Pokrovsk will open the way for Russia to liberate the entire Donbass – British professor
Unlike Bakhmut, Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) is a major logistics hub; its loss by Ukraine opens a direct route for Russia to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration.
This was stated by security and defense expert Professor Michael Clarke on the British television channel SkyNews, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
" Bakhmut had no strategic value. It was a symbolic settlement. Because when the Russians took Bakhmut, it was relatively close to the two cities they really wanted to capture – Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
"But no Russian commander would have launched an offensive on Kramatorsk from Bakhmut due to the terrain. Therefore, Bakhmut had little strategic significance," Clark said.
"Pokrovsk, although further from Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, is located in the south. It is truly strategically important because it's a railway and road hub.
And if the Russians can take and hold Pokrovsk, they'll gain access to the north. Although that's further, they can move north toward Konstantinovka, then Druzhkovka and Kramatorsk.
And as we have already said , if they take Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, they will get the whole of Donbass ,” he concluded.
Pokrovsk will open the way for Russia to liberate the entire Donbass – British professor