"In that battle my company destroyed nine tanks ", - Interview with Hero of Ukraine tanker Ponomarenko
This spring, following the capture of Izyum city, the Russian troops planned to quickly encircle the Armed Forces in the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Bakhmut areas. To do this, the occupiers had to go to the border in the area of Barvinkovo. However, the Russians failed to implement the plan. During the long fighting, they were stopped by Ukrainian fighters. As a result of one of these battles, the title of Hero of Ukraine was awarded to the company commander of the 3rd Tank Brigade Serhiy Ponomarenko.
As reported by Censor.NЕТ citing Hromadske.
Here is Ponomarenko's story of the event:
"The fighting, which brought me an award, was not something special for me. In every battle, in absolutely every one, you try to work at your maximum, to make everything possible.
Then there was an attempt of our unit together with the 25th brigade (25th separate airborne brigade - ed.) to storm Topolske (a village on the outskirts of Izyum - ed.). According to intelligence, not many enemy forces were concentrated there. But when we entered the battle, we realized that the enemy's forces were far superior. To understand: we had 6 tanks whereas they had 20. That we couldn’t see/ Apart from that – support for artillery. It was impossible to count all this before the battle, everything was disguised.
When we started the battle, we realized that the enemy's forces were overwhelming. We inflicted maximum fire damage, rolled back to reload ammunition. At that moment, the enemy began to actively use artillery of various calibers and did not allow more to enter the firing positions.
During the battle, the car of platoon commander Yaroshchuk was shot down, so it was decided to break into using one car again so as not to endanger others, to inflict fire damage again to suppress enemy firing points. During this trip, a damaged car was picked up and removed from the battlefield.
I don't take credit for individual merits, I only take credit for the company's merits. So in that battle my company took out nine tanks. These were the ones that were visually confirmed to have burned out. But there were also those that were blocked with buildings and hangars. There were also those in which they received radiation, but they did not burn and, perhaps, were evacuated by the enemy in time. It is difficult to name the exact number (of enemy tanks destroyed in combat - ed.) because our drones did not fly and there was no visual or video fixation of them.
Unfortunately, with all the machinery destroyed, it was not possible to suppress the enemy’s fire resistance. It continued and even increased. I understand that perhaps somewhere along this settlement, Topolske, in the forest belts there were some reserves, which then pulled up and joined the fight. Once the tank was destroyed, the other two would come out in its place.
It was quite difficult to count the number of enemy troops. Everything was on fire, in smoke, and it was hard to spot new targets during the battle. We worked by flashes, including flashes indoors. But given the equipment that was destroyed and roughly guided by the time between bursts, you could tell how many guns were working on you. So we can roughly determine that about 20 pieces of enemy equipment were working in that direction. We are only talking about tanks. BMPs, Tigers - you don't count them, because when tanks are working, you just don't notice the smaller caliber.
