Yurii Kapustiak, commander of 1st Separate Assault Battalion of 67th Brigade: "When we had to leave encirclement through Russian tank and IFV, I simply told soldiers: either we will die or we will withdraw from and continue fighting for Ukraine."
The unit formed by the legendary Hero of Ukraine, People’s Hero of Ukraine Dmytro Kotsiubailo, a friend of DaVinci, after a short recovery, is back in one of the hottest spots of the frontline - near Kupiansk.
Photo: Roman Nikolaiev
Kapusta (Cabbage - ed. note) - Yurii is better known by this call sign in the war - was introduced to DaVinci by officer Valerii Hudz. He had been working with the volunteer unit commander since he was the deputy commander of the 72nd Brigade. In 2017, the unit's soldiers, together with a volunteer, fought back the enemy from long-suffering Avdiivka, which resulted in less shelling and fewer attacks. And in 2018, after being appointed commander of the 24th Brigade, Valerii Fedorovych engaged DaVinci in cooperation near Zaitseve.
"Valerii Fedorovych gave me a location to drive up to," Yurii said in our previous interview. - It was a halt. That's where I first saw DaVinci. The brigadier told me: let's work together. That's how we started communicating."
In Avdiivka, DaVinci was the first to adjust a tank's fire while sitting on its armor. Yurii repeated this trick. And near Maiorsk, two tanks with soldiers on the armor were driving in this way. Kapusta (Cabbage - ed. note) and DaVinci became true brothers and close friends. And the volunteer spirit that has always been felt in the officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine found its way out and interacted with the same powerful force.
In the summer, a few months after DaVinci's death, Kapusta (Cabbage - ed. note) told Censor.NET why he became a deputy in his friend's unit, what it was like, what battles he and Dmytro took part in, and about the moment when the commander of the battalion was seriously wounded. It was Yurii who didn't let DaVinci fall, picked him up and carried him away as quickly as possible to save him...
In general, it is easier for Yurii to talk about others. Not about himself. About how someone proved themselves in different situations, how they acted in battles. But what Yurii Kapustiak did at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, how he rescued hundreds (!) of his subordinates from the encirclement, personally breaking through, is told by his comrades who witnessed those events. And Ukrainians should also know these facts. It was not for nothing that Yurii Kapustiak was chosen as DaVinci's deputy, because the volunteer knew well what his comrade was capable of. And that he would not betray. He is a worthy successor to his friend.
This is a conversation with two officers, Yurii Kapustiak and Oleh Lototskyi, call sign Pharaoh. At the time, he was the chief of staff of the 1st Mechanised Battalion of the 24th Brigade, and later DaVinci offered him the position in his battalion.
"IN MARCH 2022, YURII WAS APPOINTED AS THE COMMANDANT OF THE LYMAN"
-"For ten months in 2021, we stood near Popasna," says Oleh. "The 10th Mountain Assault Brigade was supposed to replace us. They had already come for a command reconnaissance. The last years of rotation at the front were six months long. And we were delayed. We could already feel in the air that there would be a rotation. But at the same time, high-ranking officials came and asked about the defence line. It was surprising because they hadn't been interested for years, and then they even visited the defence line. Around February 17, artillery suddenly started firing at us. Along the entire frontline. It hadn't happened for a long time. Grads, 120mm mortars, 152mm caliber... Everything started working. The assaults started after the 24th.
-Since mid-February, Yurii has been at the brigade's permanent base in Yavoriv. His contract was about to expire. He was planning to finish his service in the army. But on the eve of the full-scale offensive, hearing that the shelling had intensified, feeling that something was about to happen, he formed a group of 15 people in three days. The brigade was in a big rumpus, mobilization. Looking at the people who did not understand what to do, he concluded that they would be mobilized for a very long time. And it would take a long time to bring these people to us. So he quickly assembled a group to go to the east and found transportation.
-"On the 24th we left Yavoriv at night," Yurii adds.
- It was the first reinforcement of the brigade," Oleh continues. - "They were the ones who agreed to go to war right away.
-"There were five people from my village," says Yurii. - "Many of them fought in 14-15 years. Some were in Aidar, some in the 24th Brigade. I looked at who was joining the brigade from the former mobilized and recruited experienced fighters to join him.
-When they came to us, we were already fighting normal battles. The enemy from Zolote-5 stormed Zolote-4 in the direction where the entry-exit control point, where the Southern mine was located...
