______________________________
We stand at the entrance of a typical railway-crossing booth. Behind us, we hear the snapping and the see the flickering flashes of DSLR cameras, but none of the reporters comes forward. Yes, in the end, they don’t want to look at it. The bottom panel of a sickly-looking once-blue door, miraculously still hanging on the twisted outer doorframe, blocks the entrance. The glass in the window frames is also long-gone. Shattered wall fragments on chipped broken floorboards decorate the booth … yes, a brick medley covering all of this bedlam like a shroud. However, it can’t hide the riveting view… a huge dried burgundy-brown puddle impregnating the brick with war’s detritus, its mangled screed litters the floor, and whitewashed strips of tiles hang from the ceiling. No, it isn’t paint… it’s the blood of a faceless Ukrainian kid, mowed down in this civil war. We don’t know if this was his first fight, but for sure, it was his last one. It was a hopeless and meaningless fight… a victim that they brought to sacrifice on the vain altar of this insane war.
******
In the last days of the Debaltsevo pocket, the lid slammed shut. Our forces conduct continuous reconnaissance, our artillery methodically works over the area… it doesn’t allow the Ukrainian army, the terror battalion militants, and the other junta forces to raise their heads, it demoralises the enemy. Our infiltrators constantly penetrate deep into the Ukrainian defence lines. There are heavy casualties on both sides. The Avgust Mechanised Battalion from the LNR holds the frontal sector near the Debaltsevo railway depot. Earlier, they distinguished themselves in the fighting near Sanzharovkoy. A 30-year-old soldier named Yakov, with the call-sign “The Kid” (“Малыш”), a former irrigation expert, now commander of one of the units, is preparing plans for the next operation. His troops cover an area where we expect a counterattack from the “Ukropov*” in the near future. According to intelligence reports, not far away, near the Second Industrial Site, they’ve brought up an armoured task group, which will try to break out of the encirclement. In response to this, the higher command decided to form a scratch tank group, to cover units of 4 Mechanised Brigade in the direction of the expected tank assault and to organise ambush positions on possible retreat routes of Ukrainian forces that managed to escape our “hedgehog”.
- Ukropov: word for pro-junta militants, it comes from the Russian word for “robber, thief, bandit”
In the railway depot, the area’s just a heap of metal and concrete, nearby, there’s a tunnel and, most importantly, a bomb shelter filled with civilians just a hundred metres from the potential breakout point of the expected Ukrainian attack. The Kid and his zamkombat* “Petrovich” worked together to solve the complex tactical problem… formerly, Petrovich was criminal investigator Major Viktor Zotov. Everybody waited for nightfall. We used a tractor to drag a damaged T-72 to a defensive position on a rise; it did have intact tracks and an undamaged hull. In the rear, behind a concrete wall in the depot, we had three hidden T-64s with full ordnance loads with registered fields of fire. Now, we could only wait.
- Zamkombat: Deputy Battalion Commander, ergo, “Kombat“ is Battalion Commander, not “combat“ in English, it’s a false cognate!
******
The enemy armoured group appeared at dawn… six tanks, MICVs and APCs, and trucks with infantry in columns marched straight into an ambush. They didn’t watch their front nor did they cover their flanks and rear. The first rank rose and immediately boldly countered and blocked the tanks, the rest of the “boxes” swept the field. Destroying the trucks was easier… their drivers rushed into the infantry, sowing confusion. One of the Ukrainian tanks, zigzagging at high-speed through gloopy mud, miraculously escaped from the cauldron, but after driving into the industrial zone, its engine died and fell silent. We couldn’t move our three tanks in ambush… there was still a high probability of another enemy armoured attack. We didn’t have Infantry to cover the tanks. However, there was a scout group led by their bold zamkovzvoda* Seryoga, a 30-year-old miner from Krasnodon, with Shmels (“Bumblebees”) (RPO Shmel rocket launchers). The probing attack was over. Seryoga’s group quickly found a hidden tank literally 30 metres across the street… they fired Shmels with thermobaric warheads at the turret. They hit the “64” in ambush even though it was firing at them. They made two direct hits, the ammunition cooked off; the blast demolished the turret, and turned the tank-crew into lumps of burning fat.
