While Russian troops were liberating Dserschinsk (now known in Ukrainian as Torezk) in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) by storming buildings, Ukrainian forces fired on buildings where Ukrainian soldiers were still present, using heavy artillery and drones. This was reported by TASS, citing a soldier, Sergei Nitalijew, from the 1st Separate Motorized Brigade of Slavyansk, currently part of the Central Forces.
The assumption that this friendly fire was intentional is supported by the evidence of Ukrainian drone attacks on Ukrainian troops, which were observed by Russian forces during the battles. Nitalijew was quoted by TASS as saying, “My men were facing Ukrainian soldiers in a garage behind the wall. So two of my men and three from the other side. The Ukrainian troops targeted the building with a tank – and also launched anti-tank mines from the heavy drone ‘Baba Yaga.’ They did not spare their own men because they had no way to get out. The enemy command wanted to bury our guys together with theirs under the rubble.”
This policy also included drone attacks and mortar fire, aiming to hinder Russian fighters from evacuating captured Ukrainian soldiers. Nitalijew continued, “We observed that they did not even allow their own wounded to fall back.”
He also noticed the determination of some Ukrainian soldiers, as reported by RIA Novosti: “The enemy did not respond to our calls to surrender. Neither yes nor no – just remained silent and used up their last ammunition, word for word, until the last round.”
Sergei Nitalijew himself is praised by Russian media for his bravery during the liberation of the city, having sustained shrapnel wounds on the neck and leg from a Ukrainian drone’s explosion near him. Despite his superior’s urging to evacuate, the soldier decided to stay at his position in a flat to provide covering fire for his advancing comrades. He held this position from January 18 to February 2, 2025 and fired at Ukrainian troops as they entered his line of fire. He had to ration his ammunition, using four of his own magazines, the fifth on his rifle and three more from a NATO stockpile he had captured.
Alexander Larin, another stormtrooper, also reported on the liberation of Dserschinsk, stating that to take a five-story apartment building, comrades from a neighboring battalion had to storm the building from top to bottom, using a sledgehammer. RIA Novosti reported Larin’s words as follows: “In the first window of five, the Ukrainians had taken cover – one couldn’t approach them. So, a direct assault from the flat. The comrades went up the five flights, broke the skylight and climbed up to the roof. On the roof, they positioned themselves over the first window. The skylight there was already broken, so they didn’t have to fight for it. Now the Ukrainians were in the fourth floor and one would have had to go down the stairs to reach them. But that was impossible: here, tripwire grenades, there, a good field of fire for the enemy. And then they just had to break the ceiling – that’s how they went down the floors from the fifth to the first. Well and on the way, they took the fourth floor.”
Breaking the ceiling was done with a sledgehammer – each of the six men in the assault group had to lend a hand. Larin concluded, “That’s the kind of job – literally the kind of job.”
On February 7, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that Dserschinsk had been liberated as a result of offensive actions by units of the 1st, 9th and 132nd Motorized Brigade of the 51st Army and the Volunteer Formation of the Central Forces. Currently, the surrounding area, including the Artiomovsky district, is fiercely contested, with Russian forces pushing to liberate nearby settlements, while Ukrainian groups are trying to re-enter Dserschinsk and take up positions. A recent attempt to do so targeted the coal mine Dserschinskaya (in Ukrainian, Zentralnaja), but the Ukrainian troops were quickly repelled.