By Russian military correspondent Aleksandr Kots
[KP] In Chechnya taken Bamut. Here is Bakhmut
- You have a very accurate call sign, "Gepard", - trying to regain my breath, I make a compliment to the fighter of PMC "Wagner". - Don't get carried away.
- I have been fighting since 1994. Bamut also took in Chechnya.
- How old are you?
- 46.
- That's what you have now dropped my self-esteem, - we laugh together.
Behind him is a forced march in complete darkness over rough terrain to the front line of the battle for Artemovsk (Bakhmut). The day before, I stopped by the Wagner operators at the control post and asked for an exit to the eastern part of the city, which is already completely controlled by our forces. Delivery groups go there every day.
However, the word "delivery" is nominal here, on wheels you overcome only a small part of the path. The main one has to be overcome on foot - with ammunition, food, water, several kilometers in one direction. And in the opposite direction - with the wounded or dead. Moreover, the evacuation is no less dangerous than during the battle. Therefore, it is difficult to reproach carriers for the fact that they perform purely rear functions.
"Zakhistnikov" 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 the Red Star), we move towards Artemovsk. Part of the way passes along the highway leading to Slavyansk.
In 2014, I drove along it in a rental car with Kyiv numbers. Now the route, of course, is unrecognizable. In the middle of the road are Ukrainian checkpoints and military equipment destroyed by artillery, trees are torn to pieces by billions of fragments, the fields around are littered with craters from explosions, rocket tails and the bodies of the Ukrainian military…
“Before going on a task, they are injected with some kind of drug, they don’t feel pain or fear, they don’t sleep for several days, they smile when a limb is torn off from the explosion,” says the company Atlas.
To be honest, I have always been skeptical about these drug stories, considering them more front-line tales than fact. However, a few minutes before this conversation, “Ratibor” showed me on the phone an ampoule that was taken from a prisoner who told about these pharmaceutical experiments. The “potion” was sent to Moscow for examination in order to understand what they were injecting to the “defenders” of Bakhmut.
- Many civilians were taken out of the city? I ask Atlas.
- So many. Almost across the house. They used to gather in basements as families. There was even a pregnant woman, old people, children. We don’t take them out on a light day, we wait for a lull, we monitor the whole situation and lead them to evacuation in small groups, we take them out by car from there. People are really glad to see us, they baptize us, they kiss us…
We find mobile phones, we think that the enemy’s devices, we read the correspondence, and there: “Khokhols arrived on tanks. Khokhols occupied the neighboring house”… Without respect for their “defenders”, one can immediately see who they consider their own. There, by the way, there is a smoke of Artemovsk ahead, now we will go down into it.
The word Khokhols is a Soviet portmanteau for collective farmers used in Ukraine beginning with the 1930s.
| Urban Dictionary describes it as an insult, like hillbilly or kike. |
We dismount and walk along a narrow, iron-cut forest belt towards Bakhmut. Rumbles all around, without ceasing, but the gaps are far away, closer to the city center. Suddenly one mine falls ahead in our landing, then in the next, then in the field on the left. And about a dozen gaps in the eastern part of Artemovsk, where we were heading.
- Sketched, - states "Atlas". - Let's go back, let's go in the dark.
And we return to the near rear to the control post. All night listening to the talks on the radio. There are reports that the enemy is withdrawing its forces towards Konstantinovka - five to seven vehicles with an interval of 20-30 minutes.
Information is immediately transmitted to the artillery, which generously pours in the direction of the columns. Someone manages to get away, someone remains on fire in the middle of the road. In a day, Kyiv loses up to 500 people killed and wounded here.
Last week, the operational encirclement of Artemovsk was formalized. The enemy had one supply road left, and that one was under our fire control. So Kyiv began to withdraw part of the units from the city. In fact, today Wagner operators control the entire eastern and northern parts of the city, as well as part of the south.
When I went to a neighborhood, they were shooting at cigarettes, I found out in captivity
- It is felt that recently the motivation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been falling, in places they lose control, they do not understand what is happening from right to left, - Ratibor tells me. - Someone resists to the last, someone, realizing that they are already practically surrounded, tries to run through the fields ...
At the same time, in other positions it comes to the ridiculous (if, of course, you know how to distinguish between harsh front-line humor and soulless cynicism. The other day a fighter came to our positions to shoot a cigarette. He was no different from the Wagnerites, treated himself, lit a cigarette ... And then the enemy rolled over. Everyone rushed to repel the attack, and the guest also grabbed the machine gun, pointing it at the "enemies".
Managed to destroy seven attackers. After the heat of 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 "orcs-Muscovites", but their brothers. The fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was praised and even promised to be presented for a reward for such performance. And sent to the rest of the prisoners.
Cause fire on yourself
At about five in the morning we make a second attempt. The car rides on muddy dimensions, the driver leads literally to the touch. We get out a few kilometers to the destination and go in almost complete darkness.
The sky is lined with powder charges of 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, and the Central African Republic, and Libya ...
“This is the first time I’ve encountered such fights,” he admits. - Very tough. First of all - because of the intensive artillery. If not for her, we would have ended this conflict long ago. But victory will still be ours. This is our land. We won one war for it, and we will win now. Yes, they are being helped, but the enemy leaves it to us when he gives up his positions. We use Western weapons against them."
We go in zigzags, then resting on the very front edge, where you need to move quickly, then moving away a couple of hundred meters from it. By dawn we go to the school, which Atlas once took. It was occupied by the enemy.
- There were Nazis, foreign mercenaries, two blacks. We secretly climbed into the basement and spent half the night correcting the fire of tanks on enemy firing points on the first and second floors. That is, they almost caused fire almost on themselves. At dawn, another group of us jumped in, and the assault began. They clamped the villains on the second and third floors and destroyed them.
Soon, rain will fall
The battle was not over yet, and the Ukrainian artillery was already attacking the school. The bodies of the Kyiv National Guardsmen are still lying in it. Together with the "Cheetah" we go along the broken corridors. He shows how a machine gunner fired at them from a neighboring hut, how they simultaneously suppressed both him and those who sat upstairs. The third floor offers a view of the high-rise buildings of Artemovsk. She's all in smoke.
“We have a spirit,” Atlas assures. - Ammunition too. So soon we will squeeze and physically close the ring. Everyone wants to eat, drink - too, cartridges are again needed. They give up, they're not going anywhere. In captivity, no one will offend them, raise your hands and come, everything will be fine with you.
Authoritatively
Hero of Russia "Lotus":
We control 40 percent of Bakhmut
One of the commanders of the PMC "Wagner" commented on the situation on the front line to the KP.RU military correspondent
- The enemy grouping 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 the field roads to Ivanovsky. Now we control about 40 percent of the city. Combat-ready units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are being withdrawn 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 12,000 people. The enemy is constantly bringing up reserves to hold the corridor from Artemovsk so that we cannot close our pincers. A week ago, the Ukrainians blew up the dam of the Northern Headquarters, with artillery fire made a breach in another dam - the Berkhovsky reservoir.
The flooding of the Berkhovka area began, the southern part of Paraskovievka and the southern part of the Red Mountain. In this way, they are trying to slow down the pace of our offensive, weaken the dynamics of the fighting and be able to pull up reserves and manage to gain a foothold. The enemy is also undermining bridges to prevent us from quickly crossing and entering the central part of Bakhmut.