- Zamkovzvoda: Assistant Platoon Commander
******
The surviving enemy infantry slowly and methodically withdrew through the industrial zone. One of their “warriors” hid in the railway-crossing booth. There was nowhere to run, and no reason to. We tried to speak to him, we tried to explain that no one wants blood… it really doesn’t solve anything. In response, the crazed militant cursed at us and threatened all of us with abusive talk. It was 20 metres from our guys to the booth. When we tried to talk with him again, after he cursed at us again, he threw a grenade at us. After it exploded, we threw three at him. We pieced together the fragments of his passport… it said that the dead guy was born in Dnepropetrovsk Oblast. There were no other documents; therefore, it wasn’t possible to determine which unit he was from or from what service. We pulled the body out of the booth, put it right on the crossing, covered it with a blanket, and the burial party soon took it away. Just a few days later, together with prisoners, we handed over the “200th” to the Ukrainian side.
6 April 2015
LITs Lugansk Information Centre
http://lug-info.com/news/one/debaltsevskii-kotel-naprasnye-zhertvy-2468
Editor:
This is one of the best-written pieces that I’ve seen. It’s far superior to anything on Fort Russ, Colonel Cassad, or Stratfor. You can see the fanaticism of some of the junta militants. Today, the junta forces have fanatics, western mercs, and disaffected conscripts. That’s a military disaster just waiting to happen. Note well the military incompetence of the junta forces. I can see why Russia isn’t getting involved… it doesn’t have to. The Galician Uniate nationalists will slit their throats of their own accord. “Slava Ukraina! Slava Geroyam!” Then, the patriots will mow them down… reluctantly, but definitely.
The Ukraine ain’t dead yet… but it soon shall be… the sooner the better.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Debaltsevo “Pocket”: Needlessly Sacrificed
Tags: civil unrest, DNR, Donetsk People's Republic, LNR, Lugansk People's Republic, Novorossiya, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Ukrainian Civil War, war and conflict
______________________________
We stand at the entrance of a typical railway-crossing booth. Behind us, we hear the snapping and the see the flickering flashes of DSLR cameras, but none of the reporters comes forward. Yes, in the end, they don’t want to look at it. The bottom panel of a sickly-looking once-blue door, miraculously still hanging on the twisted outer doorframe, blocks the entrance. The glass in the window frames is also long-gone. Shattered wall fragments on chipped broken floorboards decorate the booth … yes, a brick medley covering all of this bedlam like a shroud. However, it can’t hide the riveting view… a huge dried burgundy-brown puddle impregnating the brick with war’s detritus, its mangled screed litters the floor, and whitewashed strips of tiles hang from the ceiling. No, it isn’t paint… it’s the blood of a faceless Ukrainian kid, mowed down in this civil war. We don’t know if this was his first fight, but for sure, it was his last one. It was a hopeless and meaningless fight… a victim that they brought to sacrifice on the vain altar of this insane war.
******
In the last days of the Debaltsevo pocket, the lid slammed shut. Our forces conduct continuous reconnaissance, our artillery methodically works over the area… it doesn’t allow the Ukrainian army, the terror battalion militants, and the other junta forces to raise their heads, it demoralises the enemy. Our infiltrators constantly penetrate deep into the Ukrainian defence lines. There are heavy casualties on both sides. The Avgust Mechanised Battalion from the LNR holds the frontal sector near the Debaltsevo railway depot. Earlier, they distinguished themselves in the fighting near Sanzharovkoy. A 30-year-old soldier named Yakov, with the call-sign “The Kid” (“Малыш”), a former irrigation expert, now commander of one of the units, is preparing plans for the next operation. His troops cover an area where we expect a counterattack from the “Ukropov*” in the near future. According to intelligence reports, not far away, near the Second Industrial Site, they’ve brought up an armoured task group, which will try to break out of the encirclement. In response to this, the higher command decided to form a scratch tank group, to cover units of 4 Mechanised Brigade in the direction of the expected tank assault and to organise ambush positions on possible retreat routes of Ukrainian forces that managed to escape our “hedgehog”.
