About 125th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade and fighters’ contribution to defense of Hlyboke-Zelene area
We in no way want to justify the brigade’s command, which ignored the problems and played a paper army. We are talking exclusively about the soldiers who directly participated and are still participating in the fighting in this area.
DeepState writes about this.
📆 The 125th entered this area last summer, and until January of this year, the area was extremely quiet. Even the enemy artillery was extremely quiet, and the gray zone was up to 5 kilometers in both directions. But in January, the Katsaps started hitting the equipment and places of its concentration.
🚩About Engineering and Fortification Structures (EFS): according to the soldiers, it was difficult to mine at zero line because the enemy was monitoring the border. Some of the trenches were filled in and not sheathed with wood. Yes, there are a lot of concrete pillboxes, but they are not backfilled and not closed. There were no concrete dugouts in Lukiantsi. There was not a single trench completely sheathed with wood. Although the fighters carried out the installation on their own, starting to sheathe them with wood.
🧱 In recent months, the Katsaps have begun to actively occupy the grey zone - digging in, creating entire fortified strong points. Immediately, the fighters began to inform the brigade's leadership that something had to be done about it, because the enemy should not be allowed to intensify its forces. Unfortunately, the neighbouring artillery was not properly brought in. In early May, the enemy began accumulating troops in Solntsevka. At that time, the enemy's positions were already outside the village, but they began to actively accommodate in the village. The accumulation was repeatedly reported to the top.
🚀 There were cases when our artillery missed by a few hundred meters, but the brigade reported it to higher-ups as a strike. This created the illusion of the adjustment of gun tube.
🇷🇺 On May 7, the Katsaps began to be detected directly in Pylyna itself. At that time, the brigade ignored the target designation to the village and continued to hit the checkpoints on the territory of the so-called Russian Federation. On May 8, the first contact battle took place in that area, resulting in the loss of an observation post and 2 soldiers of the Ukrainian Defense Forces were killed. After that, the artillery finally started firing, but because the enemy was hiding in the plantations in the immediate vicinity of our positions, its effectiveness was so-so.
🏚On May 8-9, the Katsaps were actively accomodating in Pylyna. On the approaches, the accumulation of troops, light motor vehicles, weapons and military equipment were recorded. However, due to the uncoordinated actions of the brigade, the artillery could not be sufficiently effective. At the same time, the enemy began to hit the brigade's positions with GABs and missiles.
⚔️ On May 10, the enemy offensive began. The first attacks were partially repelled by the 125th. However, in the area of the village of Strilecha there was one of the 400th rifle battalions (the idea of their creation, training and equipment will become one of the biggest mysteries of this war), which was forced to abandon the position due to the enemy's superiority in manpower and without the support of neighbors. On May 11, the Katsaps advanced on Lukiantsi, and the guys from the DIU came to support the TDF, and the resistance became more effective, although due to the enemy's superiority and the actual encirclement of the positions in the village itself, the Defense Forces had to withdraw from it. At the same time, another 125th battalion was repelling attacks in the area of Zelene. This fact became known only later, and at first it was believed that the village was lost.
To sum up. Indeed, there were facts of the withdrawal of certain units - Separate Rifle Battalions and reserve companies, which on paper had readiness, but in fact were staffed with limitedly fit and retired people. At the same time, the main forces of the 125th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade continue to resist. The soldiers held out and waited for the reserve units to arrive, preventing the front from collapsing. We're not talking about brigade command now, let the OTG (operational-tactical group) deal with it, but the 125th infantry did everything in their power in the face of a superior enemy. It is worth noting other units that entered the battle immediately and helped to hold on.
We believe that the military and political leadership will appreciate the contribution of each soldier, and that there will be strict responsibility for negligence.
