"94 days of fighting without rotation" — feat of fighters from NGU battalion "Donbas" near Chasiv Yar

The feat of the soldiers from the "Donbas" Special Purpose Battalion of the 18th Sloviansk Brigade of the NGU in the area of Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region. For almost three months, Ukrainian soldiers have been holding the line of defence under constant enemy fire without rotation, rest or pauses

Tykhon, senior soldier-paramedic, 2nd battalion, 18th Sloviansk Brigade of the NGU: Entered Chasiv Yar on 23 February. Left Chasiv Yar on 28 May. We went in February. We had to go in when the weather was bad, so that the drones could not see us.

We went a little further and came under mortar fire. Thank God, everyone survived and got to the position. For two days we had a nightmare with mortars.

Well, then we got used to it well. We had fire contact with the enemy. I even looked him in the eyes when I was shooting at him.

On 6 March 98 parachute division went to storm 16 vehicles. The IFV unloaded quickly and turned around. On the way, the FPV drones caught up with it.

Anyway, about 200 metres away from us, it burned down. Because the ammo was blasting, we could hear it well. And that group of paratroopers ran to the neighbours.

Well, we heard on the radio that allied forces were chasing these FPVs. There was a good firefight there. They were probably eliminating them throughout the day, right up until evening.

The battle lasted for a while, there was a lull, then it started again. They did not advance any further.

It was unrealistic. They probably thought it was possible to do anything on armour, it is unrealistic. They thought it would be impossible to drive in, drones hit a mortar immediately and smash everything at once.

Well, if you look at it from February, at first, they stormed somewhere every two weeks. You can see them running from our position, 100 metres away, 150 metres away. They were moving to the second positions, and we didn't let them pass either.

They used to storm us every two weeks. And in May, they started seriously. Maybe one week, maybe two days without storming, otherwise they are constantly storming.

Mikhei, sapper, 2nd battalion, 18th Sloviansk Brigade of the NGU:

I had already told the guys that they had to get ready, that 9 May was coming up, and this was a sacred holiday for the f...ts. When we got to the Chanson position, which is next to a five-storey building, everything was already broken there, there was practically no point in staying there.

And we ran there on a rotational basis, that is, we stayed there and ran back. And it also happened in a strange way that Karpat and I, my partner, ran into Chanson. We just sat there, smoked, and, most importantly, had a radio, a walkie-talkie, a machine gun. And then I hear stones falling on the second floor, you know, falling anything, but you have to listen to. And I hear someone walking around, and I think, what the hell. I said to Karpata, "Do you hear it?" and he said, "I don't hear it. I say again, I say, quietly. I already hear conversations, I'm talking on the radio, and who's on the second floor? And then I looked, and I said, "Karpat, come here, let's go to a dark place, around the corner. So I went in, so that we couldn't be seen, so that I could find out who it was. I hear someone coming down the stairs. Then I see a blue light from a flashlight, so they must have been looking for tripwires. There was a chain-link fence there, we had wound it up and hung the tripwire. I was looking at the flashlight, my hair was standing on end, and I saw the muzzle of a silencer. I'm telling Karpat, Hey, say it, just tell them the f...ts are at Shanson. But Karpat just keeps mumbling, so I grab the radio and shout: "Berlin, the f...ts are at Shanson!". And this one behind the wall shouted: "You're a f..ker yourself," at me. And there was a hole in the wall, and he threw a grenade, and it exploded. And he thought I was behind the wall, so he started sticking the barrel through and firing shots like that under the wall. I was in the dark, he couldn't see me, so I started firing back through that hole.

I fired off about three mags, then started calling for backup — for the rotation guys to run over. We were taking turns out there. But they couldn’t come because of the FPV drones flying around. So I said to Karpat, let's probably run over then. So we ran there, then Berlin started zincing them from a drone, saying that they probably had a 300th there, so I had probably wounded him through that hole.  And that's it, they were sitting there, I mean, we started to take them out with FPVs, but they were not knocked out, so they stayed there. They just crawled in even more.

Tykhon: These lighters are thrown, set on fire.

They burned our position. We had a two-storey building. It was old, brick.

