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Ukraine – Hail Mary Operation To Unblock Pokrovsk Has Failed
The Ukrainian army has lost control over the Pokrovsk / Myrnograd agglomeration. Russian forces had over months slowly enveloped the cities from the east and the west. The corridor leading out of it was put under Russian drone control. Any vehicle trying to pass through was attacked.
biggerThe Ukrainian leadership had thrown any reserves it had to reopen the corridor to the city. All such attempts were destined to fail. A last Hail Mary move was the helicopter insertion of a dozen special forces commanded by the Military Intelligence Service GRU.
Ukraine lands special forces in embattled Pokrovsk, sources say – Reuters, Oct 3 2025
Ukraine landed special forces to fight in embattled parts of the eastern city of Pokrovsk earlier this week, just as Russia said it had surrounded Kyiv’s forces in the area, two Ukrainian military sources said on Friday.
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The Ukrainian special forces landed in a Black Hawk helicopter a few days ago in the operation, which was complicated by Russian drone activity, a source in the 7th Rapid Response Corps said.
The operation was overseen by military spy chief Kyrylo Budanov, and the troops headed to areas of the city claimed by Russia and seen by Moscow as vital for Ukrainian supply lines, the other source said.
At least 10 servicemen could be seen dismounting from a helicopter in a field in a video seen by Reuters. The news agency could not independently confirm the location or date when the video was filmed.
A video of the helicopter insertion is here
Other videos, according to AMK mapping, show that none of the inserted soldiers survived:
Based on the geolocations I did of the Russian FPV drone strikes on Ukrainian special forces, and additional analysis of the footage, we can now deduce where the soldiers ran after being dropped off by the helicopter behind Russian lines.
A group of 11 soldiers were dropped off at the specified point (48.29667, 37.13317) and split off into two groups.
Five soldiers ran towards the forest next to the O0525 Highway and then towards the gas station on the edge of the industrial zone. Three were hit by a drone strike after being caught in the forest along the way, and the two survivors attempted to make a run for the gas station but were hit by another drone when crossing the fields.
Six soldiers ran south from the landing spot and split up as they approached the industrial zone. Four ran southwest into the forest towards the substation, but three were hit by a drone. The fourth soldier escaped back to the edge of the forest before also being hit by a drone while hiding under a tree. As for the other two soldiers from this group, they were able to enter the first building of the industrial zone and hid in a room on the ground floor. Three drones then flew in through the windows, with two striking them.
So, knowing all this info, it seems that all 11 soldiers were killed or wounded in these attacks. Evacuations of any survivors are unlikely due to their presence behind Russian lines, and they will likely be captured by Russian troops.
The fact that the insertion was leaked to Reuters points to an attempt to accuse General Budanov of a reckless waste of men.
As Strana reports (machine translation):
Ukrainian “Suspilnoye” also writes, citing sources, that the assault groups of the Main Intelligence Directorate entered areas of the city that “are of strategic importance for Ukrainian logistics” and where the Russians had previously entered.
The operation involves “several helicopters”, and Budanov is near Pokrovsk to direct the actions of the GUR, the newspaper writes.
Ukraine has not officially confirmed this.
Why, if not to denigrate Budanov, would anyone leak this to the press?
Another soldier, Stanislav Bunyatov, is outraged by the release of a video of the landing of special forces.
“The problem is that one degenerate sent a video to another degenerate, and the third degenerate leaked the fact of landing, the landing site to the Internet and created a demand for the destruction of special forces and hunting for these helicopters. Do you think that after this, it will be possible to evacuate the fighters from the battlefield with a”bird”? I hope that the published video will not be ignored, and the perpetrators will be brought to serious responsibility,” he wrote.
Russian military publics showed their video of the alleged flight of two GUR helicopters to Pokrovsk. They also specify that the landing party landed in an industrial zone in the north-western part of the city, through which the Pokrovsk garrison is supplied.
At the same time, the “DPR” reports that part of the landed special forces was destroyed (Russian media quoted Igor Kimakovsky, an adviser to Pushilin).
Budanov is known for planing and executing terror attacks in Russia.
He is also known for reckless operations which have killed many of his men. Last year the special forces of the GRU made three boat assault attempts to capture the Russian controlled Zaparozhia Nuclear Power Plant. Some 50 Ukrainian soldiers got killed when all three attempts failed.
The Ukrainian (former) President Vladimir Zelenski and his political operator Andrei Yermak see Budanov as a potential competitor in future elections. It would not be astonishing to learn that the leak of the failed helicopter insertion was initiated by them.
B please I need help to know how to format this table.
