DONETSK, September 14. /TASS/. A captured Ukrainian soldier from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, Vitaly Dityuk, said that his unit commanders had been continuously dispatching troops across a minefield to storm the village of Opytnoye, near Donetsk, despite the high losses in personnel incurred from this tactical maneuver.

"In the evening, they brought us in, and in the morning, we received orders to storm Opytnoye. We went out in three groups of 20 people each, I was in one of the groups. We were forced to move along the wooded area, which had not been demined, and along a minefield, where we began to trip and set off mines," he told TASS.

He clarified that in his group alone, about ten people tripped and detonated mines, while the rest were hit by a Russian artillery barrage. Some of them were killed on the spot, while some troops sustained wounds of various degrees of severity. Dityuk himself was shell-shocked. "When I came to, I was already surrounded by Russian soldiers," he added.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the Ukrainian army’s heavy personnel losses in the vicinity of this village. According to the Defense Ministry, Ukrainian assault units are sustaining heavy losses, but, despite Kiev’s official claims, have not succeeded in advancing or gaining a foothold in Opytnoye. The Defense Ministry affirmed that the village remains under the control of Russian forces.