Russian 76th Air Assault takes heavy losses as Pokrovsk fight shifts to city's northern edge

Russian forces are working to push the Ukrainian Defense Forces off the northern outskirts of Pokrovsk and from there to advance on the village of Shevchenko, the 7th Rapid Response Corps of Ukraine's Air Assault Forces said in a statement carried by Ukrinform. To support the offensive, Russian commanders are moving more armoured vehicles and tanks into the southern part of the city. “The enemy continues to implement its plan to capture Pokrovsk,” the corps said. “The main objective is to dislodge the Defense Forces from the northern outskirts of the city and advance toward the village of Shevchenko.”

The push north of the city has been costly for the Russian 76th Air Assault Division, which the corps says is taking significant losses. Russian reserves are being committed, and units of the Somali Battalion have been observed in the fight. Separate Russian thrusts in the Hryshyne area — where a Ukrainian airstrike on 1 May killed 15 Russian paratroopers — have so far failed to manoeuvre from the northeastern part of the settlement towards farms north of Pokrovsk.

Brigadier General Yevhen Lasiichuk, commander of the 7th Rapid Response Corps, has held a series of meetings with units in the area to tighten combat management and coordination. The defence's primary focus, the corps said, is airspace control over Pokrovsk: Russian forces are using the city as a launch point for combat and reconnaissance drones, complicating Ukrainian logistics, and personnel must be trained to operate under constant aerial threat.

Across the front line, Ukraine's General Staff recorded 138 combat engagements in the past 24 hours, with the highest concentrations again in the Pokrovsk and Huliaipole sectors — broadly in line with the 137 engagements logged on 29 April, when Pokrovsk was likewise the heaviest sector.