How the 73rd Marine Center of Special Operations is fighting-one of the elite units of the Armed Forces

The main thing from the Associated Press report

The 73rd Marine Center for Special Operations is one of the elite divisions of Ukrainian special forces, which includes scouts, underwater saboteurs, drone operators. Shock groups of this units carry out reconnaissance and sabotage operations in Ukrainian territories captured by Russia, acting at the forefront of the Ukrainian counter -cost. For six months, the Associated Press journalists visited one of the detachments of the 73rd center in the Kherson region and released a report with photographs about it. Medusa briefly retells it.

The unit is commanded by an officer with the call sign Scythian. In May and June 2023, it was located on the western bank of the Dnieper, not far from the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. The task of the special forces at the first stage of the Ukrainian counterattack was to seize the positions of the Russian army on nearby islands in the river line.

Special forces of the 73rd center, writes Associated Press, look like ordinary people during the day who walk in T-shirts and slippers along the streets of front-line villages of the Kherson region. At night, they turn into elite fighters - into wetsuits, in cloaks that hide the thermal trace, in night vision glasses and with underwater breathing apparatus that do not form bubbles on the surface. Among the tasks that are considered routine in the unit - intelligence in the immediate vicinity of enemy troops, underwater operations and laying explosives in Russian positions.

The destruction of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station violated the initial plans of the fighters of the 73rd center, when they were already ready to cross the front line. Due to the rise in water, they had to retreat and regroup-in places their deployment became abandoned houses and shops in nearby villages. The fighters slept during the day, woke up at sunset, after which they went to reconnaissance - they studied new possible routes of the offensive and provoked the Russian military for shooting to determine their whereabouts.

Skif, writes Associated Press, it was necessary to convince the senior military that if his fighters could capture the strategic bridgehead, it would be advisable to send troops there. To do this, the detachment had to conduct risky missions on the river, during which there were many dead. “My phone book is a small cemetery,” Skif said.

In July, when the water receded, the Scythian group was given the task of taking control of the island in line with the Dnieper. With the help of a spy network in the Kherson region, as well as satellite images and drones, they received information about the positions of Russians. But when the detachment landed from the boats and moved deep into the island, one of the fighters was blown up by stretching - after which the Russians opened fire. The Scythian detachment retreated to the boats and returned to the west coast of the Dnieper. The Russian military after that strengthened their positions, and it was possible to knock them out of the island only a few weeks later.

Soon the Skif detachment received another task: to go upstream and break through the defense of Russians at the destroyed railway bridge over the Dnieper. According to Associated Press, Ukrainians had an important advantage over the Russians, which they often underestimated: most Ukrainians understand intercepted messages in Russian and can evaluate them in real time, while Russian soldiers intercepting negotiations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine need a translator from the Ukrainian language.

The Scythian detachment intercepted Russian negotiations at the bridge, and the fighters immediately realized how many people would resist them and what ammunition they will have. However, this did not help in the end: because of the advantage of Russians in the air, the detachment could not complete the task, and the fighters had to retreat under heavy fire.

In September, the Scythian detachment received a new order: to seize the island near the village of Krynka. The fighters were lucky: 12 Russian military, who, according to them, were originally against the war, voluntarily surrendered - and provided the Ukrainians with the necessary information. The Scythian was sure that he would capture the island with a small detachment of 20 experienced fighters - but demanded that the support command in the future, so that the Ukrainian military could hold this territory. The commander promised to provide support if the Scythian provides him with shots of how his fighters raise the Ukrainian flag on the island.

The detachment successfully conducted the operation in mid -October and sent photos to the headquarters. To keep this position, several brigades were sent there.