NOVOLUHANSKE, Ukraine – After days of open fighting along the Luhanka River in Donetsk Oblast, a covert operation launched by Ukraine’s 46th Battalion ultimately brought this town of 4,000 people fully under government control.

Hiding his men and their arms in a column of trucks taken from a factory in the nearby city of Bakhmut, 46th commander Vyacheslav Vlasenko ordered his battalion to move into the town on Dec. 23, shortly before a Christmas Eve cease-fire was set to commence.