There were active attacks on the 1st company. They wanted to bypass us in a field where there was a road. Zolote itself is located at a height. In the Luhansk region, it is a high altitude. There are places where you can see all the settlements. This was one of them. Pervomaisk was in front of us. We could see it completely. It was a strategic height. It was bypassed from the side of Popasna. This happened after Kapusta and I were assigned to the newly created 115th Brigade, which entered Sievierodonetsk. The enemy came to Novotoshkivka on the one hand, and from there, to the right along the river, to Toshkivka and to Loskutivka. On the left side, they moved from Popasna to Komyshuvakha and higher. Zolote itself was unsuccessfully assaulted all the time. We immediately destroyed the vehicles that broke through.
We were amazed at how many Russians were dying. We saw on video how those who were coming at us were being killed and destroyed. Interceptions played a big role - we heard how many refuseniks they had, people refused. They were taken to some mine, and they said they would not attack. They were mobilized in the so-called LPR-DPR. And opposite us were the "Cossacks". - The 15th Motorized Rifle Regiment. Three battalions. They assaulted us. Popasna was mostly assaulted by Wagners. And back then they were not prisoners, but the backbone of the Wagnerites.
- Was that the first time that you encountered them?
-Yes. They even used dogs! When clearing trenches where there was a large branching of trenches, they would launch dogs to quickly find defensive positions and lead the enemy along the shortest routes. The people were trained in tactical actions, adapted to winter conditions, in difficult conditions. They calmly withstood the pressure.
Winter in 2022 lasted until March. Many soldiers suffered frostbite. The situation was difficult. There were attacks every day. We repelled them every day. There was little ammunition. But there were already commands to allocate reserves from each brigade to cover the northern direction. Our neighbors on the left were the 57th Brigade - they were standing from Orikhove to the Siverskyi Donets. Behind it were the paratroopers - the 79th Brigade, holding Shchastia. And the main hit initially took place there. Their main attacks came from across the border. The enemy stormed the border and entered the rear zone of the 79th. The brigade fought hard and held off the enemy well. It always fought surrounded.
I have no idea how to behave in such conditions. Everything happened very quickly and rapidly. They are coming from the rear, and you have to cover the front line.
But gradually, our neighbors began to withdraw through the settlements to the Aidar River and reached Sievierodonetsk. They held the defense there. When the 79th began to conduct a tactically maneuverable defense, the 57th turned to the left.
We all fought at the tactical level. And on the strategic level, everyone was thinking about how to close the directions from Izium, Lyman, Kreminna, Sievierodonetsk... How to defend there. We were tasked with sending one tactical group to Rubizhne. It was two tank companies and a platoon of our 1st battalion. I went there together with a tactical group of the 4th Gostomel National Guard. They also defended Rubizhne.
The second group was sent to the Lyman. The brigade commander was tasked with creating a company tactical group to cover our rear areas. We gathered all the reservists from the 1st Battalion who came on the fourth or fifth day of the full-scale offensive. About a hundred people came to us. So we gave away a lot of strong non-commissioned officers.
We formed a group, added tanks and even artillery to it. We had enough infantry. We gave equipment from the 1st and 2nd battalions. And Kapusta was appointed to lead this group. The area is difficult, the conditions are difficult. We appointed a strong man who could organize defense in a large area.
This group marched to Sloviansk, and from there it was transferred to Lyman. And there Kapusta was appointed commandant of Lyman. All units were transferred to his command. There were 100 border guards there. As I understand it, they were standing somewhere on the border, they were pulled to the Lyman, formed into groups and transferred to Yurii's subordination. The task of his group was to take up the defense from the Oskol River to the village of Zarichne. The area was about 50 kilometers long. It was almost impossible for a company-tactical group to hold such a distance. They were given additional strength, but it was 10 people, 15... This is not the number of people that could significantly strengthen the group.
-"The 15th Battalion of the 128th Brigade was stationed in Kreminna at the time, commanded by Ivan Holishevskyi, who is now the commander of the 24th Brigade," Kapusta adds. - "We got to know each other and established cooperation. This played a big role later. If someone had problems, we could give each other artillery and ammunition. There were paratroopers to my left.
-"The group occupied key junctions," Oleh continues. - "We placed people and mined the bridges. The enemy did not move in this direction as massively as they did to Izium. But they were not allowed to go further than Barvinkove. There, our troops took control of the road and held the enemy back. When the Russians realized that they were stuck in the defense, their intelligence calculated that there was a large area in this direction, but few troops, and moved two battalion tactical groups there. We had to blow up the bridges. Yurii and I were in regular contact, so I knew what was going on with him.
