Sent without any real experience into the ‘meat-grinder’ | World | News

A Ukrainian marine is among only a handle of survivors of a hastily organized attempt by the Ukrainian army to get a foothold in Russia in the spring of 2025. Yevhen, a 36-year-old husband and father, was working at a port in Odessa Region when he was drafted into the Ukrainian military in early 2025. “My brother and I were stopped at a check point while on our way to work,” he recalls.

But unlike some Ukrainian men pressed into military service – literally kicking and screaming as they are forced into a jeep – he did not resist. “I told them ‘No problem’. I had always thought if they conscripted me I would go.” However, at the time, he could little imagine what trials awaited him.

Instead, he and his elder brother, Ihor, decided to join the Marines. And after just 45 days of training and two weeks of orientation with their Brigade – the 39th Separate Marine Infantry Battalion – they found themselves serving a mostly peaceful existence. But it did not last long. “During almost a year in the military, I saw only one battle – but it was complete horror,” he says.

And like around 250 other Ukrainian servicemen from his and other units, he went into that battle – on Russian territory – as part of a completely different formation – the ‘infamous’ 225th Separate Assault Regiment. “The order came from the top, and we were sent immediately, without any real experience, into what can only be called a meat-grinder.”

The mission was to enter Russia‘s Belgorod Region, take up a defensive position and hold it. He said: “We went in in groups of two to five soldiers – not even a platoon. Communication went dead almost immediately, or at most within a couple of days.”

For three days, without rest or sleep, Yevhen and his elder brother Ihor carried wounded back from the Zero Line.
He said: “The entire time, we were under dense artillery and mortar fire, not to mention drones.” Exhausted, they pleaded with their commander for a breather but were threatened with a beating.

“He told us: You either go back to the zero line or you do down into the basement where they know how to deal with insubordination.” Ihor carried on and, tragically, was never seen again. Yevhen ended up in another basement used as a dugout with a few other soldiers.

“The next morning, we decided ‘to celebrate’ the birthday of one of the guys but a Russian drone gassed us and we all fled outside for fresh air despite mortar fire literally every other second.” Later, after all communications were completly lost, a soldier in the 225th offered Yevhen and the others a chance to evacuate. “There was a lull in the mortar firing and one of our guys ran out. We heard a loud explosion but no yelling or screaming. Later we learnt he’d been captured.”

Eventually, he and a few others from his original unit did, however, make it out – they were the exceptions. “Officially, the command says two killed and five missing in action.”

But out of at least 250 men from Yevhen’s and other unis, he was one of only 15 others to come out alive. His 39th Separate Marine Infantry Batallion alone had gone in with 100 men. Yevhen said if they were all taken prisoner, their fate is an unenviable one. “The 225th does not have a good reputation. They fulfill their mission, but how they do it is another matter. I do not think they will be treated well in capitivity.”

In the mean time, he spends his free time trying to find his older brother Ihor – along with the families of other men lost in the Belgorod campaign of March and April, 2025.

“We search on Tik Tok, make appeals, meet, go to Kyiv to demonstrate. We are not just sitting around and waiting.” What they are waiting for is an end to the war – a just and final end. “If it doesn’t end right, with real guarantees, it will just be a war postponed.”