Fierce fighting continues in Artemovsk.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
IN CHECHNYA TAKEN BAMUT. HERE – BAKHMUT
– You have a very precise call sign, Gepard, – trying to catch my breath, I compliment the Wagner PMC fighter. – Do not be put off.
– I have been fighting since 1994. Bamut also took over Chechnya.
– How old are you?
– 46.
– Here you have lowered my self-esteem now, – we laugh together.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
Behind him is a forced march in complete darkness over broken terrain towards the front line of the Artemovsk (Bakhmut) battle. The day before I stopped with the “musicians” at the checkpoint and asked for an exit to the eastern part of the city, which is already fully controlled by our forces. Delivery groups go there every day. However, the word “delivery” here is nominal, on wheels you overcome only a small part of the way. The main one must be overcome on foot: with ammunition, food, water, several kilometers in one direction. And in the opposite direction – with the wounded or killed. In addition, the evacuation is no less dangerous than during the battle. Therefore, it is difficult to reproach the luggage racks for the fact that they perform purely rear functions.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
“ZAHISTNIKOV” BEFORE THE FIGHT SHUT UP
Together with the guys from the detachment of the legendary commander “Ratibor” (Hero of Russia, holder of the orders of Courage and Red Star), we headed towards Artemovsk. Part of the way goes along the road leading to Slavyansk. In 2014, I drove it in a rented car with numbers from kyiv. Now the route, of course, is unrecognizable. In the middle of the road: Ukrainian checkpoints and military equipment destroyed by artillery, trees shattered by billions of fragments, the surrounding fields are dotted with craters from explosions, tails of rockets and bodies of Ukrainian soldiers…
“Before going to a task, they are injected with some kind of drug, they do not feel pain or fear, they do not sleep for several days, they smile when a limb is torn off by the explosion,” the company says. Atlas.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
To be honest, I’ve always been skeptical of these drug stories, considering them more front-line stories than actual facts. However, a few minutes before this conversation, “Ratibor” showed me on the phone a vial that was taken from a prisoner who told me about these pharmaceutical experiments. The “potion” was sent to Moscow for examination in order to understand what the “defenders” of Bakhmut were being injected with.
– Many civilians were taken out of the city? I ask Atlas.
– So many. Almost on the other side of the house. They used to meet in basements as families. There was even a pregnant woman, old people, children. We do not take them out by light, we wait for a moment of calm, we monitor the whole situation and take them to the evacuation in small groups, we take them out by car from there. People are very happy to see us, baptize us, kiss us… We find mobile phones, we think that the devices of the enemy, we read the correspondence, and there: “Khokhols arrived in tanks. The khokhols occupied the neighboring house”… Without respect for their “defenders”, one can immediately see those who they consider their own. There, by the way, Artemovsk is smoky, now we will go down.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
RETIREMENT, RUNNING IN THE FIELD
We dismounted and walked along a narrow iron-cut forest belt towards Bakhmut. Rumors everywhere, without ceasing, but the holes are far away, closer to the center of the city. Suddenly a mine falls ahead on our landing, then the next, then the field to the left. And about a dozen gaps in the eastern part of Artemovsk, where we were heading.
– Outlined, – claims “Atlas”. – Let’s go back, let’s go into the dark.
And we return to the rear near the checkpoint. All night listening to talks on the radio. There are reports that the enemy is withdrawing its forces towards Konstantinovka – 5-7 vehicles with an interval of 20-30 minutes. The information is immediately transmitted to the artillery, which pours generously in the direction of the columns. Someone manages to escape, someone is left on fire in the middle of the road. In one day, kyiv loses up to 500 people killed and wounded here.