The inner walls were wooden, so they burned down our position. Well, we were in the basement. It was 70 degrees in the basement for ten days.

The thermometer melted, there was a thermometer down there.

I don't know, somehow I survived. We mostly were sitting near the exit until we left.

It was impossible to be down there. We took turns standing watch. By that point, we were basically surrounded.

There was only one way out. To run over fast. And so, basically, it was all around.

They were everywhere — those f..ts had us surrounded. At one point they were even behind us, coming from six o’clock. There they were already running over.

Well, that's what it is. We were just boys. We said we'd do it to the end, to the end.

We stayed there until the end.

Mikhei: Then they were preparing to storm on the Z-28. It was a week later that they started breaking through the entrance. We laid sandbags, crates, and cabinets there. The first hit came, broke through the barrier, and I report to Berlin that they're breaking through the entrance.

He says, "I think they're going to storm you. I'm with Kolosok, Kingdom of Heaven, let's do it again, I say, Kolosok, come on, gather everything, all the stuff that's there, all the iron, let's throw it on again. That's how I tried to barricade it 7 times, and 7 times they broke through. By the eighth time, they had already started to enter. I said, they're definitely going to come in now. And then a grenade explodes at the entrance. A grenade explodes, and I see legs in the smoke in the hole, there was a hole there too. I saw the legs. I started shooting at them with the machine gun, and Kolosok also - into that hole. And then it was quiet. Then again, when the shooting started, they, well, it's dark, how is it, the light is on from the power bank, there was a light bulb, it was illuminating. And again, I said to Kolosok, let's go into the darkness and hide there so that we wouldn't be seen. There's a concrete wall with holes in it. They started shooting from there. I look, they all have silencers, you can tell by the sound. And there are these pops and sparks. They are shooting from different sides, about 4 people, I think, came in. I start shooting at those sparks — looks like I’m hitting the spot, I’m aiming right at it from behind the wall, and Kolosok is shooting them too. I thought maybe they were wearing armour, so I shot at him, he shot at me. Then I thought, I should have shot lower. When I ran out of ammunition, I asked Kolosok for help, and there was a bulletproof vest lying next to me, so I thought I could crawl to it, but the concrete hill was in the way.... I've been running like that since 9 May without body armour and without a helmet. I just didn't have the strength anymore. It's easier to manoeuvre without body armour. I could run around the rooms, shoot. I'm 52 years old now, and I feel like I'm in a fridge with my armour on - I'm uncomfortable.

If I had run with him, I would probably have died there. And then, when they came in from the second floor, how they had got there, well, that's just a mystery. And on Z-28, when we had already left with Kolosok, we had already run to the other side, they started to enter from the second floor. I went up to the second floor, and that's the only thing I regret, that I didn't do, that I didn’t fire a burst under the door. They start breaking the door and shouting something. And I was coming down, I would have shot, but it didn't work out. I ran to the guys to tell them, and I said the guys were coming down from the second floor. They were all dumbfounded, too. Anyway, in the end, if I had fired, there would have been no such mouse fuss, just a shootout, throwing grenades between floors. I mean, they are shooting into the gap between the railings. The grenades were rolling, and one brave man threw a grenade and flew straight into the smoke. He flew in, just like that, shot at Jack, and hit his fleece. And there was Balu and the Commissioner, God rest his soul, he was also killed. And one of them, whether he shot or not, it doesn't matter. I mean, he blew off half his skull, you could see his brains. He just flew in, he didn't run in, he didn't come down, like we do, he just came in like a shot. And the second one was already lying there. Oh, I threw a grenade there, a couple of grenades, maybe a grenade killed him, but no one will know. And when they brought him down, the second dead one, they cut his vest, I looked at his vest, yes, I think he was a paratrooper. They cut his vest, turned it around - there were domes and crosses, and I realised what kind of paratrooper he was. I was not surprised. So they started taking off everything I had there, taking it away. One of them had an assault rifle with a silencer, but there were only these, what's his name, 74s, I mean, fives. The 12th AKs were just lying around the dead. Before us, someone else had taken them, I don't know. Kolosok took an AK-12 with a night light, a good rifle.

Tykhon: To be honest, no one had any documents. They had phones, you know, payroll cards.