-"At first, it was a thrill to fight because there was very little enemy," Yurii recalls. "He went in small groups, inexperienced fighters who had never participated in combat before. They were traveling in stupid columns, not deployed patrols. That's why we inflicted good damage. Our small groups destroyed enemy columns and small groups. The same situation repeated itself: they drove in, we inflicted fire damage, and the enemy fled.
"AT THE MEETING, YURII HEARD THAT HIS GROUP WAS ENCIRCLED. HE GOT BEHIND THE WHEEL OF THE CAR AND RUSHED THERE."
-The company-tactical group under Kapusta's command liberated many settlements in March 2022. From Lyman they moved towards Svatove.
-"They definitely took Nove," Yurii adds.
-"Honta's group, volunteers from 2014, came to Yurii's place - 20 or 30 people," Oleh continues. - "He found them weapons and they fought with him for some time. He was joined by a group of old Aidar fighters who had also been fighting since 2014. This group was making lines of defense, mining roads, and fighting in the main areas where they could.
Now one brigade controls a line of ten kilometers. That is, there were five brigades needed for 50 kilometers to keep the defense in place. And this was done by a company-tactical group! And the small groups that were attached to it. But they organized the defense well. And they held it! This went on until the enemy realized that there were few people in that direction and moved two battalion tactical groups there. They were mostly equipped with tanks. But they began to destroy them as well. We did not count how many tanks were neutralized, but they were burning tanks, armored personnel carriers, and personnel in groups.
Yurii worked with ATGMs. He used to take a couple of fighters with him on a mission. They would detect the enemy and see 20 uniformed Russian servicemen standing there. They would fire on such a group with ATGMs. His experience allowed him to do many interesting things. He knows how to work on any kind of equipment, and he owns various weapons. Valerii Fedorovych Hudz, our brigadier, was constantly explaining how important it is for an officer to be able to shoot, including from ATGMs. He knew something... And the motivated personnel of Kapusta's group played an important role, conducting maneuverable defense. Sometimes I did not understand how such a minimal number of people could do so many things.
There was an episode that struck me terribly. Yurii was at a meeting in Lyman when he received a call saying that Russians were entering the village of Nove, our people were surrounded and did not know how to get out. Kapusta got in the car himself and flew there. He took his closest friends, of whom he was sure. At that time, he had already been informed that the enemy had taken control of the settlement. Only our fighters remained in the school.
Malyi and Bond were with Yurii. They rushed to the people to save the situation. Because they were already saying on the radio: we were surrounded. You could hear how morale was shot. We thought the situation was hopeless.
On the road where the car was driving, there was an 82nd armored personnel carrier and a tank. They controlled the situation. The guys in the car just flew by. The APC turns around behind them and starts shooting - a line in one direction, the car swerves to the right. It moves to the right - the car goes the other way.
- Who was driving the car?
- Kapusta. There were three rounds from a 30-millimeter cannon. The car picked up a lot of speed. And then there was a turn to the left, and it was unrealistic to follow. Yurii drove the car into a ditch. We turned over. We got out and walked to the village and the school. People's spirits immediately rose: "We will do everything." We planned an exit, thought everything through. We decided that the equipment would break through the enemy and take up more favorable positions on the heights to level the defense line. The personnel were walking through a ravine that Yurii saw on the way. Presumably, no one had time to stand there. And they did! And the vehicles jumped right out onto the road, inflicted fire damage and drove away. Not a single one was lost!
-How did people agree to get into cars and drive straight at the enemy?
-"I told them simply," Kapusta says. - "Either we will die or we will survive and continue to fight for Ukraine.
-"That ravine, I'll tell you, was a big question mark," adds Oleh. - "No one was sure whether there was an enemy there or not, whether it was controlled or not.
-How did Yurii get out?
-On foot, with people.
"The IFVs made it across the road normally, the border guards' APCs did the same, and the tank flew off the road as it was leaving," Kapusta recalls. - "Unfortunately, the crew was killed, only the mechanic survived. One person in the IFV was wounded. An older man told me: "I am old, I will not go on foot, commander. If I get there, I'll get there". And he drove an infantry fighting vehicle. He was the one who got the shot.
A key role in that situation was played by a company commander from Aidar, call sign Beret. They suffered heavy losses in Nove, but the guys fought like lions.