Pardon my formating. I am trying to get this data formatted for MoA so that you can discuss the possible validity of my thesis.. that this whole war, regime change sanction stuff is about expanding total market by relocating developed nation market power from a developed nation to a undeveloped nation. The object; normalizing the buying power of all individuals in each market worldwide. I believe they have accomplished this by de industrializing the industrialized nations and transporting the industrial nation industries to the have not nations IOT normalize or globalize buying power. To accomplish this feat, it was necessary to regime change, war on, assassinate, sanction or otherwise change the governing powers that resisted and to make this work it is necessary to control the energy prices, local politics, and currency everyone in the world uses. or is required to conform to. I offer normalization explains why since 1946 I present the difference in buying power from 1950 to 1924 for each of 7 major nations. As you can see the change at the USA is very negative. Computed Buying power [national GDP/person -national debt/person
Country Industries Companies <= buying power/person=> 1950 2024 Change
Canada Machinery Caterpillar, GE $5,300 $21,000 $15,700
Mexico Auto, Elec Ford. GM, TInst $ 950 $ 6,000 $ 5,050
China Ele, Mach Apple, Boe, Qual $ 490 $ 8,000 $ 7,510
Japan Auto, Aero Toyo, Hon, Boe $ 950 $ 29,000 $ 28,050
UK Ph, Mach Pfizer, Catepi $ 8,500 $30,000 $ 21,500
GermanyMach, Chem Siemens, Base $ 3,350 $39,500 $ 36,150
S korea Ele, Auto Samsng Hyundai $ 380 $26,000 $ 25,620
USA ________________________$ 12,000-$22,000 $-$34,000
same thing formatted differently (Pardon the repeat)Pardon my formating. I am trying to get this data formatted for MoA so that you can discuss the possible validity of my thesis.. that this whole war, regime change sanction stuff is about expanding total market by relocating developed nation market power from a developed nation to a undeveloped nation. The object; normalizing the buying power of all individuals in each market worldwide. I believe they have accomplished this by de industrializing the industrialized nations and transporting the industrial nation industries to the have not nations IOT normalize or globalize buying power. To accomplish this feat, it was necessary to regime change, war on, assassinate, sanction or otherwise change the governing powers that resisted and to make this work it is necessary to control the energy prices, local politics, and currency everyone in the world uses. or is required to conform to. I offer normalization explains why since 1946 … I present the difference in buying power from 1950 to 1924 for each of 7 major nations. As you can see the change at the USA is very negative. Computed Buying power [national GDP/person -national debt/person
Country<=Industries<=Companies<= buying power/person=> 1950 2024 Change
Canada Machinery Caterpillar, GE $5,300 $21,000 $15,700
Mexico Auto, Elec Ford. GM, TInst $ 950 $ 6,000 $ 5,050
China Ele, MachApple, Boe, Qual $ 490 $ 8,000 $ 7,510
Japan Auto, Aero Toyo, Hon, Boe $ 950 $ 29,000 $ 28,050
UK Ph, Mach Pfizer, Catepi$ $ 8,500 $30,000 $ 21,500
GermanyMach, Chem Siemens, Base $ 3,350 $39,500 $ 36,150
S korea Ele, Auto Samsng Hyundai $ 380 $26,000 $ 25,620
USA ____________________________ $ 12,000-$22,000 $-$34,000
Posted by: snake | Nov 2 2025 14:04 utc | 331
Plant the flag, take the photo, and get out!
At least two people speculated, that the purpose of the mission was nothing more than to plant the flag and take a photograph.
Having taken a closer look at the information, the objective seems to have had nothing to do with unblocking anything, but to insert a propaganda unit as close to the city limit as possible to conduct a photo-op next to a “You are now entering…” sign, or something along those lines, to create the meme-equivalent of the dog drinking out a cup surrounded by fire, saying “Everything is fine.” It would be funny, but I’ve seen this joke maybe a dozen times before, snake island etc.
Posted by: Skiffer | Nov 1 2025 11:36 utc | 5
Photo op?I do not believe Budanov’s GRU team had any plan of actually unblocking Pokrovsk. More likely, their task was plant the Ukrainian flag on the “Pokrovsk” sign at the western entrance to the city and take photos to prove it.Most Ukrainian towns and cities have monumental entrance signs at their border. The Pokrovsk sign is where Zelensky had his photo taken some months ago, and where Russians planted their flag this week – only to be destroyed by an Ukrainian drone.P.S. – When I first heard that a GRU team from Kiev had been sent to “unblock” Pokrovsk, my thought was that they would do no such thing. Ukrainian Nazis and other elite units are regularly used as blocking forces, to prevent encircled Ukrainian troops from retreating or escaping.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Nov 1 2025 17:27 utc | 87
Warren Thornton now says the same thing on Twitter.
