What is happening to the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine may look like just another blood bath in a long war — an obscure crossroads, now largely in ruins, being captured bit by bit by Russian forces.
It is a scenario I have seen play out over and over as I have photographed the war since the Kremlin’s invasion in 2022. I have witnessed the levels of attacks rise and swaths of the country fall into Russia’s hands. Nearly every thriving city, town and village I’ve visited near the front lines has been obliterated, become unreachable, or been occupied by Moscow’s forces.
Pokrovsk is now one of them. But like Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Vuhledar before it, Pokrovsk has its own story to tell, one that I have documented over several trips to the city and the area around it between the summer of 2023 and February of this year.
Russia has been fighting for more than a year to take the city, a gateway to potentially bigger prizes in the Donetsk region and territory to the west. Before then, Pokrovsk was a safe and welcoming pit stop for me and my team as we drove to photograph active frontline areas to the south or east.
A well-trafficked row of restaurants and cafes lined a street in the city center. A large outdoor speaker filled the air with rock and dance music. Across the road in an open market, older women sold produce from their gardens. Residents from other parts of the war-torn Donbas region fled to Pokrovsk as a haven from the fighting.
As time went by, however, Russia began to press toward Pokrovsk. I found myself photographing Ukrainian artillery units tirelessly fighting to slow their advance.
