The average life expectancy of a mobilised Russian soldier here is 12 minutes - report from the frontline

The main barrier to this route is the small village of Stepnogorsk, which is defended by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

According to UNIAN, citing a report by The Times, some 20,000 Russian troops have arrived in Stepnogorsk, intending to make their way north to Zaporizhzhya, 22 kilometres away. The village is the last Ukrainian stronghold before the Konskaya River. If the Russian invaders manage to cross this barrier, they will be able to bombard the town with artillery.

The loss of Stepnogorsk will allow the enemy to overcome the natural barrier, advance artillery and drones and shell Zaporizhzhya around the clock. This will cause panic among the civilian population and a humanitarian crisis. This will create conditions for the occupation of Zaporizhzhya and the loss of the regional centre, – says Mongol, a senior officer commanding the FERRATA unit of the Ukrainian GUR.

The battle near Stepnogorsk, the publication writes, is being fought by elite units, indicating its importance. The Russians have sent two airborne divisions, a motorised rifle division and a special forces brigade to the village. Standing in their way, at a ratio of about seven to one, are GUR special forces fighters, as well as a small number of infantry, drones and territorial defence units.

The FERRATA group is engaged in reconnaissance, counterattacks, and raids on Russian positions, pushing them back whenever they try to take forward positions:

'I think the average life expectancy of one mobilised Russian here is about 12 minutes, no more,' said one FERRATA officer. - And the cost of his life, in terms of shells and ordnance spent to kill him, is about $5,000 to $6,000.

In December, Sgt. "Ice," a FERRATA squad leader, took his team of 15 Special Forces fighters on a mission to set up observation and ambush points near a farm occupied by insurgents. Ice and his team travelled part of the way by car and then on foot, in full gear, in four separate groups.

One of my groups was leading our neighbours to the target, with 300 metres to go, and they were spotted by a drone. Then the shelling started. One neighbour was killed instantly - by a direct hit from the drone. And my fighter, too: mortar shrapnel wounded him, and then he was killed by the FPV drone," Ice said.

The rest of the group took cover in Ice's foxhole, giving the enemy their location, he said.

Fifteen minutes later, eight FPV drones flew into our dugout, which was already half destroyed and on fire. Mortars and artillery were shelling the area," Ice said.

They lay under the smoke in the burning trench for three hours before they ventured away, reaching safety with badly burned limbs.

Serhiy Bratchuk, a sicher of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, said the Ukrainian Defence Forces were carrying out counterattacks in the Zaporizhzhya region, reducing the "grey zone". According to him, the occupation troops of the Russian Federation are losing previously occupied territories.

Bratchuk noted that the Ukrainian soldiers also disrupted the invaders' plans to form a bridgehead for the start of the Zaporizhzhya-Orekhiv operation.