Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) on Tuesday, Oct. 21, released a radio intercept suggesting Russian forces are being ordered to kill civilians in Pokrovsk trying to leave the combat zone.
In the recording, a field commander of the 30th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, part of Russia’s 2nd Combined Arms Army, issues a direct order:
“Monitor the road, don’t let anyone through. Understood? Anyone with civilians carrying large bags – shoot immediately.”
The brigade is currently operating near Pokrovsk, according to HUR.
The agency said the intercepted order is part of a broader pattern of systemic violence.
“Systematic executions and torture of prisoners of war, killings of civilians, and extrajudicial executions of their own troops once again prove that war crimes are a deliberate and targeted policy of the Russian aggressor state,” HUR said in a statement.
Ukrainian intelligence agencies have previously intercepted calls that depict psychological stress and disregard for human life among Russian troops.
In 2023, Kyiv Post interviewed “Maria” who worked as one of Ukrainian intelligence’s professional eavesdroppers and spoke about the shocking things she hears.
Russia regularly dismisses the content of intercepted calls published by Ukraine, saying they are fake, a claim Kyiv Post put to Maria. She said: “They are all are real even though they might seem insane. Sometimes I can’t believe the words I’m hearing myself, but we have what we have.”
Earlier, on Sunday, Oct. 19, Russian troops opened fire on civilians in Pokrovsk, according to a volunteer known by the callsign “Hollandets.”
He published drone footage, which captured multiple victims: a woman on a bicycle shot in the back, an elderly man lying in the middle of the street, another woman with crushed legs, and a man on the railway tracks.
Minutes later, the drone recorded an unknown man carefully lifting the wounded woman and moving her toward Ukrainian positions.
(Screenshot by Hollander2022 / Telegram)
The shootings occurred near the city’s railway station, where intense street fighting continues.
The volunteer says the woman remains in Pokrovsk, but evacuation to a hospital is impossible because constant attacks by Russian drones make safe transport unattainable.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Pokrovsk
Since mid-September, Pokrovsk and the surrounding areas in the Donetsk region have been a focal point of Ukrainian defense as Russian forces intensify attempts to capture the stronghold.
On Sept. 18, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Ukrainian forces were conducting a counterattack in Donetsk, particularly around Pokrovsk and Dobropillia.
On Sept. 26, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Russian troops in the Pokrovsk sector had been trapped in a “pocket.”
Zelensky later added that Russian forces were ordered to storm Ukrainian positions at any cost, leading to high Russian casualties in the area.
By Oct. 16, the General Staff reported that since late August, Ukrainian forces had liberated 183 square kilometers (71 square miles) on the Pokrovsk front, with another 230 square kilometers (89 square miles) cleared of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRG).