"In that "meat grinder" I almost "croak" 500 times". Story of two snipers from defense of Kharkiv region
Our heroes have call signs Batman and Liulia. We don’t mention their names or show their faces because they are snipers. They both went to war before the full-scale invasion. Their stories can be listened to for hours, as I personally saw during our meeting. We are going to tell you only about a part of their fight against the Russians - the defense of the Kharkiv region.
24 FEBRUARY 2022
Liulia: My contract was just about to expire, so in December (three months before, as required) I wrote a report that I did not want to continue my service. I knew I would return, but I wanted to stay at home for a year and work on my business. I can't live without the army. This is my theme. I'm the kind of guy who can't even stand in line at ATB - I need hustle. So in February, I had a vacation. But on the 14th, the commander called and said: "Come back, because it might happen". Of course, we were expecting an offensive, but in Donbas, not across the country.
Batman: I thought there would be a standard - artillery, tanks, infantry. But aircraft and missiles all over the country were news to me. I could never imagine that there could be fighting in the Kyiv region. I didn't think that in the twenty-first century, every monkey with a gun could do such terrible things. It turned out to be a complete trash! The day before, my commander let me go home. So on February 19, I arrived in Kyiv in the evening, but at 10:30 p.m. he called me and told me to come back. I spent the night and went back.
Liulia: When I arrived, our "johns" from the unit were already preparing - they were flying by helicopter to the border in Kupiansk. Anti-tank mobile groups were formed.
We had been waiting every day since February 20. On the 23rd, the commander came to the barracks: "Guys, turn off your phones. It will start in the morning". I woke up around three in the morning. The guys were sleeping. I turn on the phone, and there's a news item: "Putin's urgent statement". I went to the toilet. I smoke a cigarette. I heard Putin's phrase: "We are starting SMO (Special Military Operation)". And right behind the window - boom, boom! The hustle was starting. I turned around. The guys were already sitting, lacing up their boots. We received weapons. Then we sat there until lunchtime, not knowing what to do. There were no instructions. A missile flew over us - the border guards launched it to show that the border was breached. I read in Telegram that not only we were under fire, but everyone was. I looked around - chaos, no one knew what to do, they were running around like ants. Finally, they gave us the command to move out. We mined bridges with sappers. We stayed there for two days. We slept in the car. My friends are already sending videos with a bunch of dead f@ckers, but we were there...
Batman: At the time, there was also misinformation that the 92nd Brigade was in rough shape and the First Tank Brigade was also. You called them, but their phones are out of range because there is no network. And you think: "That's it, ' fugazi'!" But no! We got in touch: "'We're fighting!"
IZIUM
Liulia: Then we were given input - Izium. After those events, whenever I see raisins in a store, I still walk by. I said that I would never eat raisins again in my life. Because I almost "croak" 500 times in that "meat grinder". It was such a thrash! At the beginning, when it was quiet, we went with the patrol police and mined three bridges connecting the more modern part of the city with the private sector. We were based in a school. We had three hundred local Territorial Defense (TD) soldiers with us. We had two armored vehicles - Kozak and Spartan. The first one drove around the city, the second one stood at a checkpoint in the rear zone at the end point. On February 28, we arrived there. The following happens: the deceased Ivanovych opens the door, Beth leans out...
Batman: I hear a sound and intuitively know it's an aeroplane! I yelled: "Air!"
Liulia: He flew straight at us and threw a FAB about seventy meters away, the first one to hit the city at that time. It hit a gas pipe. Such a flame - right up to the sky! This was the first time I had ever seen an airplane in my entire service. I didn't even know that it was making its second entry. We jumped out of the car. Everyone was alive. Only had post-concussion syndrome. We ran away. I forgot my helmet. I returned to the "Kozak". Ivanovych was shouting: "He's coming in for the second circle!" And then this sound... It chills me to the bone. You can't see the plane - it's bad weather, foggy, and it's going down sharply. It dropped a second bomb into the same fire. Andriukha (another comrade) and I ran to the field. He asked: "Well, how did it go?". I said: "Holy fuck! I've never been hit by an airplane before."
