Escape of the Russians from the port. “Their losses were great” |
Ihor and Vasil food and though he had plenty of ammunition, he says that each soldier was given one uniform and only one pair of boots, and that not all soldiers had enough winter clothes
Strategic railway junction Port Russia the main cities of the Donetsk region, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, were used as a staging ground for attacks. Most of the soldiers stationed here are now Ukraine in morgues. Ukraine The Russian troops, surrounded by their forces, had to retreat in the end. It’s Ukrainians Kharkiv and one of his biggest victories in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine its soldiers say that the Russians left a huge amount of ammunition behind when they retreated.
“Everything is nice and tidy”, – 30 years old soldier Oleksandr he says.
of Russia Ministry of Defence On October 1, he declared that the Russian forces had withdrawn from the port. Russia occupied this city three months ago. A day before that, in a special ceremony held in the Kremlin and broadcast on television President Vladimir Putin of Ukraine signed the baseless documents stating that four partially occupied provinces would belong to Russia from now on. Donetsk is one of these regions.
Russian positions in the city for the first time in early September of Ukraine A neighbor to the north of Donetsk Kharkiv began to weaken during a strong counterattack to the region. More than 3 thousand square kilometers of territory free due to this counterattack resulting in the port Russia supply lines of his troops from the north were cut. After that, Ukrainian forces advanced to the villages around Lyman and began to surround the city on three sides and bombard the exit routes with artillery.
Soldiers as the main cause of victory in interviews with Radio Liberty NATO they showed their weapons.
Oleksandr, who fought in the artillery units, and 25 years old Dima says that NATO artillery weapons provided by their states forced the Russians to flee.
“Their losses were great,” Oleksandr says. Since the Russian troops entering and leaving the port moved in large groups, they were vulnerable to precise artillery strikes. According to the soldier, the losses of the Ukrainian side were very few. The names of the soldiers are not published for security reasons.
Oleksandr says the Russian soldiers were forced to flee after a detachment that came to their aid was routed by Ukrainians near Drobysheve.
However USA, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says that the Russians started fleeing so late that by then almost all routes out of the city had been cut off. Only the road to the village of Torske in the northeast remains open. This road was under the control of Ukrainian artillery.
After that, panic broke out among the Russian units. Among these units were elite units, including the 144th Motorized Rifle Division and the 752nd Motorized Rifle Brigade.
“By the time we took off, they had already fled,” – says Dima, a fighter of the unit that helps the artillery forces with drones to specify the targets.
Leading to the port Forest seven in one of the ways military the convoy of cars is lined up in a broken state. Hundreds of AK-47 bullets carried by the ammunition truck were scattered on the ground. Russians military form and medical they left the equipment here and ran away.
How many Russians in these battles soldier a high-ranking Ukrainian official working in neighboring Luhansk Oblast, though not known to have been lost Serhiy Hayday says that on the day Russia withdrew its forces, there were more than 5,000 soldiers in the city.
The next day, October 2 President Volodymyr Zelensky He said that Ukrainian forces have full control over the port.
ISW’s analysis points to another factor that may have played a role in the Russian defeat: Russian elite units suffered heavy losses after Putin launched the offensive on February 24. As a result, the remaining units could not fight effectively.
Oleksandr and Dima say that the Russian soldiers are not badly equipped. They show the body of a Russian soldier left on the battlefield and say that the armor on it was produced in 2022. Serving at the launch point at the port entrance soldier Vasilsa jokingly calls the ammunition left by the Russians “Russian lend-lease”. USAUkraine’s support program is called the Lend-Lease Defense of Democracy in Ukraine Act of 2022.
the soldier says NATO the combination of weapons from their country and weapons left by the Russians makes a big difference compared to the first days of the Russian offensive.
“Earlier, we had only one package of Grad rockets per day. Five of them would not work, and all three would zigzag and fall somewhere.” Oleksandr says.
But modern Western weapons and training Ukraine military are things that have not been in their unions until now.
In the release post Wasil and IhorThe territorial defense forces of Ukraine, in which he serves, are minimally trained units, most of whose fighters have been at the front since the first days of the war.
Vasil says he and his gang fought near Kyiv for the first two months after the offensive began. After that, the unit, which was in training for a month, has been on the front line again for four months.
According to Vasil, the training and command structure received by the detachment is minimal. When asked whether the Union had the right to make a decision, he shrugged and winked. “There is some decentralization.”
Ihor and Vasil food and though he had plenty of ammunition, he says that each soldier was given one uniform and only one pair of boots, and that not all of the soldiers had enough winter clothes.
Ukraine has been moving forward for weeks now. The soldiers look upbeat and confident. When it comes to Putin’s latest mobilization order, which could bring hundreds of thousands of new Russian soldiers to the front, Vasil says that “new goals” are coming.