Survivor describes Russian missile attack on marine award ceremony in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

A marine from the 35th Separate Marine Brigade who witnessed the events, spoke to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne on Nov. 5 on condition of anonymity. He and his comrades had gathered to mark their battalion’s anniversary with bonfires and torches.  

“We were given two locations [to muster at],” the marine said.

“My group was in the woods, where the torches were lit. But some men were by a nearby store. The alarm had already sounded, but we went anyway. Our [GPS] navigator wasn’t working, the sky was overcast and there were no drones overhead. Most likely we’d been betrayed, because the strike came about 15 minutes after the ceremony was set to begin.”  

When the group arrived, their commander ordered them to wait. “We were standing about 100 meters from the torches,” he said.

“Then, about 15 minutes later, an Iskander [ballistic] missile hit the ceremony site. We didn’t hear any warning—just the explosion, and everyone was knocked down. One man’s leg was severely damaged; another was hit in the shoulders. We were lucky to be off to the side. Everyone who stood by the torches was killed. I can’t say exactly how many, but at least three died. Their bodies weren’t recovered until morning.”  

After the strike, the marines retreated across nearby fields. Soon afterward, the soldier said, Russian forces attacked again with Shahed drones.

“We saw the village on fire,” he said. “One of the men wrote in our group chat, ‘Call ambulances—there are wounded.’ Later, he died in the hospital.”  

By Nov. 3, it became clear that at least eight marines had been killed, about 40 were wounded and six were missing.

“We wanted to retrieve the bodies, but the police insisted we go through the morgue,” the marine said.

“One of our comrades was missing; we searched among the wounded until he called us himself. He’d been injured, too.”  

On Nov. 3, the 30th Marine Corps of the Ukrainian Navy confirmed that Russian forces struck Ukrainian servicemen in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Nov. 1. The State Bureau of Investigation has opened a probe into the deaths and injuries resulting from the attack.