Ukrainian military expert and retired Armed Forces officer Yevgeny Bekrenev claimed that the fighting in Pokrovsk was not a failure for the Ukrainian army but part of what he described as a «brilliant plan» devised by Ukrainian generals.

Bekrenev referred to footage showing Russian troops entering the city under fog cover. In his view, the scene resembled «Napoleon’s army retreating from Moscow." He asserted that, by the time Russian forces entered, there were no Ukrainian defenders left in the city — and that this absence was deliberate. According to him, this was the essence of the generals' «strategy.»

The retired officer explained that the Ukrainian command had attempted to set up what he called a «kill zone," which he said «worked as intended." He argued that Russian forces spent about two weeks struggling through this area before entering with larger numbers, using the fog to cover their advance.

Bekrenev described this as a «new approach» to warfare, in which Ukrainian commanders avoid bloody urban battles but instead force the enemy to proceed cautiously and waste resources capturing an already abandoned city.

He concluded that Ukraine had shifted to a different tactical model — one where the enemy advances through a «kill zone," losing troops and ammunition while striking into emptiness, unable to achieve any real effect.