The Price Of Desperation: Ukraine’s Suicide Rearguard At Pokrovsk

Pokrovsk is where Ukraine’s reserve shortage became clear. As the front buckled in October 2025, Kiev rushed the 35th Separate Marine Brigade to extract the shattered 25th Air Assault Brigade—and flew in special-operations troops from Ukraine’s military intelligence by UH-60 Black Hawk to cover rotations in the industrial zone of the city. One aim: hold a corridor, pull forces out, buy hours.

A Front That’s Run Out of Reserves

By October 2025, the Pokrovsk sector had become one of the toughest stretches of the front for the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF). The line was breaking. Supplies were thin. Commanders were improvising under fire. 

Amid this chaos, two stories unfolded in parallel: the rushed reconstitution of the 35th Separate Marine Brigade — redeployed to rescue the shattered 25th Air Assault Brigade — and a mysterious special forces operation by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR). Both converged into a single desperate attempt to hold the line and evacuate the trapped, as command and control collapsed.

The 35th Brigade: Back From Oblivion

In early October, the 35th Marine Brigade suffered devastating losses near Pokrovsk. On October 15–16, what was left of the unit was pulled back to Dnipropetrovsk region for replenishment.

Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi dispatched a commission to investigate the collapse. Following its findings, brigade commander Col. Oleksiy Bulakhov was removed and reassigned to Odesa — not brought before a tribunal, reportedly due to his deep ties to corruption networks and the risk of exposure.

Colonel Oleksiy Bulakhov, former commander of the 35th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

He was replaced by Dmytro Amosyuk, an officer known for his personal loyalty to Syrskyi and his willingness to carry out even the most reckless orders — often at the expense of his own troops’ lives.

Amosyuk was tasked with restoring combat capability in record time and sending the brigade back to Pokrovsk to relieve the surrounded 25th Air Assault Brigade (25th AAB). The process unfolded chaotically: the ranks were filled with forcibly mobilized men and reservists, bringing the headcount up to roughly 70–75 percent of nominal strength. There was no time for proper cohesion or training — battalions were formed and immediately sent to the front.

Thus, the 35th became not a strike reserve, but a rear-guard patch, deployed to stabilize evacuation corridors rather than launch counterattacks.
Its task was to cover the withdrawal of the 25th Brigade’s remnants and prevent a full encirclement. As of early November, that transfer remains incomplete: part of the unit is still regrouping, while others are already moving toward the front line.

The Secret Special-Forces Mission 

Amid the disintegration of the defense, Syrskyi authorized another move — a risky sortie involving HUR special-forces troops.

On October 31, a Ukrainian UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter dropped a group of roughly 15–20 operators on Pokrovsk’s northwestern outskirts, near the industrial zone already contested by Russian assault troops. 

Footage of a Ukrainian special-forces unit disembarking from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, the landing failed: all 11 men who reached the ground were killed, and the helicopter was destroyed.

Footage showing a Ukrainian special-forces team and an American-made helicopter being destroyed by Russian UAVs. (part 1)

Footage showing a Ukrainian special-forces team and an American-made helicopter being destroyed by Russian UAVs. (part 2)

However, other sources claim that a second aircraft escaped the strike and managed to evacuate survivors.

Some reports suggest it was not an attempt to break the siege but rather to extract high-value personnel or equipment — possibly senior Ukrainian officers, foreign advisers, or classified electronic-warfare systems that Kiev wanted to keep from Russian hands.

Kyrylo Budanov — Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, allegedly overseeing operations
in Pokrovsk — was spotted at a gas station in Pavlohrad, about 90 kilometers from the front line.

Another version sees the mission as part of Syrskyi’s hands-on control of the Pokrovsk front. He is believed to be operating near the area, personally overseeing the situation. Under that interpretation, the special-forces team’s task was to secure the flanks and cover the rotation of units leaving and entering the city.
Their presence was meant to create a temporary “security window” for regrouping under relentless artillery and drone fire.

Viewed through that lens, the operation appears less a suicidal raid and more an emergency effort to stabilize the collapsing defense line, carried out under direct fire and near-total chaos. In this sense, Pokrovsk has effectively become Ukraine’s second Bakhmut — a grinding meat grinder consuming its best remaining units.

Still, the mission failed to alter the overall picture: by then, the front around Pokrovsk was held together only by depleted manpower and ad-hoc reinforcements.
The attempt to use HUR commandos as a “media anti-crisis” tool — proof that the city wasn’t lost — ended in defeat.

The Pokrovsk Vortex

Pokrovsk has become a vortex pulling everyone in — from untrained conscripts to battle-hardened special forces. One side was never given time to learn. The other was never given a choice in its mission. Both collided at a single point, where evacuation is now called “holding the line.”

Today, Krasnoarmiysk — Pokrovsk’s historical name — is turning into a new Bakhmut, a grinder devouring not only men but the remnants of Ukraine’s elite brigades. 

Syrskyi, reportedly stationed nearby, continues to direct operations by hand, trying to impose order through sheer force of will. But even his presence cannot mask what’s left: a command running on inertia, burning through its last reserves of manpower and morale.

The 35th Marines. The HUR operators. The improvised battalions.
Together, they form the rear guard of an army in retreat — still fighting to withdraw in order, yet no longer believing the line can hold.

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