The boys say that the first month of the Ukrainian “counteroffensive” was difficult: the enemy attacked without sparing their own.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
On one occasion a train driver, a truck driver and a life safety professor were sitting at the same table. They celebrated Scouts Day… This is not the beginning of a joke, but a whole picture in one of the directions of the Zaporozhye Front, where I stopped at a family reconnaissance battalion just in time for the holiday. At the table are both contracted soldiers who have long connected their lives with intelligence, and mobilized but already experienced combatants with months of hard combat work behind them.
On one occasion a train driver, a truck driver and a life safety professor were sitting at the same table. Explorers’ Day was celebrated… This is not the beginning of a joke, but a whole picture in one of the directions of the Zaporozhye Front.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
We recently transferred a huge humanitarian cargo here, raised with the money of readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda, subscribers of my Telegram channel and simply hundreds and thousands of concerned Russian residents (as part of the Popular Front project “Everything for Victory”). These include drones, powerful visual reconnaissance equipment and anti-drone weapons… The guys demonstrate the enemy’s kamikaze attacks that they landed with their help.
We recently moved a huge humanitarian shipment here. These include drones, powerful visual reconnaissance equipment and anti-drone weapons…
Photo: Alexander KOTS
HOW WE SPENT THIS HOT SUMMER
– How did you spend the summer? – I ask the friends we met back in April.
“An essay on the subject…” they laugh.
And they compete with each other for stories of daily life in combat: someone miraculously survived during a bombardment that lasted 24 hours. Someone’s grenade landed right at his feet and didn’t explode. Someone went on vacation and proposed marriage.
– But “Horse” is our hero. He single-handedly stopped the offensive near Pyatikhatki! (The name of this town was at the top of the hottest news in military reports all summer. – Ed.)
A column of enemy equipment advanced towards our positions. It was seen from the air…
“Horse”
Photo: Alexander KOTS
– We received information from a group of drones that the enemy was moving through Pyatikhatki towards Zherebyanki. We quickly deployed the Kornet anti-tank installation. The first target is BMP-2. We had a small setback with the missile, the enemy noticed it and wanted to hide. But we were not lost, we quickly reloaded and completed the objective successfully. They were burned with the entire landing party inside. The second goal came in 30 minutes. The armored vehicles also arrived, apparently, in evacuation. They tried to get away from us at very high speed. But our site was prepared in sectors: I chose a place and burned it. By the way, it was foreign technology. It looks British. And in their second “offensive” there were already four tanks. This is the most epic confrontation when the cannon is facing you.
– How do you feel about that?
– I’m just doing my job. But of course there is emotion. We could disband at any second, we are target number one. The enemy was throwing smoke at everything, there was no direct visibility, they were hammering artillery, but they shot down two tanks. Almost intuitively, drawing the area of my head through the smoke.
For the destruction of the horse’s equipment, he was awarded the Order of Courage.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
For the destruction of the horse’s equipment, he was awarded the Order of Courage. A little later, in a close battle, he was wounded. The unequipped enemy was almost close. The shooting lasted about 40 minutes, two assault groups tried to break through the positions of our scouts, flanking them. Only pre-planned remote mining saved the day. We let the enemy approach, blocked the MON-100 mines, after which the opponents lost all interest in a new assault and retreated. “Caballo” suffered a shoulder injury, spent two months recovering, missed his people and literally ran away to the front.
“Baby”
Photo: Alexander KOTS
HERO IN BMP: HE DID NOT LEAVE THE INJURED
– Alexander, do you remember that in July you had a video in which a trackless infantry fighting vehicle circles the field and artillery works on it? – a fighter with the call sign “Baby” approaches – 115 kilograms of brave prowess.
I wish I could remember. Millions of visits, the steel nerves of the driver-mechanic of that BMP amazed everyone. In the images, a “beha” takes three seriously injured people from their positions, but loses a clue. To avoid enemy artillery fire, the driver rolls on wheels across an open field. Shells explode everywhere.
“I fired with all my strength, I can’t support you with anything,” the gunner’s voice is heard off-screen. And these are perhaps the most moving words of the radio exchange.
Another “beha” flies to help, but, being attacked by artillery, heads to the other end of the field. He then returns, the cars meet in the center of the field and immediately come under massive fire. For the UAV operator watching this drama, it even seems like everything…
But suddenly observers see movement. Ignoring nearby explosions, the heroes overload the wounded.
