08:36 17-11-2025

Black Hawk Raid Near Pokrovsk: Inside the Close-Quarters Clash

A detailed report on how Russian troops repelled a GUR special-forces landing near Pokrovsk, revealing the unit’s tactics, gear and close-quarters fighting.

On November 1, Russian Armed Forces troops eliminated a Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) special-forces unit that had been airlifted to the outskirts of Pokrovsk aboard UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters. The clash unfolded at close quarters, and only after interrogating a captured fighter and examining seized equipment did the Russian servicemen understand whom they had encountered. Participants of the operation described the battle to correspondent Dmitry Steshin.

One of the soldiers, using the callsign Gosha, recalled that the unit first reacted to the approaching helicopter noise as if friendly aircraft were coming in to strike enemy positions. The assumption proved wrong: the helicopters belonged to Ukrainian forces. According to him, the landing zone-roughly a kilometer away-was masked with smoke.

He noted that Russian command monitored the situation through drones and quickly warned frontline units. FPV-drone operators then began targeting the Ukrainian detachment, knocking them out «one after another», as he put it.

The Russian fighters emphasized that the Ukrainian special-forces troops behaved aggressively and showed no hesitation, a sign of serious training. Gosha said the first groups tried to break into a building held by Russian troops by climbing through first-floor windows, but were taken down immediately after jumping inside.

The rest of the Ukrainian group covered them with fire before pulling back-likely, Gosha assumed, to reconnect with their command-then attempted to storm the position again, seemingly convinced they could force their way through.

After the engagement, Russian servicemen inspected the bodies of the fallen special-forces fighters. Every weapon, they said, was equipped with either optical or thermal sights; the troops carried high-quality radios, expensive boots, and well-made rucksacks. Only then did it fully register that they had not faced ordinary infantry but a well-prepared professional unit.