One even had 15,000 Russian rubles. But otherwise, basically, there was no such document. Well, there were maps.

of Chasiv Yar, and the points, our points, and their points are marked. You know, where the positions are, the house is somewhere, there, the points, there, well, where ours are, where their positions are, and that's it. And there's a route where they need to come in, where they need to gain a foothold.

Mikhei: Yeah, they mostly go around with armour-piercing ammunition, almost all of them have armour-piercing ammunition. What do they have there, some syringes, no idea what, stuff in ampoules, all bundled up like that, wrapped with tape. I was trying to figure out what this stuff was, what it was for. Someone says it's for contusion, he's crazy, there are so many syringes. Maybe it's drugs, I have no idea, I didn't look into it. I just threw them away, that's all. What else do they have there, a gas stove and a spray can and ammunition. And some of them have two or even three mags. It's strange. Usually, you take at least eight mags with you when you go on an assault, but over there, I saw one guy with just three mags.

Tykhon:

Well, they came in 2 or 3, and if they weren’t killed, they ran across. Then another two would come running. And that’s how they go — in small groups. Even if some get killed, new groups keep coming. They dig in, just like that.

It's not like there are 10 people there at once. Sometimes they can tie a speaker to a drone. They can play the Russian national anthem, "Glory to Russia". Well, you can hear the Russian national anthem singing, and the next day there will be an assault.

Well, they were saying, surrender there, surrender — you’ll live. We control Chasiv Yar, you have no way out. That’s what they were saying over the loudspeaker.

Mikhei:

Then the same crap started happening at Z-29. The buildings were literally about 15 to 20 meters apart, five-story blocks like that. Then we got the order to take out Shanson. Kolosok, good guy, brave guy. Jack had everything rigged already, the TM mines were in place. Kolosok sprinted over, tossed one in, and that was it: Shanson was gone, taken out. Then they decided and gave us the order to destroy Z-28. We had already run over to Z-29. I remember, when I was on the night watch with the sight, I told him, "You run, I’ll cover you just in case." And I still remember that moment how smoothly he did it. It was dark, at night. He ran in, lit it, and pushed it in. I remember that fragment clearly. He ran through, and I fired from the night scope, he almost got a blast right in the face from me. Seriously, he threw two bundles in there.

They leveled the buildings completely to the ground. We were gradually pulling back, leaving them no chance to establish a foothold. There was no other way because if they kept flooding into the basements, they’d have constant shift changes, rotations every week. They had enough forces to keep running in. By the time we were at Z-29, I realized the assault was inevitable, especially since the first floors were all blown apart, there were such drafts you could ride a motorcycle right through. So I understood we could only hold the defense in the basement. I kept telling the guys: look, we need to have both entrances guarded at all times. If they trap us from both sides, we’re completely screwed. Sova was with us, on the radio, and he heard they were re-entering Z-29. He opened fire. Kolosok went upstairs with Botsman. Those bastards killed him on the spot—looks like a grenade took him out. Balu came running and said Kolosok was KIA. Then I realized we had to head for that exit. I sprinted there so they couldn’t cut it off, and I felt in my gut they were moving along the first floor right toward us.

I saw one guy moving and hiding. Good thing I had those fucking armor-piercing rounds on me. There was a thin partition wall between the toilets, and he must’ve taken position behind it, I could hear him. I slammed a round into the wall, heard that sack of shit drop and start wheezing. Shot right through the wall. Then I lobbed three RGD grenades in there on a bounce, F-1s are too heavy for me. I stuffed them into my pockets. Then I lobbed them underhanded into the place, and everything blew up. Only then did we get a chance to pull out. Berlin himself radioed: "Fall back to the third stairwell." The third entrance was the only part still standing, so we sprinted over and waited for further orders. In the end the decision was to get the hell out.

And when we started running toward the fire station, our guys were holding it, we somehow made it to the detention center… no, the hangar. The place they’re calling "Biden" now.

Tykhon:

I can tell you what I saw. I took out one myself. One of them was taken down by our commander, his callsign is Senior. Well, I finished him off. That happened right next to me, up close. And further out, maybe 100 meters from us, I could see movement at their positions too.