Batman: We were going back to school. We needed to have a rest. We chose a math class on the second floor. We moved the desks to the windows. We lay down in our sleeping bags. I was under the door. I hear someone shouting while half-asleep: "Airplane!" I rolled out into the corridor. A FAB, probably a 500, fell down nearby, and I saw everything flying in slow motion in front of my eyes: plaster, debris. It seemed as if everything around me had come together and abruptly scattered. I got out of my sleeping bag, ran to the first floor, and there was such a mess! It was chaos. TD soldiers were lying around, guys were running on broken glass. Our commander ran out and shouted: "Silence!" Everyone stopped talking and you could hear a plane flying and somewhere: boom! We grabbed everything we could, ran outside, got into the Kozak and drove to the bridge to hold it in case of emergency. In front of it was a ditch, into which we drove. The car got stuck. We got out. We heard the plane flying again. The deceased Vitia Koshmar (an unrewarded Hero of Ukraine) and I just ran as far as we could see - to the forest. Branches hit my face. It's night, it's dark. At this time, Izium started to get really trashy - four planes flew in, dropped FABs, flew away, and then the same thing happened again for exactly an hour and 20 minutes. In between - artillery, MLRS, cannon artillery. And so on for four days! We spent the first one under the trees in the forest...
Liulia: They worked as the book says. We had nothing to shoot down the planes with. A little later, the Soviet Igla appeared, and the BUK also delivered. We were based in a four-story building near a tower with a strategic bunker. We went on missions. We blew up all the bridges. Because the enemy approached, there were fights, fierce hustle. The city was surrounded. It was completely closed on three sides by the enemy's infantry and equipment, and they also controlled the entrance from behind: tanks were at point-blank range and "bombarded" the road - everything that drove on it was destroyed.
On March 8, we received a task to move to the area of the pedestrian bridge. There were tanks opposite, each of which had its own sector to hit. My comrade Vova and I went there. There was the last five-story building there. There was nothing further. Behind the water, 400 meters away, the enemy is in the buildings. We took a position in the attic in the dovecote. There were also "johns" from the 3rd regiment with us - group commander Yasha and the guys. They were based on the third floor. They gave me a HARRIS radio station to keep in touch with them. I didn't want to take it yet, because I could have f@cked it up, and it costs money. They insisted. The night came. We both fired as snipers at the infantry. Forty minutes each and then we changed. I was also adjusting our artillery. So did the SOF guys. They were doing their job well. There was movement nearby. Since I served in the 25th Brigade as a mechanic-driver in 2015, I can tell by the sound of the vehicles moving and figure out what kind of vehicles they are. A tank was approaching. I told Vova: "It's moving 600-800 meters to our right on the asphalt road." He stopped. As it turned out later, it was a T-90M, which has a special box on its turret that catches the radiation of all laser beams and aims itself. We have Archer thermal imaging sights on our rifles, which have a rangefinder. The tank caught our beam and immediately made a shot. It's good that it doesn't hit us clearly, probably because it was captured at an angle. So it hit the right side of the attic. It demolished everything there. Dust, debris. I went up there and looked - I could see the stars. The SOF guys came to look. Later, Yasha brought me some kind of a hessian sacking. He said: " Bro, take this, you're cold here." He offered us to pull up stakes. We didn't even think about pulling up stakes. He didn't hit us, but we had to hold the bridge. So we stayed there. The tank was firing - it was dismantling the entrances to other five-story buildings. In the morning, another one came from the other side and started hitting ours building head-on. Vova and I pulled up stakes because we didn't have daytime optics. I went down to the first floor. The SOF soldiers were gathering there. One of them was in the bathroom. I put the HARRIS on the fridge. He said to me: "Don't put it on the fridge, because it' will hit, you'll lose it." I answered: "No, it won't!" At that moment, the tank hit the neighboring apartment. A very strong warm stream of air hit my face. Everything around me fell, including the refrigerator. The HARRIS was flying somewhere. This guy looked up and says: "I told you you'd fuck it up!" But he found - it flew into the next room. Vova was coming down from the attic. At this time, there was a precision strike between the third and fourth floor, where the SOF soldiers were. One of them was "three hundredth". We jumped out of the windows because the other side was in full control: two tanks were just unloading. This one was wounded too. Such a powerful guy - he was walking, did not admit what was wrong with him. Until he started to reel. We looked at him - a piece of shrapnel had hit his lumbar region. But he kept walking. Grads were already firing at us - they were firing "normally". We were going to the nearest five-story building. The basement was closed. We pull the door. It opens from the inside - some man was on the threshold. I asked him if there was water. We had to wash the wound of the wounded man. The man was crumpling in response. He went to the right side. I followed him. There was a blanket hanging there. I opened it, and there were more than seventy people, including children, including babies! At first, I was so stunned. I said: "Get ready, we will take you out. First of all, women with children"...