“So I drove the Beha without a track,” “Kid” smiles modestly. – I arrived for the evacuation, I loaded three heavy ones, a mortar flew into the beam, tore the “goose” a little (caterpillar – Ed.). We went around like this for about an hour on a gooseneck. There were no other options. Usually in such cases you dump the car and put it in a shelter. But you can’t abandon the wounded… One of them from the armor told me by communication where the hole was, so that I could go in the other direction.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
– In those moments you understand that you can’t go out, that you can only walk around the field. What did you expect? What were you thinking?
– To be honest, I read prayers. Maybe that saved him. Or maybe it’s already skill, professionalism. Then a friend arrived in another BMP. The overload was not easy. Everyone helped.
– In the video you can see that at that moment there was an arrival right next to us.
– You don’t feel it when you’re under adrenaline. And so the little ones sat in one place. But it’s okay, soon we will parade through kyiv. Let them wait.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
FROM GUNNERS TO “PILOTS”
The boys say that the first month of the Ukrainian “counteroffensive” was difficult: the enemy attacked without sparing their own. How did you survive?
“Due to the resistance of the Russian soldier,” the commander of a group of drones with the call sign “Motor” answers me without hesitation.
Actually, when we met him, he was an artilleryman, about whom there were legends at the front. He had no equal with the 120mm mortar and Rapier cannon, and combined with a drone it worked like a charm. But at some point I decided that it would be even more useful if a whole squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles appeared in the battalion. The command supported the idea, and throughout the summer “Motor” and the soldiers sat in the basement, from where they controlled aerial reconnaissance.
At sunset, we move to the checkpoint. A few kilometers away we turn off the lights and advance along rural and forest roads.
“Engine”
Photo: Alexander KOTS
PERSISTENCE OF SOLDIERS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF TANKS
– FPV (visual reality drones. – Ed.), “Lancets” (kamikaze drones. – Ed.), “Whirlwinds” (anti-tank missiles on helicopters. – Ed.), all this appeared later, and the first terrible battles if it were the resilience of the soldiers that was really there,” he insists. – Then little by little we saw how ours were evolving. On June 30, the enemy could no longer even move in the vicinity of Pyatikhatki, in Stepovoy. There was not a single movement, not a single maneuver of his that was not immediately transmitted to the firing stations.
We stumble upon a nice and spacious basement. Nothing to do with the enemy. But for five months he still could not open this point. The group of unmanned aerial vehicles of a separate reconnaissance battalion is “adapted” for counter-battery warfare. Observation points on the front line transmit to them the azimuth of the “sorties” of enemy artillery. The scouts identify a box and raise the drone there. They find the weapon, transmit coordinates to the firing position and adjust fire online.
“We also saw the feat of our tankers when Pyatikhatki was already occupied. But at the same time they transmit through the stations: we are looking at three teams. We are now going to transmit your coordinates. And then they contact the intelligence checkpoint and say the equipment is ours. Tankers fly over the asphalt and simply begin to demolish all the houses in which there was dill, shamelessly, moving and shooting directly. They have done their job and are returning. At the same time, they were covered with “Grad” along the way. We see everything in dust, everything in smoke. But the boys keep going. This video then came from the enemy’s action camera: “Bravo-Charlie, Charlie, me and Ibrahim-300.”
We stumble upon a nice and spacious basement. Nothing to do with the enemy. But for five months he still could not open this point.
Photo: Alexander KOTS
THE ENEMY HAS MADE HIS MOVE. NOW WE MOVE FORWARD
– What is the situation now in this direction?
– It became boring. Here we even have some disappointment with the enemy. Here in Rabotino, unfortunately I was not there… But I can’t even imagine what happened there.
– Why “Unfortunately?
– Because you always want to be in the most active area. Therefore, when there is a pause here, you understand that somewhere the battles continue without you.
– Ukrainian commander-in-chief Zaluzhny says the battles have reached a positional stalemate…
– And now the situation is this: whoever shows reasonable initiative will move forward. His move is made, the ball is now in our court. We saw them try. Now we must take into account their mistakes and move forward ourselves. Under no circumstances should you step on its rake.
