stronghold

After more than a year of bloody assaults at great cost in troops and equipment, Russian forces are now fighting inside the key Ukrainian logistical hub of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian and Russian officials say. The extent of that advance, however, is in dispute. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday claimed the city is now encircled, something Ukrainian military officials deny.

As we have previously noted, Pokrovsk has been the major focus of fighting in the east because of its importance to both sides. Not only does it straddle a major rail line and several highways, it is part of a string of fortified cities in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that have so far prevented Russia from taking over all of that area and pushing deeper into Ukraine.

“The enemy has managed to drag…several hundred infantrymen into the city and continues to infiltrate deeper into the populated area, expanding their sabotage and reconnaissance activities,” the Ukrainian DeepState open-source tracking group claimed on Wednesday. That assessment lines up with statements Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made on Tuesday that about 200 Russian troops have entered Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that he was providing a conservative estimate of Russia’s presence in Pokrovsk.

At one point, Russian forces managed to raise their tri-color flag in Pokrovsk, but that was reportedly quickly destroyed by a drone.

Compounding Ukraine’s problems, Russian forces have broken a major logistics route towards the town of Myrnohrad, about two miles to the east along the TO504 highway, added DeepState, which has close ties to the Ukrainian military. In addition, Russian forces have also entered the southeastern outskirts of Myrnohrad, putting additional pressure on Pokrovsk, according to the Institute for the Study of War’s latest assessment.

“The situation is very difficult because a significant part of the city has already been infiltrated by the occupiers,” Denys, a Ukrainian drone operator, told The New York Times. “They’re still building up their presence, more and more, trying to completely saturate the city with their forces. When they encounter our positions, they engage in firefights.”

Logistics Hell on the Pokrovsk Direction.
Evacuation of an Injured Comrade.
Video from the Warriors of the 38th Separate Marine Brigade. pic.twitter.com/kySnMkngK7

— EMPR.media (@EuromaidanPR) October 29, 2025

Russia has been able to gain ground in Pokrovsk in large measure by changing tactics from massive frontal assaults to small groups of troops who’ve entered the city and set up drone operations, creating havoc on Ukraine’s ability to hold ground and supply its troops.

‼️🇷🇺”🅾️brave” troops are advancing in the Dnipropetrovsk region and storming Pokrovsk

▪️Fighters of the Center group of forces are actively destroying enemy infantry and equipment day and night.
▪️In support of the offensive, attack drone operators carry out precise strikes pic.twitter.com/eZiVhFBP1Z

— King Chelsea Ug 🇺🇬🇷🇺 (@ug_chelsea) October 29, 2025

Meanwhile, there is a large buildup of Russian troops and equipment preparing to take advantage of the current gains, according to the Ukrainian military.

“Enemy groups that managed to penetrate the city intend to advance northwest and north of Pokrovsk,” the 7th Corps of the Ukrainian Airborne Assault Troops, which oversees military operations in the area, explained on Wednesday. “In total, Russian troops have amassed approximately 27,000 troops, approximately 100 tanks, up to 260 armored combat vehicles, and up to 160 artillery pieces and mortars in the 7th Corps’ area of ​​responsibility.”

Still, Ukraine continues to impose a heavy cost on Russian forces, killing troops and destroying equipment.

Pokrovsk direction.
Operators of the 3rd “Svoboda” Operational Battalion burned a ruSSian BMD-4 along with its electronic warfare system using their fiber-optic-controlled drones 💥 pic.twitter.com/BlIDIIdaJh

— 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝕯𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝕯𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔱△ 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇺🇲🇬🇷 (@TheDeadDistrict) October 29, 2025

Against this backdrop of the largest Russian gains into Pokrovsk so far, Putin on Wednesday claimed that both that city and Kupiansk, located about 100 miles to the north in Kharkiv Oblast, are now surrounded. He suggested a temporary ceasefire so that journalists can witness the situation firsthand.

“The commanders of the groups are not against allowing representatives of the media, foreign and Ukrainian journalists, to enter the enemy’s encirclement zones so that they can go in and see with their own eyes what is happening there, confirm the condition of the surrounded Ukrainian troops,” Putin proclaimed.

The Russian leader added that he is making the offer about journalist access to these areas “so that the political leadership of Ukraine can make an appropriate decision regarding the fate of their citizens and servicemen, as was once done in ‘Azovstal’.” Putin was referring to the three-month siege of a massive steel plant in the city of Mariupol, where hundreds of Ukrainian troops held out until May 2022.