Batman: We could have taken them out in five goes. But they weren't waiting for us.
Liulia: Maybe some of them are waiting for us. But when I suggested it, a woman in her 50s said: " F@cking defenders! Where do we go?!" I: "Part of the city is under our control. We will transport you towards Sloviansk". She: "You bitches blew up all the bridges. I need to go to the other side!" And there was the enemy! I offered to take at least the children, but no one came with me.
Batman: Then we found out that the whole building had collapsed. All the people were dead.
Liulia: We're out. We were moving. Tanks were firing on us. I saw an airplane dropping FABs right on that building. There's fire and smoke. Yes, later we saw on the video that it was that five-story building that collapsed. When we later de-occupied Izium, 74 or 76 bodies were pulled out of that basement. But they chose their own fate...
We moved on. Airplanes were hunting for us. But we managed to move without any losses. We reached the bunker. We handed over the 300th to be taken out and brought to the hospital. Everyone was exhausted. Beth fried us some potatoes.
Batman: I was so surprised at the time: they came in black, dirty, smelly, tired, but the first thing they did was clean their weapons. And then it started such hustle! The enemy was gradually dismantling our positions. The 90th Battalion of the 81st Brigade joined us. There were a lot of people. There were no TD soldiers in the city already - I don't know where they went, they probably scattered.
Liulia: A lot of people were killed. On the morning of the ninth, when we were returning, we were walking with Vova through the square and saw a pile of bodies lying around. You saw this guy was trying to help himself when he was wounded, but he was frozen. I accidentally almost stepped on half of a woman's body - it was covered with ground. There were a lot of civilians! In general, we tried to gather the dead together. Guys were taking them out in cars. But it was harder and harder to do because the only road was under fire.
Batman: So the guys were cleaning their weapons. There was a hustle around us: the military was coming and going. And before that, there was a "Fortpost" or "Zala" or something like that flying over us for about a day. One guy had an idea: "Let's go, we're going to f@ck it up!". We went out and put everything we had with us into the drone, but no one hit it. We came back. We were informed that the enemy was forming twenty airborne units. We had Karych, who was explained in ten minutes how to shoot from the Igla to shoot down airplanes and helicopters. He put on such huge glasses, threw Igula behind his back - something that took so long to prepare. The radio operator says: "Threat of missile attack!". Karych just took a step to the exit - and then it hit! From that moment on, the trash begins!
Liulia: A Kinzhal hit our building - right at the main entrance. Unfortunately, almost all the guys who were standing on the porch were killed. Some of them were "500ths" - missing because there were no bodies - blown to molecules. The only one who survived was our commander, even though he was in the epicenter of the explosion. The first report was that he was the "200th" because he was lying on the ground, crushed by a slab.
Batman: He was also hiding his phones somehow. Because the debris hit Kozak and Spartan, which were standing next to the ammunition load. The detonation started. I thought it was a subversive group, because, as I said, we were told before we arrived that those sides were being prepared. So I dug in my phones. Then I got out myself.
And when the Kinzhal hit, I had the impression that all four floors had jumped up (I could even see the street) and then collapsed.
Liulia: It must have been like that. It seemed to me that the bunker slab just rose and fell.