In the railway depot, the area’s just a heap of metal and concrete, nearby, there’s a tunnel and, most importantly, a bomb shelter filled with civilians just a hundred metres from the potential breakout point of the expected Ukrainian attack. The Kid and his zamkombat* “Petrovich” worked together to solve the complex tactical problem… formerly, Petrovich was criminal investigator Major Viktor Zotov. Everybody waited for nightfall. We used a tractor to drag a damaged T-72 to a defensive position on a rise; it did have intact tracks and an undamaged hull. In the rear, behind a concrete wall in the depot, we had three hidden T-64s with full ordnance loads with registered fields of fire. Now, we could only wait.
******
The enemy armoured group appeared at dawn… six tanks, MICVs and APCs, and trucks with infantry in columns marched straight into an ambush. They didn’t watch their front nor did they cover their flanks and rear. The first rank rose and immediately boldly countered and blocked the tanks, the rest of the “boxes” swept the field. Destroying the trucks was easier… their drivers rushed into the infantry, sowing confusion. One of the Ukrainian tanks, zigzagging at high-speed through gloopy mud, miraculously escaped from the cauldron, but after driving into the industrial zone, its engine died and fell silent. We couldn’t move our three tanks in ambush… there was still a high probability of another enemy armoured attack. We didn’t have Infantry to cover the tanks. However, there was a scout group led by their bold zamkovzvoda* Seryoga, a 30-year-old miner from Krasnodon, with Shmels (“Bumblebees”) (RPO Shmel rocket launchers). The probing attack was over. Seryoga’s group quickly found a hidden tank literally 30 metres across the street… they fired Shmels with thermobaric warheads at the turret. They hit the “64” in ambush even though it was firing at them. They made two direct hits, the ammunition cooked off; the blast demolished the turret, and turned the tank-crew into lumps of burning fat.
******
The surviving enemy infantry slowly and methodically withdrew through the industrial zone. One of their “warriors” hid in the railway-crossing booth. There was nowhere to run, and no reason to. We tried to speak to him, we tried to explain that no one wants blood… it really doesn’t solve anything. In response, the crazed militant cursed at us and threatened all of us with abusive talk. It was 20 metres from our guys to the booth. When we tried to talk with him again, after he cursed at us again, he threw a grenade at us. After it exploded, we threw three at him. We pieced together the fragments of his passport… it said that the dead guy was born in Dnepropetrovsk Oblast. There were no other documents; therefore, it wasn’t possible to determine which unit he was from or from what service. We pulled the body out of the booth, put it right on the crossing, covered it with a blanket, and the burial party soon took it away. Just a few days later, together with prisoners, we handed over the “200th” to the Ukrainian side.
6 April 2015
LITs Lugansk Information Centre
http://lug-info.com/news/one/debaltsevskii-kotel-naprasnye-zhertvy-2468
Editor:
This is one of the best-written pieces that I’ve seen. It’s far superior to anything on Fort Russ, Colonel Cassad, or Stratfor. You can see the fanaticism of some of the junta militants. Today, the junta forces have fanatics, western mercs, and disaffected conscripts. That’s a military disaster just waiting to happen. Note well the military incompetence of the junta forces. I can see why Russia isn’t getting involved… it doesn’t have to. The Galician Uniate nationalists will slit their throats of their own accord. “Slava Ukraina! Slava Geroyam!” Then, the patriots will mow them down… reluctantly, but definitely.
The Ukraine ain’t dead yet… but it soon shall be… the sooner the better.
BMD