[4] The battalion occupied the airport on 26 May, though the operation was characterized by Vzglyad as unsuccessful and a trap, as the newspaper claimed that the unit lost at least 60 men killed in action from Ukrainian airstrikes and helicopter strikes.

[2] On 29 May, members of the Vostok Battalion stormed the Donetsk separatist headquarters, expelling a "motley band" of pro-Russian rebels that occupied it since March, accusing them of looting local supermarkets.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the raid was widely seen as a part of an attempt by a Moscow-connected faction to take control over the insurgency in the Donbas from "ragtag" elements associated with Igor Girkin and Alexander Borodai, with Mark Galeotti characterizing the battalion as a "more disciplined" force associated with Russian military intelligence.

[4] However, according to Franchetti, the battalion mostly consisted of locals from eastern Ukraine with no previous military experience who "had watched too much Channel One Russia and Russia-24" (Russian state television programming) and believed the Donbas needed to be defended from fascism.

[11] At some point, either in the fall of 2022, after the unit was replenished with mobilized soldiers, or in January 2023, during the entry of the 1st Army Corps into the Russian Armed Forces, the regiment was reformed into the 114th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.

[12] Despite this, Russian media and Khodakovsky himself made it clear that the strategically important village would be solely defended by the Vostok Brigade against multiple units from the Ukrainian Marine Corps.

[13][14][15] Ukraine announced the liberation of the settlement on 16 August, and has been noted using artillery to shell retreating members of the Vostok Brigade resulting in high casualties among Khodakovsky's troops.