Batman: Darkness, panic. Two exits were closed. There was a spare one, but you couldn't get out because the ammunition load was detonating in the cars. I got up. I put on my armour and helmet. From that moment on, I had no control over my body. I could see with my eyes, I was aware with my mind, but my arms and legs were watery.
Liulia: Very severe post-concussion syndrome.
Batman: I looked at Liulia, and blood was coming out of his ears and nose. I was in a panic inside. There is nothing I could do, no way to help. It was not clear what was happening around. Then the news came in that everyone on the street was in the 200th, including the commander. Vova took command. In general, he was good - he organized himself: weapons - here, 300ths - there. We werr being transferred, and then another missile hit - bang! Another 300th on the street. Vova was also hit by shrapnel. He just took off his pants, wrapped himself in an Israeli bandage, put them back on and continued to command. We asked for an evac. We were refused - it didn`t work. Andriukha went to the garage, took a Grand Cherokee jeep with punctured wheels and no windows, loaded up as many 300ths as he could, and drove us to Kramatorsk on this road that was being shelled. The doctors were in shock. They looked after us. Even though we were not heavy by comparison. But it was the first time for me...
Liulia: I already had bullet wounds in 2016. I was running across the road and did not see the enemy. I am grateful to my brother-in-arms for reacting in time to eliminate him.
Batman: When we were brought in, our guys started to withdraw from Izium, got to the turn, were ' spotted by a drone, and the cassette hit.
Liulia: It was a planned ambush.
Batman: A Smerch hit between Ivanovich and Vova. Ivanovych had stuck a decompression needle into his lungs by himself - it was an absolute unrealistic! The guys tried to help him, but his femoral arteries were torn off. He was bleeding a lot. He took off his watch and knife. He asked me to give it to his wife. He put his head down and that was it... He died like a real hero.
Vova was seriously wounded. The guys managed to save him and give him to the evacuation team. They stayed there. They stayed in the shelter for a long time. All the time they were fired by airplanes and art. Later they came out. Then I had a turning point. You could say that I was burnt out. Because you have been training all your life for one goal, and when you came to it, it turned out to be ineffective. Another thing that broke me mentally was that my family was in the Kyiv region, in the triangle between Bucha, Borodianka, and Hostomel, where I had sent them at the beginning. At that time, my father was in the First Tank Brigade, surrounded in Chernihiv. I was on the phone with him. Of course, they did some things there, too.
STUDENOK
Batman: After the hospital, Liulia and I went to Studenok for four days, which was twenty kilometers ahead of our bridle line. The task was a tough one. There were about 20 of us in the whole village: four from our battalion, the rest from the Kulchytskyi National Guard battalion.
Liulia: We came with a sniping job. There's a village called Pasika across the river. Then there was Kamianka, where the 90th battalion was stationed. The forest was already a knife fight: helicopters, airplanes, and infantry. They were fighting hard. We came from the flank to fire on the enemy through the water. Just at that time, the enemy blew up the dam on Oskil, and the water overflowed. It turned out that from the end point where you could lie down with a rifle, it was two and a half kilometers to the village. It is flooded. That's it - no work!
Batman: We walked through the village. The locals didn't even think about leaving. We were worried that there were a lot of pro-Russian people there. At first, we lived in a hut made of planks. Even when the plane arrived five kilometers away, it was shaking violently. One day we were told that there would be an airborne assault. Liulia woke me up. I went outside with the AKS-U. I heard an incredible roar. Helicopters flew in from the forest. I did not count, but it seems like there were twenty of them. They landed, three flew to Kamiankuiezh and returned, followed by another group. So they took turns for an hour and a half "burning out" the 13th battalion of the 95th brigade. We could see them in plain sight, but we could do nothing. There was nothing to shoot them down with.
