Footage captures aftermath of attack on Ukrainian civilians… and a moment of heart-stopping bravery

Memphis Barker

Senior Foreign Correspondent

22 October 2025 6:00am BST

The man lies on his back in a pool of blood. A woman has fallen by her bicycle. And a third body can be seen curled up between the railway tracks that run through the front-line city of Pokrovsk.

These are three Ukrainian civilians murdered by a group of Russian infiltrators, according to the 7th Corps of Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces and drone footage that appears to provide evidence of war crimes.

A small Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group “violated international humanitarian law and killed several civilians” after they reached the centre of the city, the 7th Corps wrote on Facebook on Oct 19.

Each of the victims in Pokrovsk wears the clothes of workaday life: a chequered shirt, still tucked into grey trousers. A pair of blue jeans. Comfortable trainers.

They lie sprawled out on Mostovyi Lane, close to the railway station around one and half-miles from the Russian positions. It is in this railway station that the Russian infiltrators hid, according to the Ukrainian soldiers.

The exact circumstances of the killings remain unclear.

In today’s war, small groups of infiltrators – as few as three or four in number – are able to break through porous front lines while drones keep Ukraine’s defenders pinned inside their dug-outs.

Behind enemy lines, they attempt to sow havoc: killing what they can before either they are eliminated, as is most common, or reinforcements arrive.

The drone footage shared on Telegram only shows the aftermath of the attack, with the bodies strewn around 100m apart.

One female survivor, who appears to have been shot in the legs, props herself up on a grassy verge by the side of the road.

The watching Ukrainian drone then records a moment of heart-stopping bravery: a young man carrying her in his arms down the road to safety. Only once does he pause to adjust his grip.

“May God grant him health for his courage,” said Denys Khyrstov, the Ukrainian volunteer who shared the footage, asking if anyone could help identify the man. One reply said it was Oleksiy Tanasiichuk, a local mine worker.

The wounded woman remains in Pokrovsk because it has become too dangerous for anybody but the Ukrainian army to carry out evacuations, said Mr Khrystov. “No transport can get there due to the large number of enemy FPVs [first person view drones].”

The footage “absolutely” shows a war crime, said “Navigator”, chief of staff for the “Hornets of Dovbush”, a drone battalion in the 68th infantry brigade currently fighting in Pokrovsk.

“Unfortunately, it is an everyday occurrence. They do this not only in Pokrovsk but in Selydove and Novoselivka [two nearby settlements].”

While Ukraine’s forces do not engage a target without confirmation they are an enemy, Russian infiltrators kill with abandon on what are effectively suicide missions, said Navigator.

“They seep through, sometimes disguised as civilians. Even if you see a middle-aged man there, riding a bicycle, you never know if he’s an enemy or a local.”

The Russian soldiers who carried out the killings were found hiding in Pokrovsk railway station and eliminated by Ukrainian drone pilots, said the statement by 7th Corps. In an attached video clip, a Russian soldier runs through the wreckage of the train station in an unsuccessful attempt to flee an incoming FPV.

“We urge civilians who are still in Pokrovsk not to move through the city without extreme necessity,” the statement said.

“The enemy wants to expand the ‘grey zone’ around Pokrovsk. The invaders are trying to penetrate the city from several directions.”

For more than a year, the Ukrainian army has kept Vladimir Putin’s forces at bay around the city in the eastern Donetsk region. Its fall has been predicted time and again.

But fears for the Ukrainian defences have risen in the past fortnight as Moscow steps up its attacks on Kyiv’s supply lines – and sends ever more drones into battle.

According to the 7th Corps, Moscow dropped 372 guided bombs on Ukrainian logistics in the week from Oct 13 to 19, a rise of 70 per cent on the week before.

Only a few hundred people remain in Pokrovsk, once home to 60,000. Their number includes the elderly as well as those who – in the face of so much loss – have become “apathetic” about their own death.

Mr Khrystov speculated that the city would soon fall – and Russian propaganda channels would release footage of their troops being welcomed by the remaining residents.

“Remember this journey of death,” he said, referring to the footage of murdered civilians, “when you come across videos of the joyful faces of Pokrovsk residents glorifying the Russian liberators.”

In recent days, Navigator’s unit took part in a military rescue of trapped civilians and he acknowledged that the task had become impossible for civilian teams like those run by Mr Khrystov.

The Ukrainian commander said the situation was perilous in Pokrovsk but denied it was on the brink of Russian capture.

“It all depends on many factors,” he said. “Their exhaustion and our replenishment of personnel.”

Most concerning was the fact that Russia had “recently gained the upper hand with drones”.

“The build-up of enemy FPVs, their total control over logistics routes, makes it impossible to deliver the necessary amount of ammunition, provisions and personnel.”

At first, Navigator thought Ukraine would surrender Pokrovsk in spring. But now the snows of winter are about to fall – and the city still holds, he said.

“So I gave up on making predictions a long time ago.”