This retreat, which shattered the myth of the 'blitzkrieg war,' remains a sensitive point for the official Russian narrative, which attempts to rewrite the sequence of events through partial and exaggerated victories. In parallel, the Kremlin faces critical demographic problems and growing difficulty in replenishing its troops. However, objective data tell a different story: Russia is advancing little, losing a lot, and controls less territory today than at the start of the conflict, while Ukraine maintains essential positions and retains the resilience it demonstrated after the major counteroffensive. Each Russian advance requires more lives than the previous one, which deepens the military and social wear-and-tear within the country itself. Moscow's propaganda claims that the capture of Pokrovsk could mark a turning point. Its fall, if it occurs, will not change the overall equation: Russia continues to lose men at an unsustainable rate, its army is eroding, and Ukraine has already reclaimed territories that Moscow believed were secured. Russia's strategic lie seeks to mask a stalemate that neither figures nor the terrain support. For the Kremlin's diplomacy, any success – real or invented – serves to pressure negotiations on its terms. However, U.S. laws, reinforced in recent months, prevent the recognition of Russian territorial annexations, seriously limiting Vladimir Putin's ability to declare a political victory while the military one remains far from being achieved. Pokrovsk remains contested. The objective is clear: to inflate every meter gained to compensate for the brutal reality of the front, marked by an unprecedented human cost and an operational slowness incompatible with the narrative of an invincible army. In reality, Pokrovsk has not fallen, and even if it did, it would not alter the strategic balance of the war. This explains Kyiv's caution and Moscow's insistence on manufacturing a symbolic victory where no real victory exists. What does exist is the extremely high price in lives that Russia pays for every kilometer. However, Ukrainian authorities, military commanders, and Western analysts have denied that the city is under Russian control: they describe it as a 'grey zone,' a space still in dispute where neither side can claim full dominance. The Kremlin's insistence on portraying a decisive advance is part of a sustained political strategy. The campaign to advance on Pokrovsk alone is said to have consumed tens of thousands of personnel, repeating the pattern observed in Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Vuhledar: months, even years, to capture devastated cities whose strategic value diminishes as Ukraine adapts its supply lines. Russia's loss of life contrasts with another fact that Moscow is trying to hide: Ukraine has already recovered most of the territory Russia occupied in the first phase of the invasion, especially after the 2022 counteroffensive, which forced the Kremlin to withdraw from vast areas in Kharkiv, Kherson, and parts of Donbas. The war is heading into its fourth year without the Kremlin being able to turn its narrative into facts. Independent reports, European intelligence services, and cross-calculations from think tanks all agree: the Russian army has accumulated nearly a million casualties since the start of the invasion, with an estimated 200,000 soldiers killed. Pokrovsk, Ukraine, December 6, 2025 – Total News Agency-TNA – The Kremlin has recently spread the news that its forces have allegedly completely taken over the city of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, presenting the episode as a 'strategic victory' capable of tipping the war. Ukraine has already diverted key logistical routes and reorganized the flow of supplies, reducing the impact of a potential loss. The numbers are staggering even in the context of a prolonged war. The incorporation of foreign recruits – including contingents from North Korea, according to European sources – reveals the magnitude of a human exhaustion that can no longer be concealed. Moscow needs to show strength signals to the United States, especially after the recent visit of envoys close to Donald Trump.