Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Marines say captured Russian troops were sent to the front with only two weeks of training — and almost nothing to eat or drink.
Operation Audit was a sweep by the 40th Separate Marine Brigade against small Russian infiltration teams that have been sliding through tree lines and empty fields in Ukraine’s Donetsk region for months.
The brigade finished its work this weekend and the deputy commander, who uses the call sign Karyi, told Ukraine’s Defense Ministry news agency Army Inform that Ukrainian marines cleared about six square kilometers and took no casualties while inflicting losses on Russian forces.
The operation had been planned for roughly a month and leaned heavily on drones and reconnaissance assets. It built on an earlier phase in late September, when the brigade first reported five square kilometers cleared.
Prisoners with two weeks of training
Two Russian soldiers were captured, and what stood out, Karyi said, was the state of the infiltrators the marines pulled out of the shelters.
“These are typical enemy infantrymen today, with all of two weeks of training behind them,” he said, describing captured recruits as men pushed to the front with almost no preparation.
He added that the pipeline into those positions is long and grim. “A month on transfers and paperwork. Then two weeks of training, and into battle. The Russians walk to positions for a week, two,” Karyi told Army Inform. “One can a week of some canned stewed meat, water from whatever’s underfoot.”
Russian infiltrators in this part of the sector tend to move in pairs, avoid direct contact with Ukrainian infantry, and radio back the positions of Ukrainian troops and drones instead of fighting, he said. Many surrender when found.
Pokrovsk still contested
Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in Donetsk Oblast, has absorbed Russia’s main offensive thrust in the east for most of a year.
Russian forces have claimed control of the city since early 2026, while Ukrainian defenders say they still hold ground in and around it, and independent mapping projects place most of the center, though not all, under Russian control.
Ukraine’s General Staff said defenders repelled 22 Russian attacks on the Pokrovsk axis on October 9, with Russia pressing hardest near Serhiivka, Molodetske and Novopavlivka. That sector drew more combat engagements than any other stretch of the front line that day.
