"What f#ck are you watching – F#ck ’em up!": 12 years ago near Sloviansk, Ukrainian troops first fought back against enemy
Exactly 12 years ago, on April 13, 2014, the first shots were fired near Sloviansk — Russia launched its undeclared war against Ukraine. On that day, Ukrainian defenders repelled a Russian sabotage group led by FSB colonel Igor Girkin.
Censor.NET reports.
Chronicle of the battle
On April 13, 2014, the Crimea unit of Russia’s FSB, commanded by FSB colonel Igor Girkin, suddenly attacked a meeting point of SBU leaders near Sloviansk, next to which paratroopers of Senior Lieutenant Vadym Sukharevskyi, commander of a company of the 80th Airmobile Brigade, were stationed in armored personnel carriers.
SSU Captain Hennadii Bilichenko was killed on the spot by Russian gunfire, and two other officers were wounded.
At the time of the enemy attack, the paratroopers’ machine guns were unloaded: the brigade commander, Colonel Kopachynskyi, had ordered the day before that the weapons be unloaded, the magazines removed, and had forbidden opening fire under any circumstances without his command.
And when the battle began, Brigade Commander Kopachynskyi gave no orders at all.
At that moment, Senior Lieutenant Vadym Sukharevskyi took responsibility. Realizing that every second of delay could cost his comrades their lives, he disobeyed the brigade commander’s order and uttered the phrase that became historic: "What the f#ck are you looking at? F#ck 'em up!"
The order was carried out by BTR gunner Soldier Mykola Lavrenchuk. He was the first to load the unloaded machine gun and the first AFU serviceman to open fire on the enemy.
"When the battle started, I was at my position in BTR-80 No. 137. Under Colonel Kopachynskyi’s order, my machine gun was unloaded, and I could not open fire immediately. Sukharevskyi gave the order, shouting over the radio, so I started loading very quickly; everything was prepared, and I was trying to do it faster. I could see that we were being fired on from the "greenery" nearby. So I fired a warning shot, and then several aimed bursts. The enemy immediately stopped shooting, and the battle ended quickly. After that, we returned to base. People from different units came up to us, looked, asked whether we had really come under fire, looked at the bullet marks, and everyone was surprised — no one had expected it," Mykola Lavrenchuk recalled.
The accurate fire of the paratroopers forced the Russian saboteurs to retreat with losses — the enemy lost two mercenaries killed and three wounded.
As a result of the attack, then acting president Oleksandr Turchynov, announced the launch of the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas later that same day and ordered all combat-ready Defense Forces units to be concentrated there.
That was how the war for Ukraine’s independence began.
- Read more about how Ukrainian troops first opened fire on the enemy in Yurii Butusov’s reports: "On April 13, 2014, near Sloviansk, Ukrainian troops opened fire on the enemy for the first time in the war" and "See that? — F#ck 'em up!": The story of the AFU’s first shot at mercenaries near Sloviansk.
What happened to the heroes afterward
National hero Mykola Lavrenchuk fought in the ranks of the 80th Brigade from the first days of the 2022 invasion, suffered severe wounds to his arm and leg, and, without completing rehabilitation, returned to the Defense Forces.
Senior Lieutenant Vadym Sukharevskyi, for his part, has over these 12 years risen to the rank of colonel and is now deputy commander of Operational Command East.
