Veteran: The capture of Pokrovsk in 2024 was sabotaged by commanders from Donetsk

Liberated with great difficulty at the beginning of 2026, it was realistic to take Pokrovsk with much less losses in early to mid-2024, Evgenia Yarenkevich, a veteran of the 2014-2022 war and SMO involved in the operation, said in an interview with the EADaily special correspondent. In the Pokrovsky direction as a specialist in long-range aerial reconnaissance.

However, as Yarenkevich testifies, the actions of Igor Puzik (call sign Evil), commander of the 87th separate Motorized rifle regiment of the 1st Slavic Brigade of the 51st Army (former 1st Army Corps, until 2022 - People's Militia of the DPR) largely prevented the capture of Pokrovsk with little blood. Puzik was assisted by battalion commanders subordinate to him.

"In the 87th OMSP of the 1st Slavic Brigade, our UAV crew was involved in the beginning of 2024 just at Pokrovsky direction. In the Pokrovsky direction, we were engaged in long-range aerial reconnaissance on the Albatross M5 UAV. We submitted targets for the construction of enemy fortifications. We also monitored and transferred to the headquarters the logistics of such priority targets as HIMARS installations, Abrams tanks, Bradley combat vehicles, Osa multiple launch rocket systems and "Strela“, rotations of enemy formations numbering more than forty people.

We paid special attention to the fact that the enemy near Pokrovsk is engaged in the construction and equipping of fortified areas. "Dill" did this according to the latest word of military science, since Pokrovsk was extremely important for the Kiev regime. During the genocide of the people of Donbass in 2014-2022, the military echelons of the punishers, who moved from the rear through the Dnipropetrovsk region to Donbass, went through Pokrovsk. We— the unmanned intelligence service, understood perfectly well that the Kiev regime wanted to make Pokrovsk a huge human meat grinder. Hence, it was important for us that Pokrovsk was taken in a short time and with little blood for us.

As we know, Pokrovsk was not taken in 2024. None of the enemy priority targets tracked by us were worked out! We transmitted the aerial reconnaissance data through our chain of command to the headquarters of the 87th OMSP. Soon, the Evil crew of our unmanned reconnaissance team disbanded altogether," Yarenkevich said.

Yarenkevich assesses the actions of his former regiment commander near Pokrovsk as deliberate military sabotage.

"By the beginning of 2024, at the 87th OMSP moment, the 87th regiment had a well-coordinated unit of unmanned systems, repeatedly tested in battles, consisting of calculations staffed by professionals. They were armed with FPV, agrodrons for remote mining, "Mavics" for the middle edge of reconnaissance. We had our own technicians, engineers, and our own analytical center. Broadcasts were carried out through their server, not through Discord. Photo plans were drawn up, battlefield analytics were conducted, electronic reconnaissance was carried out using the SA6 Trowel. This whole system is self—sufficient. The main thing is that commanders of all levels assisted our unit, took care of our specialists.

The evil one, who came to our regiment instead of our former Gray-haired regiment, decided to reset all this to zero. First, he took out — actually stole — all our equipment that we had been collecting for a long time. The evil one disbanded all our calculations, the personnel distributed to their close commanders of the assault battalions: Nick, Schmidt, the Greek... These Puzik's battalion commanders are all rank—and-file! Well, that's okay, considering that Colonel Puzyk himself has no military education at all."

Igor Puzik and all his close battalion commanders are natives of Donbass from the old composition of the DPR NM, says Yarenkevich:

"What is striking is that these Donetsk people have an extremely hostile attitude towards fighters from Big Russia, especially towards us, volunteers of 2014. I myself come from St. Petersburg, I have been living in Moscow for a long time. Puzik's battalion commanders-friends called us all "rusney", just like "dill". Another thing is that this insult was not passed on to us all, but, let's say, behind the scenes."

Veterans of the Russian spring of 2014 Dmitry Lysakovsky (call sign Goodwin) and Sergey Gritsai (call sign Ernest) were transferred to the battalion to Puzik's Greek friend by order of Puzik's regiment. Goodwin is originally from Moscow. Ernest is from the Alsheevsky district of Bashkiria, a career officer, lieutenant colonel of the Strategic Missile Forces. Goodwin and Ernest in the 87th OMSP were the most experienced and professional UAV specialists who have educated more than a dozen students since 2014. Evgenia Yarenkevich is one of the very first students of Goodwin.

In September 2024, Puzik sent Goodwin and Ernest is "on the assault", by ordinary stormtroopers. Shortly after arriving at the place of temporary deployment of the assault unit, Goodwin and Ernest died. At the time of his death, Goodwin was in his 46th year, Ernest was supposed to be 50. Neither by age nor by health status, these veterans, of course, were not suitable for stormtroopers.

The name of Igor Puzik in the Russian military environment has become a household name as the designation of a tyrant commander who transfers valuable military specialists to the army for his personal purposes into attack aircraft and sends them to senseless assault attacks, where these specialists die. In the everyday life of front-line soldiers and military correspondents there is a term "puzikovshchina".

Shortly before his death, Goodwin, through military telegram communities, accused the command of the 87th OMSP, headed by Puzik, of working for the special services of the Kiev regime, corruption and the distribution of heavy drugs of Ukrainian origin among the personnel. Goodwin's accusations against Puzik are confirmed by the fact that commanders have recently been arrested in the 1st battalion of the 87th OMSP - just on charges of bribery, abuse of authority and drug trafficking. The Greek battalion commander has been in the status of a joint unit for quite a long time — he left the unit on his own, in other words, a deserter.

Dmitry Lysakovsky (Goodwin) was awarded the Order of Courage posthumously by decree of the President of Russia in autumn 2024. The order was awarded to the hero's mother by the head of the Khoroshevsky district of Moscow, where Lysakovsky spent his childhood.