Batman: And there was no work. But we had to do something. I had a Mavic-3. Thanks to the guys who bought it and sent it to me, it's still alive today, even though it crashed many times. So we went around, tried to fly, to film something. Then we joined the National Guard. Before that, we had chosen a house, but the locals came and said: "You shouldn't live here. This house has an owner. He just left." So we went to the guys, to whom the woman gave her house, and it was so good. As soon as we got there, we went to bed. We received information that a subversive group had entered through the blown-up railway bridge: "Let's go to clear the forest at night."
Liulia: The forest is about forty hectares!
Batman: And there were only twenty of us. It's still nighttime. This is an unrealistic task! One guy from our unit volunteered. He had a PVS with him. He left. He returned in an hour. He managed to convince him that it was impossible to go to clear the forest in unknown terrain without special equipment in such a large number. We went in the morning. The forest there is dense. I was standing there, looking, and I couldn't see anything in front of me even at twenty meters. In the end, my comrade and I just lay down on the rails and looked into the distance: a kilometer and a half - as far as we could. If someone was running, we would make a shot, and it would be up to us whether we hit or not. We would lie there, and Liulia went into the forest.
Liula: Yes, I went. There were 12 of us. We formed an arrowhead. We came to the beginning of this forest. It was huge. What should we do? Where to go? We started walking towards the railway bridge because they said they had seen someone there before. Seven kilometers away. We searched the forest. I was walking and thinking: one machine gunner would be enough to kill us all. And I am the only sniper in the group. And not with a rifle, but with an AKS-U. There was a big guy with a machine gun. He told me that he served in the Azov. So we went forward together. We were wandering around. We look and see marks on the trees: tied with white rags. "Oh, what the f@ck is this? One of us said: "Sh@t, these were f@ckers, they were breaking through the corridor and leaving marks for the other group to know where to go." Wow! Something was about to happen, either we were going to get killed or it was unclear what was going to happen. We walked about five kilometers, and there were no markers! Then one of the older guys said: "Listen, I remembered. Do you know what this is? It's how foresters mark trees for felling." When he said that, we looked around and saw a bunch of trees in a chaotic manner. One less problem - there is no corridor. We reached a glade. There's a parachute hanging on a branch, and a backpack lying down. There was a bunch of stuff and a cool cleaver. There were bandages with blood on them. We searched around to see if the pilot was there. But we didn't find him.
We came to the bridge. There was no one near it. Behind it, the enemy was in the forest on the other side. We did not even engage in a firefight. They were just sitting digging in and that was it. There were two of our "johns" who arrived at night. The commander asked what they saw. One of them replies: "We saw something through the thermal imager through the rails. We thought it was a subversive group. We reported it." In the end, it turned out that no one entered. It was just some animal running through. But fear sees danger everywhere. I understood those guys. They were very young guys, about 19 years old, ignorant. But it was okay. I said to one of them: "Give me your rifle, I'm going to lie down here and work." He didn't give it to me. So we went back to the village in their car. Then the guys said: "We killed the enemy". It turned out to be the pilot whose parachute and backpack we found. It turned out that he had landed and gone the wrong way - along the riverbed. He had to go to the right about a kilometer and a half to their positions. And he went into the village. The old man who first shot him with a double-barreled rifle told us: "I was sitting in the house. I see through the window that someone is falling over the fence and into the yard. I immediately realized by the uniform and behavior that it was not ours. I locked all the doors and took my rifle. He started knocking: "Open up!" I shot through the door". I wounded him in the stomach. The pilot ran behind the house. The guys from the National Guard were walking through the village. They heard the shot and ran to him. My grandfather opened the door and said that the enemy was climbing somewhere in the yard. They went there. They wanted to take him prisoner, but he resisted - he started shooting back with a pistol, so they killed him.
"SHERWOOD FOREST
Liulia: It was just trash! I spent a month and a half there not as a sniper, but as an infantryman. I was in the trenches.
The eighth battalion of the 81st Brigade also entered the forest. The infantry of the 17th Tank Brigade was in position. They suffered losses. The situation was cringey: the forest, the defense line was unstable, there was no position in the defense line - the positions were scattered, there were thuds of explosions, and the f@ckers subversive reconnaissance units were attacking in the rear, destroying our groups and taking prisoners. There was a day when three company commanders changed because two were killed.
