A Marine with the call sign Altai hid for five days in a village controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Alexander Kiriyenko, a soldier of the 61st Marine Brigade of the Center group of forces, with the call sign Altai, told Izvestia how he had been hiding for five days in the village of Vladimirovka controlled by the Ukrainian army.

"We received a task from the company commander to storm the village of Vladimirovka. We had to drop into the village, take up a position, gain a foothold and wait for further instructions," the fighter said.

Altai and his comrade-in-arms were the first to break into a settlement occupied by the enemy. At that time, they were attacked by a drone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). Altai lost consciousness from the explosion. All this happened in front of the company commander and his deputy for military and political work, who monitored the movement of the fighters through an objective control screen.

Five days later, the command decided that he was dead. However, the next day, the scouts of the "neighbors" got in touch and said that Altai was alive and practically healthy. All these days, he was making his way to the destination where he had originally received the order to move.

"There's only one left, but the task needs to be completed. I had no doubt that my guys would come anyway, not now, but tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. And where will they fit? Where we have a point where we need to gain a foothold, they will come there," Altai said.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to locate the fighter using drones and called on him to surrender through loudspeakers, claiming that they could see his location. As the fighter himself said, he decided not to give up and prepare for the last fight.

"After a certain time, the servicemen of the reconnaissance company of the neighboring brigade approached. He joined them. A little later, the Storm units of the 61st brigade entered there. He started working with them and then, a month later, we were able to get him out," added the deputy commander of the company with the call sign Politruk.

Altai was asked to send his wife, who was very worried about his fate, a voice message saying that he was alive. Speaking about his future plans, the fighter expressed his willingness to continue serving until victory.

Necessary pincers: Russian troops surround the last stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbass

The divisions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation cover the agglomeration of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk from the east, south and north

On March 22, Izvestia's military correspondent Tatiana Simonenkova spoke about the military personnel's combat work. The Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Sumy area of the special military operation (SVO) often turn out to be unprepared for the offensive of Russian troops, therefore they surrender. On average, the assault groups of the 33rd Infantry Battalion of the 80th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (Arctic) of the 14th Army Corps of the North group of forces advance a hundred meters per day. The senior shooter with the call sign Kot attributes this to the poor training of Ukrainians.

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