Last week the operational siege of Artemovsk was formalized. The enemy had one supply path left, and that was under our fire control. Then kyiv began to withdraw part of the units from the city. In fact, today the “musicians” control the entire east and north of the city, as well as part of the south.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
I WENT TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD TO THROW A CIGARETTE… I WAS CAPTIVATED
– It is felt that recently the motivation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been falling, in some places they lose control, they do not understand what is happening from right to left, – Ratibor tells me. – Someone resists to the end, someone, realizing that they are already practically surrounded, tries to run across the fields…
At the same time, in other positions it leads to ridicule (yes, of course, you know how to distinguish between hard-hitting humor and heartless cynicism. The other day a fighter came to our positions to throw a cigarette. He was no different from the Wagnerians, he treated himself, lit a cigarette … And then the enemy turned around. Everyone ran to repel the attack, and the guest also grabbed the machine gun, aiming it at the “enemies”. He managed to destroy seven attackers After the din from the battle, they sat down to fill the magazines with cartridges, and then our hero suddenly realized that he had entered the wrong trench. And he repulsed the attack not “orc-Muscovites”, but his brothers. Armed Forces of Ukraine was praised and even promised to be presented as a reward for such a performance and sent to the rest of the prisoners.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
START FIRE IN YOURSELF
At about five in the morning we make a second attempt. The car rides on muddy dimensions, the driver drives literally by touch. We left a few kilometers to the destination and entered almost total darkness. The sky is covered with powder charges from mines and tracers, in the direction of Artemovsk, flashes are lit every few seconds, followed by rolling explosions. Persistent bursts of heavy machine guns are heard. Ahead is a fighter with the call sign “Cheetah”. Behind him are Chechnya, the Central African Republic and Libya…
“This is the first time I have come across such fights,” he admits. – Very rude. First of all, due to intensive artillery. If it wasn’t for her, we would have ended this conflict a long time ago. But victory will remain ours. This is our land. We won a war for it, and we will win it now. Yes, they are being helped, but the enemy leaves it to us when he leaves his position. We use western weapons against them.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
We go zigzag, then we lean on the front edge, where he should move quickly, and then we move a few hundred meters away from him. At dawn we go to the school, which Atlas once took. He was occupied by the enemy.
– There were Nazis, foreign mercenaries, two blacks. We secretly climbed into the basement and spent half the night correcting tank fire at enemy firing points on the first and second floors. I mean, they almost set themselves on fire. At dawn, another group of us jumped out and the assault began. They pinned the villains on the second and third floors and destroyed them.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
SOON WE WILL GO DOWN
The battle was not over yet and the Ukrainian artillery was already attacking the school. The bodies of members of the kyiv National Guard still lie in it. Together with the “Cheetah” we go through the broken corridors. It shows how a machine gunner fired at them from a neighboring hut, how they simultaneously suppressed both him and those sitting above. The third floor offers a view of the high-rise buildings of Artemovsk. She’s all up in smoke.
“We have a spirit,” Atlas says. – Ammunition too. So soon we will tighten and physically close the arena. Everyone wants to eat, drink, cartridges are also needed again. They give up, they’re not going anywhere. In captivity, no one will offend you, raise your hands and come, everything will be fine for you.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
WITH AUTHORITY
Hero of Russia “Lotus”:
We control 40 percent of Bakhmut
One of the commanders of PMC “Wagner” commented on the situation on the front line to the military commissar of KP.RU.
– The enemy group is in operational encirclement, all roads are under fire control, but not under physical control. It remains to take the settlement of Khromovo, through which the main supply line passes, and cut off the field roads to Ivanovsky. Now we control about 40 percent of the city. Combat-ready units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are withdrawing to occupy the second line of defense along the Konstantinovka-Kramatorsk-Slavyansk line. Terodefense units and, according to our information, the Georgian Legion remain in Bakhmut. The total number is up to 12 thousand people. The enemy constantly brings up reserves to hold the Artemovsk corridor so that we cannot close our pincers. A week ago, the Ukrainians blew up the Northern Headquarters dam and with artillery fire breached another dam – the Berkhovsky Reservoir. Flooding of the Berkhovka region, the southern part of Paraskovievka and the southern part of Krasnaya Gora began. In this way, they try to slow down the pace of our offensive, weaken the dynamics of the combats and be able to gather reserves and gain a foothold. The enemy is also undermining the bridges to prevent us from quickly crossing and entering the central part of Bakhmut.
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