How did I get there? I received a task to go in like infantry, to hold back the enemy, to be behind the position that was currently fighting. Everyone understood that in a day or two we would lose it, and then we would have to fight next. We went in there. Their artillery was so nearly scrape the tops of the trees - like no business! Airplanes were flying in, Sontsepoks were hitting. They were doing all kinds of things! And the defense is 360 degrees. The enemy is everywhere: behind, in front, to the left, to the right. Small groups, special forces, Wagner, the Russian Guard, Kadyrov's men, the Liga PMC.
One day, an enemy group went between our two positions. We fired a little. No losses. They retreated. But they found out where our firing positions were. And we immediately dug in: the height was my height. We connected our three SPShs. The forest was dense, so the maximum visibility was 20 meters. You couldn't see f@king anything further. The artillery was firing, you can't see anything. If the enemy appears, we shoot at a distance of 15-20 meters. So, as I said, we made a "P" from three positions. We waited. The next day, f@cking group PMC "Liga" came along, fully armed with AK-12s and reckless. Their platoon commander was wearing a baseball cap - not even a helmet. They were crazy! They just go to kill - they do their job for money. They are professionals. At first, they approached us in a small group of six or seven people. A fight started. The distance was 10-15 meters. Close contact. Grenades. First, we wounded their commander. Then we killed him. We dragged him to our trench. He had a backpack and communications support. His equipment was Tasmanian Tiger. Radio station "Azart". Two medical pouches. Well, he was special forces. A cool mercenary. He had an encrypted map showing where he was in the Kharkiv region, what he was doing. So, the few of his men who were left, moved 50 meters away and started shouting: "You are f@cked!". We: "Yes, yes, well, your commander is f@cked. Let's all come here!". They: "We'll be right there!". And we have their walkie-talkies. We hear them reporting: "They have the 31st". At that time, the artillery started to bombard us f@ckingly. We were clear: not a single "200ths" or "300ths". An hour later, they came again. This time from two flanks. Even more armed - with grenade launchers. They are shooting at us at point blank range. The first group assaulted us, the second group flanked us. We repelled the attack. And still with small arms fire - AKS, AK. Back then, we didn't even have a single machine gun. I already realized that we would be assaulted properly today. We went to the commander and told him that we needed machine guns to the position. Big kudos to guys! Mekhan drove an APC almost to our position, to where we had a deployment point. He brought machine guns, ammunition loads, 17 TD soldiers, reported. I had to run there - 200 meters. I broke through. The guys were sitting there scared. With some sacks. One of them had a barrel sticking out of it. I asked: "Maksym, is this a machine gun?". Yes. "Do you know how to shoot it?" A pointy head with glasses and a very thin body answered: "I know how. I am a squad leader". You rock, man! So, let's bounce!. It turned out that only three of them had fought. I took them with me. The rest of them were sent to the rear, about a hundred meters behind our positions. He said: "Guys, if we start to become the 200th or 300th here, you will join the fight." We set up a machine gun on the observation post. I ran to the deployment point to get water to fill it. We heard twigs cracking somewhere. They were coming. A couple of minutes later - a shot. I yelled: "Have they come again?". They answer: "You're f@cked!". I: "Come on, buddy!". They made a smart approach - through a hollow that we could not see. We could not see it either visually or from drones. And it was 15 meters away from our positions. But we repelled the attack. Five of them were 200ths, many were 300ths. I "killed" a machine gunner - a big hog - I caught him near a tree. They started again, shouting the same thing. I could hear them talking to each other: "There's a heavy 300ths here". He said: "Then kill him for f@ck's sake!". Pow! Two shots. They "killed" their man and moved on. In another hour they came back again. Even more armed, angry. They were coming to take their commander. They began to surround us from three sides. Nothing happened, and we repelled this attack, inflicted a defeat, and they left with a promise to return. So we were assaulted five times that day. The last time they brought a 12.7-mm machine gun. They put it on a sidepiece 70 meters away from us. They were firing on us. Then one of our comrades was killed by one of the hits and another 300ths. But we smashed them to pieces. They realized that no one would give them the body, and they would not take him, because we were in a favorable position, dug in well and worked positively. However, they were firing at us with Grad rockets, which hit us in the trenches. We were shelled all night, but no one was killed or injured. We had some post-concussion syndrome. But otherwise, everything was fine.