THE BLACK HAWK RESCUE NARRATIVE
There are many out there saying that the two efforts in Pokrovsk was some heroic rescue mission to rescue some high ranking general or indeed two very important CIA operatives and indeed because the real reason may be utterly unfathomable to normal human beings, this may well be a narrative that Ukraine ultimately, put out to justify these two hairbrained missions.
The truth is far more chilling and far more disturbing than most people can possibly fathom, it is also one that no one in the west ultimately wants to admit to or have you realise, indeed, you may still not be able to accept the uncomfortable truth and may opt for a wild conspiracy theory as a comfort blanket.
So the facts of the two failures are very straight forward.
Ukrainian sources claim the operation was to disrupt enemy positions, clear strongpoints, and restore supply lines, this is nonsense and shows that the reason for the operations is even something they wish to conceal.
The first mission, which was launched the night of 28 October, dropped 11 GUR commandos in an open field northwest of Pokrovsk’s industrial zone. The video showed troops disembarking and fanning out rapidly. Insertion was at night/low visibility to minimize detection, but Russian reconnaissance drones spotted the low-flying helicopter and destroyed the 11 commandos.
The subsequent mission, which was launched on the night of 30 October using two Blackhawk helicopters, inserted two groups (total ~20–24 troops) in the same general area and they suffered the same fate as the first group. That is the bare bones of the mission.
Now let’s deal with the nonsense of high ranking generals.
Not a chance. When front line hardened troops and mercenaries were being pulled out of Pokrovosk a week before and raw recruits on suicidal drives were being thrown in to the cauldron, if you think for one moment, some general was left behind, think again. Even the Ukrainian radio chatter confirmed this. Likewise the very silly idea that two high ranking CIA operatives were inside and had not made it out, while some mercenary soldiers from France were pulled out weeks earlier.
It is simply not the case and covers the real reason for the botched missions and that was to plant a flag. I will say that again it was to plant a Ukrainian flag on the steelworks.
Bullshit right?
Ok, there have been attempts at flying helicopters in before, remember the suicide mission to the Azovstal steel works? Everyone, including yours truly, thinking some high ranking officer must be in there, turned out there was no one of any real importance in there, the men who died trying to get in were carrying a large Ukraine flag found among the wreckage.
The Ukrainians have form on this before, sending a suicidal dinghy crew to plant a flag in areas already secured by the Russians. In fact, there have been at least three instances of this before. There is also the fact that they were dropped in the area of the steel works. Remember the PR battle is vitally important to Ukraine and those in the west.
Look at how we are holding out bravely against the Russian hordes. It is not just a flag, it’s a $10 billion dollar flag, look at this, if only we had more money, more weapons, look our guys will not quit, when 99% have headed for the hills already.
In a vastly unpopular war you have to sell, sell, sell when your narrative does not fit the facts, you have to convince your backers it is worth it. But it is not just money the flag represents, it’s an article of faith, of the overwhelming belief in the cause. Unless you are a fanatic or have seen them in action your mind cannot fathom the simplicity or the madness of these people. Let me give you some clues that may help you realise what I am saying.
These are people with vast sums of money who have, are and continuing to do the following.
- Pay for a vast army of bots and online trolls to shut down anyone disagreeing with the narrative, by any means necessary.
- These are people who for 11 years have been slaughtering and carrying out ethnic cleansing in Eastern Ukraine.
- These are people who commit atrocities and blame the other side for propaganda.
- These are people who rape women and before killing them and carve a swastika onto their chests and leave them in basements.
- Who use schools and hospitals to fire from while holding human shields.
- Who booby trap water pumps with mines when they leave.
- Who execute villagers as they abandon the area.
- Who throw grenades down cellars at civilians in hiding.
- Who execute villagers walking home.
- Who use POW’s for drone killing hunting practice.
- Who have a website dedicated to killing journalists and anyone speaking out.
- These are people who beat civilians and throw them into vans.
- People who throw these poor men into the front with no training.
- Who shoot their own men if they dare to retreat.
- Who kill them with drones if they try to surrender.
- Who send school children to military camps and make them sing Neo Nasty songs at 8 years old.
- Who’s hatred of Russia is total, blind and full of savagery.
- Who find dead enemies phones and call their mothers or girlfriends to taunt them.
When you understand this, you will understand them.
They are not the first fanatics I have seen ripping a country apart for a foreign entity, sadly they won’t be the last. When the dust settles and the battle for Pokrovsk is over, there will be no high ranking general, no CIA special operatives, just the dead and the surrendered, just like Asovstal steel plant. The ideology is savage and merciless and it’s chief basket cases have their children safe in other countries, they think nothing of sacrificing soldiers for the cause, for the the slogan, for the flag. What is worse, is this is rinse and repeat.
WARREN THORNTON
JOURNALIST & GEOPOLITICAL ANALYST
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Nov 4 2025 17:11 utc | 361
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