The work of artillerymen of the “Grozny division”, about which there are legends on the Svatovsky line.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
Winter in the LPR still resists with sudden flurries of snow, but nature takes its toll. The ground gradually begins to loosen, military engineers repair blurry crossroads near destroyed bridges, the service car suddenly begins to show a slight vibration.
At first, you attribute it to a damaged road, along which dozens of multi-ton tracked machines pass daily. But gradually, at high speed, the vibration reaches such an amplitude that closed doors begin to slam, and the kidneys ache. Having stood in line for a tire fitting, he finds a petrified mass on the discs that is not knocked down by a powerful jet of water in the sink. It can only be scraped with an iron brush, and then rebalance the wheels. Mulyaka, as they say here, is a mixture of clay and black earth, which plays the role of anti-tank barriers no worse than the concrete cones of the stepped defense lines along the entire front. A couple more weeks and in the Western press it will again be possible to find forecasts about the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This time, as soon as the earth dries up. Russian troops are guided by the weather to the extent that. They can, for example, go in under the cover of the fog and beat another enemy defensive midfielder, as happened this week. Paratroopers near Kremennaya occupied enemy positions, destroying the defenders. Here, out of nowhere, the branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine came, to see the rotation. They put all but one. But unfortunately, he was just a signalman and he started squealing in the air.
The Ukrainian command in this direction was upset and decided to go on the offensive with two company tactical groups along the flanks and two more in front. Five hours of uninterrupted overturns, which were repelled by paratroopers and motorized riflemen. As a result, all our artillery, which was “free”, with all its proletarian fury, fell on the offensive formations of the enemy. Anything that can be flown. The advance was frustrated. The Ukrainian Armed Forces left dozens of bodies in the fields.
Among those who inflicted a defeat by fire that day was the “Grozny division”, which is legendary on the Svatovsky line. And it’s not even that the gunners are extremely accurate and efficient. They are commanded by a real millionaire who changed his house in Rublyovka to a concrete basement near Kremennaya, in which he equipped a command post. He has under his command – “Hyacinth” guns, D-30 howitzers, “Grady” and mortars.
The artillerymen of the “Grozny Division” are shelling the enemy positions.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
54-year-old Yuri Mikhailovich is a successful businessman. But behind him is the Suvorov School, then a military university, service in the Soviet, and then in the Russian army in gallant years, the dissolution of the unit, dismissal, business from scratch …
– And when everything did not work out very well for us at the first stage of the SVO, I just thought that some of my knowledge and skills that were acquired for the service would be useful here. After all, this is my homeland and I took an oath. So he is obligated to protect her, as pathetic as it sounds. In addition, I, like Vladimir Semenovich, “did not have time to look back, and sons go to battle.” The son graduated from school, he is already here somewhere, almost at the forefront.
Was it difficult to get out of your comfort zone?
– No. Because he was forced to become a businessman. All my life I wanted to be an officer. That’s why, when she changed his civilian uniform for a military one, she found herself in the middle of it. I like military service.
Businessman Yury (right) changed his house in Rublyovka to a concrete basement near Kremennaya.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
– Many people here like your service. The division here is praised by many. Why such an image?
– At the expense of people and discipline, which, unfortunately, was sometimes lacking. I’m sure everything else, including technology, is secondary. And, of course, constant training, training, even if there are no hostilities. But there is also a specificity. My division is hitting targets because we have a little more, for example our own UAV. We immediately became three heads taller than the others. Just because we have a crew that can pick up, observe targets and hit them day and night without dropping ammunition in an open field. That is a great saving. In addition, we have precision guided munitions. Here, below, there is not enough unmanned equipment that can illuminate the target with a laser. In the current conflict, technology decides the outcome of the battle. If we had a sufficient number of UAVs, these high-precision munitions that would hit a target with one shot, we would already be on the border with Poland. And so while we keep some distance from this. Well, it’s definitely a matter of time.
Yuri Mikhailovich is modestly silent, but I know that he spent millions of his own funds to equip the division with everything necessary. From an expensive drone that can hover over the enemy, not paying attention to electronic warfare, to all-wheel drive vehicles and communications equipment. Actually, thanks to these purchases, the unit has the opportunity to work against the enemy around the clock.
Together we set out for the artillery positions. A person who can afford an SUV in any price range rides a modest UAZ. Yuri Mikhailovich reviews the crew of the Hyacinth, which fires at the enemy. He speaks for the garbage that is scattered near the bench – this is an unmasking factor.
At the disposal of the local artillerymen are the Hyacinth cannons, howitzers D-30, Grada and mortars.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
– And how did your business colleagues react to your departure to NVO? I ask the officer.
– Yes, in different ways. But I know for sure that no one is judging. Someone may not fully understand, but everyone respects my choice. Many help financially. I write, for example, to one: “Let’s cut costs in half.” And he takes and pays for everything. Although, of course, my business goes down a bit without me. But Potemkin Grigory Alekseevich once said: “Money is meaningless, people are everything.”
– Are there people on the other side with whom you studied and served?
– Of course. What’s more, until February 24, 2022, we even talked from time to time. Someone was at my house, someone knows my mother, wife. I ask them: “Well, what is it like? Once we played war games together, we knew the Nazis were the enemy. And now you are in the same range as them. We, they say, will figure it out ourselves, you just don’t interfere with us, we have no complaints against you, this is all politics. It is seen that in these 9 years they have changed a lot. Now, of course, all ties have been severed.
– Have our people changed in the last year?
– When I came, the fighters came here for a short period of time. They do not have time to understand what the meaning of military affairs is, and they already have to resign. And now the mobilized have come, and they understand that they are here before a kind of Rubicon. And the main change is precisely that they learn, improve and understand that victory in general depends on their work. These are no longer temporary workers, but those with whom we will go to the bitter end.
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