-But the Russians eventually took the Lyman...
- Our tactical company was replaced by two battalions, and they have already lost the Lyman. You see, at first there were not many troops there. I had a feeling that there were some sheep opposite me. And then, when the Russians moved a couple of battalions, it was no longer time for jokes.
"THE HARDEST THING IS TO BE IN THE OPERATIONAL RESERVE BECAUSE THEN YOU ARE SENT TO PLACES WHERE EVERYTHING IS BROKEN, WHERE EVERYTHING IS VERY BAD"
December 2021. Positions near Zolote. Three People's Heroes of Ukraine, three friends, at that time fighters of the 24th Brigade - Oleh Lototskyi, Yurii Kapustiak and Dmytro Rubashevskyi
-There, in the Kharkiv region, the Belarusian Hans, your friend, died...
- Yes, it happened near the villages of Iziumske and Druzhelyubske. We were assaulting, and the enemy came from the rear - full of APCs of fighters. They destroyed a group with a Russian colonel in it. Hans fought fearlessly as always. Now his wife Halyna has initiated petitions to have Hans awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. During the years of war for Ukraine, he deserved it more than once. Along with Hans was the commander of the platoon, Luka-Ruslan Luknytskyi. He was a man who had no fear. After commanding Lyman, I was sent to receive the newly formed 115th Battalion in Yavoriv. I asked not to transfer my guys for two weeks. I wanted to take them with me. But some units refused to go to Popasna. And who was sent there? Luka! He was killed on Easter... He went to the tank by himself and did not return. The anti-tank gunner who was with him is still in captivity...
Luka was always more afraid for me than for himself. When the enemy jumped out from our rear, it was Luka who killed that colonel. For the next two days, we were in the middle of nowhere - they were hitting us with everything they could.
Realizing that the Russians would move in that direction, I prepared the borders there. I had a lot of border guards - the Kramatorsk detachment was assigned to me, and it was 30 or 40 people. They were very strong guys. They had AGSs, armored vehicles, armored personnel carriers. And they worked, did everything. The local TDF (territorial defense forces) fighters helped us. At first, everything worked out well...
-When did you get the offer to join DaVinci's battalion?
-"The newly created battalion, the 115th, also had a good team", says Oleh, "They showed good work in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. They worked well. In Lysychansk, we held the lines that no one else wanted to hold. After that, we were taken to Siversk, and from there - to recover. But I wanted to fight. By that time, Kapusta had already joined DaVinci. So they offered me to join them. I agreed - I didn't want to stay at the training ground. And I knew the DaVinci people, and I knew that they were constantly on the move. And the newly created battalion needed specialists in various fields, so I could attract someone.
- "At that time, DaVinci and I were also going to those places," says Yurii, "and we plumped in near Lysychansk. There is a village called Mykolayivka not far from a large plant. From a hill there, we saw a cluster of Russian vehicles. We discussed with DaVinci that we were going there with a copter to adjust the fire. We quietly and culturally entered a small village. The battle had just begun - the vehicles were on their way. But our two fighters spoke up loudly. They heard us and started shooting. Both 152-caliber and Grads. We were hit the dirt. The copter came back. Our fighter is sitting in a hole from an older hit, waiting for me to tell him something. What do you do when they fire at you? I sat down, put my feet in that pit and smoked. When the planes came close to us, I jumped down. And I heard a Grad munition start firing. I laid down face up, adjusted my armor. Trees were falling overhead, everything was flying... There were two other fighters from another unit in that pit with us. After everything calmed down, the guys did not want to run. It seemed that as soon as we moved out, it would fly away again. We waited for about 10 minutes to make sure it was quiet. I said: "Let's run!" And my fighter said: "I can't". I had to motivate him. So we ran.
-I remember how Dmytro didn't want to go to the training ground, but he had to form a unit and meet people...
-Yes, it was hard for him to leave the front. He was constantly working with groups of soldiers, and now he had to command a battalion. He asked us questions, and we explained how everything should work. In December 2022, we finally went to the training ground. However, the brigade withdrew from the line of fire, and we still went to Pavlivka and Avdiivka and received tough tasks. There was a moment when Pavlivka, the whole settlement, was held by 30 people of our infantry. And two battalion tactical groups were advancing against 30 people! It was unrealistic to hold it. But we did a great job then.
