. Famous TV host and volunteer Denys Khrystov spoke about it on his social media. He showed a video that was sent to him by the Ukrainian military. These are drone footage showing shot civilians lying directly on the street.
According to the volunteer, Mostovyi Lane in the area of the railway station became the site of the local residents' execution. The video captured 3 bodies on the road: 2 men and a woman who was shot in the back. The video also shows 1 woman wounded in both legs, and a man in civilian clothes managed to carry her out of the dangerous area. Denys emphasizes that the man with the woman in his arms was moving toward the Ukrainian military, fleeing from Russian terrorists. The volunteer says the wounded woman remained in the city because no car can enter Pokrovsk anymore due to the large number of drones.
The 7th Paratrooper Assault Corps also reported on the penetration of a Russian DRG into the center of Pokrovsk near the railway station on October 20, 2025.
Russian propaganda outlets boasted of the successful advance of Russian troops in the city and the capture of the railway station building shortly before the civilian execution.
After the video of wounded and killed local residents of Pokrovsk appeared, some propaganda media published fake materials accusing the Armed Forces of Ukraine of shooting Ukrainian civilians.
«Destined to lose Pokrovsk, the terrorists from the Armed Forces of Ukraine resort to their favorite method — shooting the peaceful population».
The propagandists write that Ukrainians behaved this way in every city they lost. Allegedly, this method is detailed in Western handbooks used to train Nazis.
"Ukraina.ru" writes: «before they leave, they (the Armed Forces of Ukraine) kill civilians, and then try to shift responsibility to the Russian army, accusing it of genocide».
The Russians claim that the video distributed by the Ukrainian volunteer contains no evidence that it was done by the Russian military. Instead, allegedly, the so-called war correspondent Pidudbnyi published footage on his Telegram channel showing Ukrainian FPV drones attacking local residents who were moving toward the Russian military.
Specialists from the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) of the Ministry of Defense intercepted an order to shoot civilians attempting to leave the dangerous zone. The order to kill was given by the field commander of the 30th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, which is part of the 2nd Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District of the Russian Federation. This brigade is currently located in the suburbs of Pokrovsk.
Fighters of the 7th Paratrooper Assault Corps found and eliminated Russian military personnel who were hiding in one of the railway station premises. Law enforcement agencies are investigating as a war crime the likely shooting of male civilians and the wounding of a woman near the railway station in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, by military personnel of the Russian army. The DIU emphasizes that war crimes, including the murder of civilians, are a purposeful policy of the Russian Federation.
The battle for Pokrovsk has been ongoing for over a year, since July 2024. The first DRG groups began to penetrate in July 2025, but the Ukrainian Defense Forces quickly destroyed them. Due to the security situation, evacuation from Pokrovsk is no longer possible, although it was already challenging in August. According to the report of the Head of the Donetsk Military Administration, Vadym Filashkin, 1,256 civilians remain in the city today.
Ukrainian photo documentarian Viacheslav Ratynskyi visited Pokrovsk from August 17 to 22, 2025. The photographer says it was a difficult and dangerous trip because getting in and out was very hard; drones completely controlled the roads even then, roads were mined, and cars were destroyed. Viacheslav Ratynskyi hoped to spend a day there, walk around the city, spend the night with drone operators, and leave. However, he got stuck for 4 days. But he managed to take many interesting photos. His photographs show Pokrovsk, its defenders, and residents during a difficult phase of the war for the city.
Viacheslav Ratynskyi told the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers about the civilians he met in Pokrovsk.
«On the day I had the opportunity to "walk around" the city, I met up to 10 civilians on the streets of Pokrovsk; some were cycling, some were walking far down the street, and some were in a yard behind a tall fence. I managed to talk briefly with 4 of them.»
On the way, the photographer encountered an unfriendly man who did not want to talk or be photographed. When asked why he wasn't evacuating, the man gave the traditional answer that he had nowhere to go. The photographer found him similar to a "zhdun" (waiter). Further down the street, Viacheslav Ratynskyi met a man named Pavlo. He was working in his garden, watering zucchini so he would have something to eat in the winter.
On the way, the photographer spoke with a young man named Davyd. Viacheslav Ratynskyi recalls that the young man was likely under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as he behaved inappropriately and told strange things. When asked why he wasn't evacuating, he replied that he had been in prison before the war and had a sentence. The photographer also met a man wounded by a Russian drone.
«The third man was sitting in his yard, against the wall of the house. He had a bandaged arm and wounds on his face and body. He introduced himself as Serhii. He asked us for cigarettes and said that he was riding a bicycle when a Russian drone struck him. Now he can neither work nor leave the city.»
The photo documentarian says that the people he managed to talk to in Pokrovsk then spoke briefly and cautiously, not talking about their attitude toward the military or the state.
The Institute for the Study of War calls Pokrovsk a trap for the civilians who remain there. The tactics of the Russians in Pokrovsk, their perfidious actions, expose civilians to even greater risks to life.
«On the day I was supposed to leave, all the roads were mined, and the military spent a day demining them. Leaving was also worrying because any movement on the road was controlled by the enemy. On the evening I was leaving, two cars drove into the city; one drove first, the second far behind. The first pickup was destroyed by a drone, and all the soldiers from the first transferred to the second. In the end, 10 people were riding in one car, and I barely squeezed into the back, where the guys were sitting with rifles, aiming at the sky,» Viacheslav Ratynskyi recalls the difficult road from Pokrovsk.
Currently, the fate of semi-encircled Pokrovsk is in the hands of Ukrainian defenders. Thanks to their resilience, heroism, and professionalism, the Russian army has never managed to achieve the goals set by the Kremlin in Donetsk region. On October 29, the Russians tried to hang their tricolor flag on the stella at the entrance to Pokrovsk, but it was quickly destroyed by the Ukrainian military.
The material was prepared by:
Topic Researcher, Text Author: Yana Yevmenova
Visual Editor: Olga Kovalova
Literary Editor: Yuliia Futei
