Russia has made the capture of Ukraine’s entire Donetsk region its main battlefield priority for 2026, concentrating forces around several key cities in eastern Ukraine, according to anonymous sources cited by RBC-Ukraine.
The plan, sources said, envisions occupying all of Donetsk region by April 1, 2026, a timeline they described as unrealistic given current battlefield dynamics. Western analytical centers, including the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), have also assessed that Russia is unlikely to achieve this goal even by the end of 2026 if Western military support for Ukraine continues.
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Russian forces are currently prioritizing operations around Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, two neighboring cities in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Pokrovsk lies roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of the regional capital, Donetsk, while Myrnohrad sits just east of Pokrovsk.
If Russian troops secure this area, Moscow plans to advance westward toward the administrative border with Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a major industrial region in central Ukraine, and push north to support an assault on the Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka urban area.
The Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka area – which includes the cities of Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka and Sloviansk – is considered Ukraine’s strongest defensive line in the Donetsk region. The cities form a key logistical and military hub for Ukrainian forces in the east.
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Russian troops are attempting to approach this belt of cities from several directions. One axis runs north of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, where Russian forces hold positions on the eastern bank of the Oskil River, near the boundary between Donetsk and Kharkiv Oblast. Fighting in this sector is concentrated around Kupyansk and Lyman, towns that serve as gateways between northeastern and eastern Ukraine.
Another axis is from the east, near Siversk, where Russian forces are attempting to advance westward and northwestward, including efforts to cross the Siversky Donets River, a major natural barrier in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces have advanced closest to the urban fortress belt near Kostiantynivka, where they are gradually concentrating personnel on the city’s eastern outskirts and attempting to envelop it from the north and south.
Rather than storming cities head-on, Russian troops increasingly rely on encirclement tactics, sources say. This approach includes surrounding urban areas from multiple directions, infiltrating small assault groups into city limits, and cutting supply routes using drones.
“This tactic has three elements,” a source told RBC-Ukraine. “First, bypassing cities and encircling them from three sides. Second, limited infiltration by smaller units. And third, cutting logistics using drones.”
The same strategy is being applied around Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad and is expected to underpin any future offensive toward the Kramatorsk-Kostiantynivka agglomeration, analysts and sources said.