Roman, also known as Peugeot, a fighter from the machine gun company of Ukraine’s 21st National Guard Brigade, lived through a brutal ambush on the Pokrovsk front in Donetsk Oblast. His group had almost no ammunition while Russian forces stormed them from three directions.

From Sevastopol to the front

Roman completed his mandatory military service in Sevastopol. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he didn’t hesitate to enlist.

“Started from our city, then we went to the Kherson and Donetsk fronts. Got around a bit,” he recalls.

He was stationed across from the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant when it was blown up.

“A wasteland appeared there… just islands left. A massive catastrophe,” he says. 

The destruction exposed lake bed sediment containing more than 90,000 tons of dangerous heavy metals, a toxic cocktail that had been quietly accumulating on the reservoir floor since 1956.

Drone strike, buried comrades, and a fight for survival

On 26 March, Roman’s armored vehicle was hit by a Russian FPV drone on the Pokrovsk axis.

“We had to abandon the vehicle and walk,” he continues. 

Later, he was assigned to reach a buried position and dig out comrades trapped under debris.
Under shelling, five soldiers hid in a single trench. 

“The enemy was trying to storm from three sides. That’s when drone operators saved our lives,” Roman says. 

The UAVs struck back at the enemy, giving the fighters a chance to survive.

“Almost no ammo left”: when the sky saves the ground

In the woods, eight Russian soldiers encountered Roman’s five-man group. The Ukrainian defenders were left with “only two magazines for five of us.”

However, drone operators not only repelled the attack but also dropped extra ammunition. Despite heavy fire, the group crossed 13 kilometers of open terrain and made it out alive.

“I can say with confidence — I eliminated the enemy and sent several more to ‘the 300s’,” Roman adds.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump that Moscow plans to escalate military operations in eastern Ukraine during its summer offensive.

As of now, Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, including most of Luhansk Oblast, two-thirds of Donetsk Oblast, and parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts. 

A Ukrainian soldier could have gone on a date after meeting someone on Telegram. But before the meeting, he was asked to do a “small favor,” which could have turned deadly if not for law enforcement.

 
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), together with the National Police, thwarted a terrorist attack planned by an FSB agent network. One of the plots involved a fake “romantic date” in Dnipro.

A pair of Russian agents gained the trust of the Ukrainian soldier. Through Telegram, they suggested he meet with the “sister of a fellow soldier.” Before the date, the girl asked him to pick up her brother’s belongings from her friend.

“In reality, it was an accomplice who handed the soldier a bag containing explosives,” the SBU reported.

Afterward, Russian agents tried to detonate the device remotely, but it was defused in time.

It was just one of at least five terrorist attacks planned by them inside Ukraine.

• In Kyiv, two drug addicts tried to plant explosives near a military facility. They were coordinated from a detention center by an inmate who recruited his cellmate and two more accomplices.
• In Vinnytsia, a 19-year-old individual from Zhytomyr Oblast was detained while planting explosives near an apartment building housing military families.
• In Rivne, a terrorist hid explosives inside a soldier’s service vehicle and installed a surveillance camera.

Russian intelligence recruited all perpetrators via Telegram channels advertising “easy money.” According to the SBU, each attack attempt came with promises of financial reward.

All suspects have been charged with state treason, sabotage, and terrorism. They face life imprisonment and confiscation of property.

A Russian soldier who executed Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kharkiv Oblast now sits in a Ukrainian jail cell. He alone was captured after Ukrainian forces wiped out his entire unit.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced charges against 36-year-old Sergey Tuzhilov, a rifleman from Russia’s 69th motorized rifle division. The case reveals the systematic nature of Russian war crimes—and occasionally, battlefield justice.

What happened in Vovchansk?

Tuzhilov participated in fighting near Vovchansk in June 2024. During an assault on a local factory, he and another Russian soldier captured three Ukrainian troops. Then they executed them.

The evidence is specific. According to the SBU investigation, Tuzhilov “personally fired a shot from his service automatic rifle into the back of the head of a bound Ukrainian soldier.” He also selected execution sites for two other prisoners and stood guard during the killings.

Before the executions? The Russians tortured their captives by tying them to posts.

How was he caught?

Ukrainian forces destroyed Tuzhilov’s unit in subsequent fighting. He was the only survivor—and became a prisoner himself. The SBU gathered evidence while he sat in custody, building a case that could send him to prison for life.

Who is Tuzhilov? A career criminal turned soldier. The SBU says he has two prior convictions for robbery and drug trafficking before joining Russia’s military.

Tuzhilov faces charges under multiple articles of Ukrainian criminal law, including war crimes committed by conspiracy and cruel treatment of prisoners combined with premeditated murder. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.

The bigger picture of POW executions 

This case represents one thread in a much larger pattern. The Office of the Prosecutor General reports Russian forces have killed at least 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

The numbers tell a grim story. In 2022, prosecutors documented 57 execution cases. That jumped to 149 cases in 2024. This year? Already 51 cases in just six months.

Why the increase? The pattern suggests Russian forces kill prisoners to avoid detention logistics and break Ukrainian morale.

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