Yurii and I emphasized that we could not skip the process of forming a battalion. We will be given a lot of people. We need to see them, talk to them, select them. It is important to go through the process of manning the battalion, coordination and individual training so that everyone can shoot and provide first aid. We need live-fire exercises by units to ensure coordination: what actions are performed by whom and when. Then the same in platoons. How to act on the offensive, how to act on the defense. A battalion is a big unit. It can hold off an enemy offensive with a brigade. It is just necessary to establish a management system. And it is important to do so. DaVinci agreed. We went to the training ground.
- Were the people who came to the unit who wanted to join DaVinci?
-At the beginning of the full-scale offensive, many people called DaVinci to join him. But he was constantly on missions. So he said: go to this one, go to that one. And then we'll figure it out. So many of the fighters who were ready to fight with him were already in other units at the time. So we formed a battalion from those who were available and who were sent to us. We were given an artillery unit, which we did not even expect. We had to find a tank company ourselves - no one agreed to have it in our battalion.
-But you had trophy tanks...
-Yes. And if you show the state the need to create some kind of branch, the state finds an opportunity to help. Everyone has seen that we propose to register seven (!) tanks, that we do not need to be provided with equipment - we have already obtained it. We have the means and the people. That's why they agreed.
-How did Dmytro take your advice?
- After one thorough conversation, there was no need to explain anything else. Everyone understood each other. Everyone worked in their own direction. And there was a lot of work. A battalion is 700 people, not up to a hundred, as it was in the 1st Assault Company. Now it was necessary to delegate a lot of responsibility. During the war, DaVinci got used to performing and controlling all tasks himself. But then he had a small team. It was not easy for Dmytro, but he listened and worked in a new way.
-You gathered people from different brigades. How did you persuade them to join the volunteer unit?
-Mostly everyone called us because they knew us. Officers were ready to move here because they knew or heard that there was high motivation and tasks were set in such a way that you would definitely find yourself in the hottest spots of the war. Many were willing to take that risk to fight.
But on the training ground, you can never tell how a battalion will perform in combat. The healthiest, most pumped-up man may not be as brave as some old man. We wanted to see everything directly in combat. After the training ground, we were sent to Lyman.
- That's where Jack died," Kapusta adds.
-"I already knew that the hardest thing is to be in the Combined Arms Reserve," Oleh continues. - "Because it is these units that are given the most difficult tasks. You go where everything breaks down. And this is not discussed. You have to go there and close all the issues.
- You go and assault. It's simple," Yurii explains briefly.
- "For almost a year, our battalion has been in this status. No one has ever been in operational reserve for so long. Many units were in reserve for a month or two. No more than that. And this is a year. A year of fierce fighting. And everything was blinded. Everything was leveled after us.
-And did you work not in groups, but as a battalion?
-Defences, offensives, regaining positions - we did it all.
-"I think the hardest part started after Dmytro's death," Kapusta adds. - "There were difficult moments before that, but after that, the tasks only got harder...
-You weren't even brought out to recover from his death...
- We were told: you will be even angrier now...
-You were the first to work as a trophy Sontsepok. How important was it for you to do what you had been planning with DaVinci?
-There is a means of destruction. There is ammunition for it. So it should work.
-On the eve of the New Year, you were taken out for rehabilitation...
- "The tasks were unrealistic to accomplish," says Yurii. - "You either storm or plan an assault. Our artillery and reconnaissance fired all the time. Even during the reconstruction, the artillery remained and worked in the war.
-You were previously on a mission in Kupiansk...
-"Sometimes I thought we would never get out of those positions," the battalion commander admits. - "You lose men and you can't do anything. The biggest damage was caused by drones. The dugouts were dismantled with thermobaric weapons. Someone was constantly wounded, concussed... We were in the woods. It's hard to work in such conditions for the EWs. Mitchell, the commander of the unit... realizing that his men were not closing the issue, personally went to the position and worked. He is a very strong fighter.
-Mitchell was at war in 2014-2015," adds Oleh. - "Together with DaVinci, he fought in Pisky near the Donetsk airport. He joined the unit at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He says that since 2015 he has been preparing for the war, he knew it would happen. He was already in DaVinci when we came to the unit. In DaVinci, there was not a single remark about him - never. He was the one who was with Kapusta and DaVinci when Dmytro was wounded and died. He and Kapusta continue to fight for Ukraine, as Dmytro would have done.
The last photo of DaVinci, which he took a selfie... Early March 2023, Bakhmut. Yurii Kapusta, as always, is by my side
Violetta Kirtoka, Censor. NET
