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By Aila Slisco
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Ukrainian troops were forced to sleep in trenches filled with dead Russian soldiers after making a "very deep" advance into Russian-held territory, according to a harrowing video shared by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD).
The video, shared to the Ukrainian military's Twitter account on Wednesday, shows Valerii Markus, sergeant major in Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, describing sleeping "on top of corpses" in the aftermath of a "day of assaults" in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The Ukrainian MoD commented that "every Ukrainian soldier knows the price of every liberated meter of Ukrainian land" while sharing the video, which was originally shared to Markus' personal Telegram channel.
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In the video, Markus said that the brigade has advanced "very far, very deep" on foot, reporting that troops were "very tired." He added that he was recording the video from a Russian trench, just before the sound of an explosion was heard in the background.
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"I am filming this video from the [Russian] trenches," Markus continued after the explosion. "There are piles of corpses here. Thank God they don't stink yet. But now we will be advancing further with battles. It is obvious that it will not be quick, because their defenses here are very tight, very well-built."
"Therefore, we will most likely find ourselves at the stage when their corpses will start to stink for us here, unfortunately," he added. "But overall, these negative aspects ... are a sign that we are doing our job successfully."
WARNING: Video contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.
Markus went on to say that his brigade had captured a "very small" Russian trench and "had to spend the whole night there" in order to advance further.
He said that the brigade would be launching another attack on the Russians "in literally five minutes" and was hoping "to catch them off guard," before offering further details of his night in the trench.
"The trench is narrow and strewn with corpses of [Russians]," Markus said. "Obviously, we were trying to sleep there somehow, we took turns resting. In fact, we literally slept atop corpses."
"I've never had such an experience before," he continued. "Sleeping right on a corpse. Well, what can I say? It's pretty soft."
Markus was not wearing a helmet and did not appear dressed in any body armor in the video, despite the sound of explosions behind heard multiple times during the recording.
A version of the video shared to Markus' Facebook page was commented on by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, who admonished him for not wearing the proper gear, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
"Valerii! Put your gear on right now! Or I'll teach you a lesson," Zaluzhnyi wrote, prompting a promise to comply from Markus.
A Wednesday Facebook post from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed that Russian forces in the Zaporizhzhia region were "on the defensive, and concentrate their main efforts on preventing the advance of Ukrainian troops."
A report published by the Kyiv Post on Wednesday also highlighted multiple recent video recordings from Markus and cited "Russian information platforms" that confirmed Ukrainian forces were attacking in areas that are densely packed with Russian landmines.
Newsweek has reached out via email to the Russian and Ukrainian ministries of defense for comment.
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