MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Russian troops have advanced into the Ukrainian rear unnoticed and captured smoking Ukrainian drone operators. The enemy soldiers provided to them information about Ukrainian armed forces' movement routes in Krasnoarmeysk (Ukrainian name: Pokrovsk). The operation was described in a Defense Ministry video by Vladimir Khodykin, commander of a Russian assault detachment.

"My group of about six soldiers came in. <...> We bypassed their positions and walked along a forest strip. Then we encountered enemy FPV operators. They weren’t waiting, hey went out for a smoke. And then my soldiers approached. Then we started learning their routes, where they were moving and who was moving. Accordingly, using this information <...> we took prisoners, pieced together the information, and blocked their routes—that is, we started capturing them," the soldier said.

According to Khodykin, many Ukrainian soldiers were unaware that Krasnoarmeysk had been taken by Russian troops, and the unexpected encounter with Russian soldiers caused panic among them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a frontline command center late on November 30 to hear reports on the liberation of the cities of Krasnoarmeysk in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Volchansk in the Kharkov Region.

Krasnoarmeysk is one of the centers of the Donbass coal industry. Fighting for the agglomeration began in 2024, with the active phase of hostilities resuming this spring. The agglomeration was home to over 370,000 people, and now the population shrank to around 2,000. It is one of the main transportation hubs in the DPR, including the Pokrovsk railway junction. The city is logistically important for the Ukrainian army, as roads pass through it on the way to Slavyansk, Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk. The city is now totally under Russian control, so the Russian Armed Forces will be able to continue their offensive towards Druzhkovka, Slavyansk, and Kramatorsk in the DPR.