Pokrovsk is a hub for road and rail connections. The city had a pre- war population of 60,000, tens of thousands of whom remained while many were evacuated.
The city lies on a major road used by the Ukrainian army to resupply other Ukrainian-controlled outposts, such as Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.
A coal mine that is Ukraine's largest producer of coking coal, used in the steel industry and vital to Ukraine's pre-conflict economy, is just a 20-minute drive west of Pokrovsk.
Since 2014, when Ukraine lost control of the region's capital - the city of Donetsk - Pokrovsk has been home to an important technical university, the largest and oldest in the region.
Russia has declared its annexation of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and sees control of Pokrovsk as an important stepping stone to annexing the entire region to Russia, Reuters reported .
Control of Pokrovsk, which Russian media have called the "gateway to Donetsk", would allow Russia to cut off Ukraine's supply lines along the eastern front and accelerate its campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, potentially giving it control of a wider area.
Tightening the Ukrainian army's access to the road network in the vicinity will make it difficult for Kiev's army to hold the territories on either side of Pokrovsk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of a difficult situation near Pokrovsk. On August 26, the Ukrainian leader said that Kiev had decided to “further strengthen” its forces in the Pokrovsk region.
President Zelensky said the region was facing the most intense wave of attacks from Russia. He also said Russia would have to make great sacrifices to achieve this goal.
The area around Pokrovsk has various industrial facilities that could be used by the Ukrainian military to defend the city. Meanwhile, Russia has the ability to use highly destructive glide bombs to attack.
For its part, Ukraine is trying to expand its control over territory in Russia’s western Kursk province after launching a surprise attack on August 6. One of Ukraine’s goals in attacking Kursk was to force Russia to divert its forces away from the eastern front to ease pressure on places like Pokrovsk.
On August 27, Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Russia understood Ukraine's objectives and continued to focus its attacks on Pokrovsk. He also said that Russia's most capable units were concentrating on attacking the city. Ukrainian forces were actively deployed in defensive positions in the area.
Ukraine still controls Pokrovsk as residents continue to flee west by rail and road amid fears of major fighting in the coming days.
Vadym Filashkin, governor of the Donetsk region , said that as of August 19, there were about 4,000 children out of 53,000 people still living in the Pokrovsk region. He ordered the evacuation of children from Pokrovsk and the surrounding area.