“We are ready to cease hostilities for a certain period of time for a few hours – two, three, six – so that journalists can enter, look around, talk to Ukrainian servicemen, and leave.” Putin added.

Putin: Our commanders don’t mind letting foreign and Ukrainian journalists into the encircled areas near Kupyansk and Pokrovsk to see the situation themselves and the state of surrounded Ukrainian troops.

Kyiv can decide their fate, as in Azovstal.
[Liar and terrorist]
1/ pic.twitter.com/4osvRt8pv3

— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) October 29, 2025

Ukraine’s military pushed back against Putin’s claim.

“There is no encirclement of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk right now,” proffered Lt. Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation. “They have a plan to encircle Pokrovsk, but currently, it is not being implemented.”

Kovalenko suggested that Putin’s encirclement claim is aimed at the United States, where the Trump administration is considering providing long-range weapons to Ukraine in an effort to press the Russian leader to end the war.

“Putin has used the military component of lies from the very beginning to broadcast it to the USA,” Kovalenko asserted. 

While Russian troops have broken into Pokrovsk, they have yet to capture it. However, even Ukrainian sources acknowledge how dire things are for Kyiv.

“The situation in Pokrovsk is on the brink of critical and continues to worsen to the point that it may already be too late to fix everything,” DeepState admitted on Wednesday.

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FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Kat Renfroe was at Mass when she saw a volunteer opportunity in the bulletin. Her Catholic parish was looking for tutors for Afghan youth, newly arrived in the United States.

There was a personal connection for Renfroe. Her husband, now retired from the Marine Corps, had deployed to Afghanistan four times. “He just never talked about any other region the way he did about the people there,” she said.

She signed up to volunteer. “It changed my life,” she said.

That was seven years ago. She and her husband are still close to the young man she tutored, along with his family. And Renfroe has made a career of working with refugees. She now supervises the Fredericksburg migration and refugee services office, part of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington.

That faith-based work is now in peril. As part of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, his administration banned most incoming refugees in January and froze federal funds for the programs. Across the country, local resettlement agencies like hers have been forced to lay off staff or close their doors. Refugees and other legal migrants have been left in limbo, including Afghans who supported the U.S. in their native country.

The upheaval is particularly poignant in this part of Virginia, which boasts both strong ties to the military and to resettled Afghans, along with faith communities that support both groups.

Situated south of Washington and wedged among military bases, Fredericksburg and its surrounding counties are home to tens of thousands of veterans and active-duty personnel.

Virginia has resettled more Afghan refugees per capita than any other state. The Fredericksburg area now has halal markets, Afghan restaurants and school outreach programs for families who speak Dari and Pashto.

Many of these U.S.-based Afghans are still waiting for family members to join them — hopes that appear on indefinite hold. Families fear a new travel ban will emerge with Afghanistan on the list. A subset of Afghans already in the U.S. may soon face deportation as the Trump administration ends their temporary protected status.

“I think it’s tough for military families, especially those who have served, to look back on 20 years and not feel as though there’s some confusion and maybe even some anger about the situation,” Renfroe said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced in April that it was ending its decades-old partnership with the federal government to resettle refugees. The move came after the Trump administration halted the program’s federal funding, which the bishops’ conference channels to local Catholic Charities.

The Fredericksburg Catholic Charities office has continued aiding current clients and operating with minimal layoffs thanks to its diocese’s support and state funds. But it’s unclear what the local agency’s future will be without federal funding or arriving refugees.

“I’ll just keep praying,” Renfroe said. “It’s all I can do from my end.”

A legacy of faith-based service

Religious groups have long been at the heart of U.S. refugee resettlement work. Until the recent policy changes, seven out of the 10 national organizations that partnered with the U.S. government to resettle refugees were faith-based. They were aided by hundreds of local affiliates and religious congregations.

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington has been working with refugees for 50 years, starting with Vietnamese people after the fall of Saigon. For the last 10 years, most of its clients have been Afghans, with an influx arriving in 2021 after the Taliban returned to power.

Area faith groups like Renfroe’s large church — St. Mary’s in Fredericksburg — have been key to helping Afghan newcomers get on their feet. Volunteers from local congregations furnish homes, provide meals and drive families to appointments.