COUNTER-OFFENSIVE IN THE KHARKIV REGION
Liulia: I participated in it from the first to the last day. I visited all the cities along the way.
Batman: I was helping - I was engaged in supplying the unit. I came when the city was liberated. It was like this: I opened DeepState and saw that the front in Balakliia had been broken through. Five hours later, I was already driving with the commander to Izium on the liberated Sloviansk highway. The deceased Vitia Koshmar told me how he flew into the positions of the Katsaps, and there was still steam from the tea, and their phones were charging. It seems to me that they were not told until the last moment that there would be a withdrawal.
Liulia: I have videos from many cities I liberated. I even managed to plant a flag, announcing the time, date and location. For example, Sviatohirsk. I'm standing on the city monument sign where the flag was thrown by a drone. I was the first one to announce at 4 p.m. that the town had been liberated from the occupiers.
For me, in general, this counteroffensive was completely unexpected and well-planned. We strategically deceived them in a great way. It was so fierce that sometimes I didn't realize what was happening! I didn't have time to update DeepState - phew, phew: liberated, liberated! The "Striking Fist" from the 80th, 25th, 95th Brigades made a significant contribution to this movement. Big kudos to the guys! We gathered ourselves and just started pushing. It was impossible to stop! Artillery was working, planes were firing, helicopters were coming in. We were crossing by boat, and helicopters were circling overhead, flying to strike and hitting us. The enemy was running away. And they are leaving everything behind.
Batman:In Kamianka, Liulia and I found an overturned tank with the commander sticking out of the hatch. He was "fresh", because he was still bleeding. It was a T-80 BVM tank. New - 218 kilometers. We guarded it for about a day. By the way, I know a military man who found 16 working tanks. I think the enemy abandoned them, because they had the equipment, but no people - no one to go. And we were offered everything for our tank! Tankers were passing by and said: "Give it to us, and we'll give you two APCs". But we were waiting for our brigade to arrive and take it away. And they were busy for some time in Sherwood Forest, pulling out tanks as well.
Liulia: In the Kharkiv direction, no one resisted much during the counteroffensive. Only some small groups stayed behind to stop us. They were armed with ammunition. They were fighting back so that their main forces could withdraw. We eliminated them. But in Novoselivka, we stuck with such normal "johns". At first, one of the battalions of our brigade stormed the place. There were plenty of f@ckers. And with equipment. It was not obvious that they were going to withdraw. We approached them through the woods, along the riverbed, flew into their flank, suffered heavy losses, but they were still standing. A day later, another battalion of our brigade pulled up to attack from the other flank. And then another one. In this way, we drove them out of the village with three battalions in a week. We killed them all. They did not allow them to retreat. After that, there was almost no one in other villages up to Lyman. There was not much resistance. We knocked out a combat-ready unit in Lyman. Then they were chased away. But because of moments like the one in Novoselivka, they were able to mine a large area in front of Kreminna. We started moving there and blowing up. We realized that it would not work. So we stopped. Sappers started working. They said: "Guys, everything is completely covered - every centimeter!" The front line stood. The offensive stopped.
WARRIOR'S GROUP UA COMMUNITY
https://www.instagram.com/warriors_group_ua?igsh=d3o1eHRucWc0Y3Jx
Liulia: We have a community called Warriors of Ukraine - Warrior's Group UA. I started keeping it when I was still serving in the 25th Brigade. In 2019, I started to update it. I wrote educational and instructional posts. I posted videos of my work and training, as well as other soldiers. "We are now covering our normal 'johns' who are fighting against the Katsaps. We unite people, interact with other communities. A military community. This is the time. What can a man do?!
Olha Moskaliuk, Censor.NET
Photos and videos are provided by the heroes
