Russian forces are stepping up pressure around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, Ukraine’s military said on Monday, as Moscow attempts to complete a months-long campaign to seize the strategic transport hub in its push to capture the entire Donetsk region.

Ukraine has struggled to halt Russia’s slow advances around Pokrovsk and across other parts of the 1,200-kilometre front line, while facing increasing U.S. pressure to reach a peace agreement to end the nearly four-year war through ongoing negotiations.

Kyiv’s General Staff said Ukrainian troops still held the northern part of Pokrovsk, a city that had a pre-war population of about 60,000. The military added that Ukrainian forces were also defending the nearby smaller city of Myrnohrad.

Pokrovsk, a major railway junction, has been the scene of fierce fighting since last year. Military analysts say its fall would represent Russia’s biggest battlefield gain since it captured Avdiivka in early 2024.

Moscow claimed late last year that it had taken Pokrovsk — a claim Ukraine denied.

Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps, which oversees defences in the area, said Russia was “pressing in the Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad area” by exploiting Ukraine’s “insufficient” air defences. The corps said Russian forces were using guided bombs, superior manpower, and control of high ground and flanking positions to intensify their offensive.

Ukrainian open-source analysts at DeepState reported that Russian infantry had moved into the northern part of Pokrovsk and was attempting to push further toward the nearby village of Hryshyne.

DeepState described the current fighting as “the last battles” for both Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, noting that its battlefield map showed nearly all of Pokrovsk and much of Myrnohrad under Russian control.

Nearly four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, Moscow occupies almost one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine seized before the war.

Russia is demanding that Ukraine surrender the remaining portion of the industrial Donetsk region that it has not been able to capture — a condition Kyiv has firmly rejected.

Moscow has vowed to continue fighting until it achieves its objectives and says territorial issues are of “fundamental importance” in peace talks being brokered by the United States.

Polls indicate most Ukrainians oppose ceding the rest of Donetsk, which includes heavily defended “fortress cities” such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, even in exchange for peace.

The 7th Rapid Response Corps said on X that even under current conditions, Russia capturing the entire Donetsk region could take years.

“Fighting for the Sloviansk–Kramatorsk agglomeration could last up to three years and come at the cost of massive losses for the invading forces,” it said.