Military expert Ivan Stupak stated this on Espreso TV."The appearance of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in Pokrovsk is a bad sign. They have already infiltrated the city before, but previously these were small groups of untrained fighters who would enter quickly and, accordingly, would quickly become 'two-hundredths' (killed) or 'three-hundredths' (wounded). But now the danger is that, as far as I know, professional, trained sabotage and assault units are entering," the military expert noted.According to him, there is video evidence from the Ukrainian side showing Ukrainian soldiers driving a pickup truck past the southern outskirts of Pokrovsk, when they come under fire from small arms. One of the soldiers was wounded. As soon as they jumped out of the vehicle, a drone immediately struck the pickup. This is a verified incident—the appearance of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups on the southern outskirts of Pokrovsk."Our soldiers say that the experience of this war shows that from the first appearance of truly serious sabotage and reconnaissance groups, it takes about one and a half to two months, and then the city where they appear starts to have huge problems," Stupak summarized.On July 25, Taras Myshak, senior communications officer of the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, said that Russian forces aren’t launching a major assault on Pokrovsk, but are instead focusing on encircling the city and cutting it off from supply lines.