“As a church, we care deeply. As Christians, we care deeply,” said Joi Rogers, who led the Afghan ministry at her Southern Baptist church. “As military, we also just have an obligation to them as people that committed to helping the U.S. in our mission over there.”

Rogers’ husband, Jake, a former Marine, is one of the pastors at Pillar, a network of 16 Southern Baptist churches that minister to military members. Their flagship location is near Quantico, the Marine base in northern Virginia, where nearly 5,000 Afghans were evacuated to after the fall of Kabul.

With Southern Baptist relief funds, Pillar Church hired Joi Rogers to work part time as a volunteer coordinator in the base’s makeshift refugee camp in 2021. She helped organize programming, including children’s activities. Her position was under the auspices of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which the government contracted to help run the camp.

For Pillar’s founding pastor, Colby Garman, the effort was an easy decision. “It was affecting so many of the lives of our families here who had served in Afghanistan.”

“We’ve been told to love God and love our neighbor,” Garman said. “I said to our people, this is an opportunity, a unique opportunity, for us to demonstrate love for our neighbor.”

Christians called to care for refugees, politics aside

Within five months, as the Afghans left the base for locations around the country, the support at the camp transitioned to the broader community. Pillar started hosting an English class. Church members visited locally resettled families and tried to keep track of their needs.

For one Pillar Church couple in nearby Stafford, Va., that meant opening their home to a teenager who had arrived alone in the U.S. after being separated from her family at the Kabul airport — a situation they heard about through the church.

Katlyn Williams and her husband Phil Williams, then an active-duty Marine, served as foster parents for Mahsa Zarabi, now 20, during her junior and senior years of high school. They introduced her to many American firsts: the beach, homecoming, learning to drive.

“The community was great,” Zarabi said. “They welcomed me very well.”

She attends college nearby; the Williamses visit her monthly. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this spring, they broke fast with her and her family, now safely in Virginia.

“She has and will always be part of our family,” Katlyn Williams said.

Her friend Joi Rogers, while careful not to speak for Pillar, said watching the recent dismantling of the federal refugee program has “been very hard for me personally.”

Veterans and members of the military tend to vote Republican. Most Southern Baptists are among Trump’s staunch white evangelical supporters. For those reasons, Pillar pastor Garman knows it may be surprising to some that his church network has been steadfast in supporting refugees.

“I totally understand that is the case, but I think that is a bias of just not knowing who we are and what we do,” Garman said after a recent Sunday service.

Later, sitting in the church office with his wife, Jake Rogers said, “We recognize that there are really faithful Christians that could lie on either side of the issue of refugee policy.”

“Regardless of your view on what our national stance should be on this,” he said, “we as Christ followers should have a heart for these people that reflects God’s heart for these people.”

Unity through faith and refugee work

Later that week, nearly two dozen Afghan women gathered around a table at the Fredericksburg refugee office, while children played with toys in the corner. The class topic was self-care, led by an Afghan staff member. Along the back wall waited dishes of rice and chicken, part of a celebratory potluck to mark the end of Ramadan.

Sitting at the front was Suraya Qaderi, the last client to arrive at the resettlement agency before the U.S. government suspended new arrivals.

She was in Qatar waiting to be cleared for a flight to the United States when the Trump administration started canceling approved travel plans for refugees. “I was one of the lucky last few,” said Qaderi, who was allowed to proceed.

She arrived in Virginia on Jan. 24, the day the administration sent stop-work orders to resettlement agencies.

Qaderi worked for the election commission in Afghanistan, and she received a special immigrant visa for her close ties to the U.S. government. She was a child when her father disappeared under the previous Taliban regime.

The return of the Taliban government was like “the end of the world,” she said. As a woman, she lost many of her rights, including her ability to work and leave home unaccompanied.

She studied Islamic law during her university years. She believes the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam is wrong on the rights of women. “Islam is not only for them,” she said.

The resettlement office includes not only Catholic staffers, but many Muslim employees and clients. “We find so much commonality between our faiths,” Renfroe said.

Her Catholic faith guides her work, and it’s sustaining her through the uncertainty of what the funding and policy changes will mean for her organization, which remains committed to helping refugees.

“I’m happy to go back to being a volunteer again if that’s what it takes,” Renfroe said.

Regardless of government contracts, she wants local refugee families to know “that we’re still here, that we care about them and that we want to make sure that they have what they need.”

Stanley writes for the Associated Press.