They got killed too. At the second position, when I sprinted over, I saw one for sure,one hundred percent confirmed with my own eyes. That was at a distance of about 120 meters.

A brother-in-arms. We stood guard together. He got a KIA. And I had two wounded on my side.

That’s confirmed. Between the two positions, I’d say ten confirmed KIA for sure. As for the wounded, FPV drones finished some of them off later.

Mikhei:

Yeah, we slowly made it to the detention center. I stayed there for another two weeks, had my second-to-last assault there. And then came the evacuation.

Tykhon:

Yeah, I went in weighing 80 kilos. Now I’m probably down to 70. A solid 10-kilo drop. We had food, but I guess it was just the mental and physical strain, I didn’t really want to eat anything.

Maybe they would’ve pulled us out earlier, but the situation was already so tense, and you couldn’t get a vehicle close to the position anymore. That’s probably why we ended up holding out there longer.

Because we were pulling out of Chasiv Yar on our own, it was a four-kilometer trek to the village with drones buzzing overhead the whole way. Fire support came from our mortar, it does a solid job. The moment those b..tards start advancing, we call it in over the radio, and the guys get to work, good, reliable mortar. Our FPV drones, too. The drones really get the job done.

They tip us off, ’cause we can’t see everything ourselves, everyone tips off when they advance, for example, assault brigade starts moving, they spot it coming and pass it over the radio. Yeah, without drones it’d be hard, but with drones, yeah. FPV drones do great work too.

Mikhei: Our battalion handled all the logistics. They really tried. I’m not saying it was 100%, but they did their best to get us ammo, grenades, everything we needed.

And food. Whatever you needed, you’d just radio Berlin. Cigarettes, chocolate, candy, even grilled meat, they dropped it off for us. Even if we needed water, an FPV drone would deliver it. My fleece got burned, next thing I know, they sent me a new one.

Tykhon: The hardest day was during the evacuation. At one of the positions, more like a bunker setup, they kept hitting it with GABs. I think five GABs landed there. Blew holes all over the roof. And those b..tards got the idea to throw in a TM mine, an anti-tank mine. The blast was unreal, there’s no way to put it into words.

It left everyone deafened, badly. That was probably the toughest moment. That’s all.

Mikhei:

We left Chasiv Yar around 6 or 7 o’clock. It was around 11 a.m. when we moved out. We had to carry the commander from one position to another, closer to the direction of "Trump’s" side.

There was a good cellar there. We stayed in it, had food.

At every position, someone had left something, canned food, water. No problems. When I was leaving, I took only what was necessary. Just two magazine cases, one attached to my rifle, and the other to the extra AK-12 I was dragging with me, just in case. Two rifles, you never know. I left the grenades and extra magazines for the guys.

Tykhon: I’ve been in the National Guard for about five months. Got mobilized in 2023.

Mikhei:

I was mobilized. To put it plainly, "busified." (forcibly abduct people from the street into a van - ed.note) Didn’t refuse, though. I thought, I’ll go. Then I figured I’m a fatalist: if TCR calls me up, I’ll go fight.

If they don’t, won’t go. They did, so I went.

Ended up in the 59th, Pokrovsk direction, city of Ukrainsk, near Selydove. Assault company. How many assaults did I do? Two and a half.

The third one didn’t even start. Mortar fire broke everything up, everyone scattered. I realized that if I went for another assault, I wouldn’t come back. Not that I was scared, I just knew it was pointless. I went AWOL. Then I stayed home drinking for about a month, thinking: what now? Go back to fight? Figured the cops would come; if they got me, I’d go. They came, took me. I said, "I’m not refusing to fight."

Tykhon:

Among my brothers-in-arms, I want to mention Hutsul, that’s his callsign. A good guy. Also, Sultan, Buran. All of them.

Our commander, the senior one, is a sharp guy. You know, kept everything under control, made sure no one slacked off. Solid guy, too.

Mikhei:

Kolosok’s a good fighter—pretty sure he’s 27.

He never backed down from a mission.

I feel sorry for him. He could be nominated for an award. It’s so absurd, he basically blew up Shanson, blew up Z-28, and then says to Berlin: "Will they at least give me some certificate?" A certificate of merit…