Ukrainian marines planned a clearing operation near Pokrovsk for about a month, their deputy commander said in remarks relayed by Army Inform. The Defense Ministry’s news agency published them on 12 October. He also described the Russian infantry the marines captured as barely trained, hungry, and unwilling to fight.

Russia seized Pokrovsk by seeping small infantry groups into the city a few at a time. Beyond the city, Russian advances stayed limited. ISW assessed on 25 February that the capture brought no further operationally significant gains. Small advances continued, and DeepState mapped one near Bilytske in Donetsk Oblast on 7 October. Every stretch where Ukrainian units stop that infiltration closes the route Russia used to take the city.

What the operation produced

Karyi, the 40th Separate Marine Brigade’s deputy commander, said that Operation Audit cleared about 6 km². The marines suffered no losses while inflicting them on the Russians, he said, and gathered a lot of intelligence. He promised the enemy many more surprises.

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Ukraine makes local gains on Pokrovsk front despite sustained Russian attacks

The brigade had announced an operation by the same name on 26 September. It said then that the marines had cleared 5 km² and captured two Russian soldiers. The brigade also said they had stopped the flow of Russian infiltration on that stretch of the Pokrovsk direction.

Two weeks of training, then the front

Karyi called the two prisoners typical of the Russian infantry now sent against the marines, with all of two weeks’ training behind them. He said Russian recruits spend a month on transfers and paperwork before going into battle. They then walk to their positions for one or two weeks.

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ISW: First Pokrovsk, then Huliaipole—now Russia points its logistics-killing air campaign at the Fortress Belt

If drones or Ukrainian ground groups don’t kill them first, he said, they surrender because they no longer want to fight. They are not fed or given water. He described one parcel a week with a can of stewed meat, and water drunk from the ground underfoot. That, Karyi said, is why the Russian troops facing the marines are demoralized and untrained.

There is no confirmed information that Russian troops have entered Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, spokesperson Victor Tregubov of the Khortytsia group of forces told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on June 13, refuting earlier claims published by the New York Times (NYT).

The NYT cited Ukrainian military sources claiming that Russian troops crossed the administrative boundary into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast for the first time since the war began.

The reporting also referenced a map by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) indicating that Russian forces advancing in the region had allegedly secured a foothold.

Tregubov said the situation remains unchanged as of June 13. He indicated that no information suggests Russian forces have crossed the administrative border, but he noted that updated intelligence may be available later in the day.

Andrii Zadubiny, press officer of the Khortytsia forces, also rejected the claims.

"No enemy incursion into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has been recorded. We refute this information," he told Suspilne. He suggested that ISW might be relying on Russian sources.

On June 8, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that its forces had entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a claim that has not been substantiated by Ukrainian authorities.

The Ukrainian monitoring group DeepState also reported no evidence of Russian forces entering the oblast. A map depicting Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine indicates that the Russian troops are only a couple of kilometers from the border.

To date, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast — a major industrial region in central Ukraine — has not seen confirmed Russian ground incursions, though it has remained under constant threat from missile and drone attacks.

In late April, Ukrainian authorities began mandatory evacuations of families with children from four front-line villages — Kolona Mezhova, Novopidhorodne, Raipole, and Sukhareva Balka — located just kilometers from Russian positions.

The latest developments come amid growing pressure on Ukrainian defenses across multiple fronts and continued failure of U.S.-mediated negotiations to produce a ceasefire agreement.

After Israel’s strikes, Ukraine says Iran ‘source of problems’ but warns against destabilization

Ukraine on June 13 expressed concern over the security situation in the Middle East after Israeli air strikes against Iran, but stressed that Tehran remains a “source of problems” in the region “and beyond.”

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek