“We go in so as not to end up in a fire bag”
Avdiivka has long become one of the key fortified areas of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donetsk direction. Since 2014, the enemy has actually made this city a well-fortified bridgehead, which is actively used during shelling of the DPR capital.
Commander of the «Night Wolves» unit of the international brigade «Fifteen» with the call sign «Hollywood»
However, now the situation on this section of the front has begun to change, and now the enemy is thinking more about how to hold their positions and not fall into the cauldron that the Russian military is preparing for them.
The MK correspondent visited the positions of our units, from the first days of fighting near Avdiivka, and learned what the main difficulty of advancing in this sector of the front was, what categories of Ukrainian military had to resist in battle, and also why the enemy fired mortars at their own positions.
The commander of the “Night Wolves” unit of the international brigade “Fifteen” with the call sign “Hollywood”, when asked what the main difficulty of advancing in the Avdeevsky direction is, says that for the Ukrainian Armed Forces this has always been the first line of contact with the Donetsk People’s Republic.
“Everyone who is interested in the progress of the North Military District understands what Avdiivka is and how far it is from Donetsk,” explains the military man. – This is actually a suburb, with all that it implies.
According to him, Ukraine has been actively preparing for defense in this area for years, strengthening its positions. And these are not empty words. Minefields and concreted fortifications plus the terrain itself. The strategic importance of Avdiivka also plays an important role in the stubbornness of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. For the enemy, this is a springboard from which he shells Donetsk almost every day. All these factors speak for themselves.
“Therefore, our number one task is to hold off the enemy,” explains the military man. – Task number two is to constantly destroy ammunition depots in his rear, on the territory of Avdeevka, so that they do not fly towards the residents of Donetsk. And attack…
According to the commander, Russian forces are constantly advancing. Due to the density of contact, the struggle is waged for every building, for every structure, for every piece of land. We prepared, repulsed, gained a foothold, prepared again — and again a breakthrough. So step by step.
Talking about the enemy, Hollywood notes that over the past year the enemy has manifested itself here in different ways. The “Night Wolves” also had to deal with different types of enemy, from careless mobilized ones to professionals, which was evident from their fighting style.
– Sometimes it’s so hot that we immediately understand: the specialists have arrived. And after some time — relative calm. This means that the rotation has passed again, the “mykoly with taras” came in, which don’t bite very much. But in any case, you definitely can’t underestimate the enemy…
The commander says that the favorite tactic that the enemy is trying to resort to is luring the Russian military into a fire bag. During the assault, they retreat, allowing our forces to advance and take positions, and then, not allowing us to gain a foothold, they begin to strike.
“But our fighters do not fall for this bait,” explains Hollywood. — We go in so as not to end up in the bag.
— No, on the contrary, the activity on the part of the enemy is increasing. Over the past month, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have begun to snap back very furiously, and drone operators have stepped up. It feels like some division of professionals in this matter has stopped by…
According to the military man, the enemy was clearly expecting movement from our side. In the summer, just when the military leadership of Ukraine focused attention and forces on other directions, a certain decline in activity was felt in Avdeevsky. Now, Hollywood continues, the enemy has become more active and, although he uses ammunition more economically, he hits more accurately.
An officer of a neighboring tank unit with the call sign “Kolovrat”, who has been fighting in the Avdeevsky direction since the beginning of the special operation, confirmed the words of the volunteer commander.
According to the serviceman, the main reason for the long confrontation was that the enemy had been digging in and strengthening himself here for nine years. Before the start of the Northern Military District, those same Minsk agreements made it possible for Ukraine to prepare well-fortified defensive positions.
– If you and I spend eight years, so to speak, pouring concrete, we will have a lot of concrete. And everything will be serious with us,” explains the interlocutor.
The second reason making progress difficult is mines. According to the military man, in the literal sense of the word there is not a single path, not a single forest plantation, not a single settlement where there are not five anti-personnel mines lying on an area of two square meters. There is not a single road where anti-tank mines are not installed. All this, of course, complicates the advancement of both personnel and military equipment.
“Kolovrat” recalls that when, while still a volunteer of the international brigade “Pyatnashka”, together with his colleagues he went on an assault, in positions recaptured from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the fighters found documentary evidence of the enemy’s mining of the territory for the second, or even the third time. And this is only from the beginning of our SVO!
Also, over these years, starting from 2014, all our positions have been targeted by the enemy.
— After the assault, we found coordinates for adjustments from the VSE officers mortar fire on their own positions. That is, the Ukrainian Armed Forces assumed that they would retreat and that we would occupy their “fortifications,” so they calculated in advance how they would strike our forces…
“Kolovrat” clarifies that Georgian mercenaries, Poles, professional Weseushniks, and mobilized ordinary Ukrainian men, captured on the streets of their hometowns and mercilessly thrown into hell, are fighting against Russian forces in the Avdiivka direction.
– I can to say that during the period of the Northern Military District we have crushed a lot of forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces here. Yes, even if the advance was not tens of kilometers, we never rolled back, and our losses in this direction are hundreds of times less than those of the enemy.
— Certainly. But we must understand that here on our side there are mainly volunteer battalions: “Pyatnashka”, “Sparta”, “Somalia”. In short, very motivated warriors. The guys ended up at the front not because they were forcibly taken or recruited, not because someone had a bad financial situation or something else. On the contrary, we are just waiting for activity from the enemy in order to respond properly and kill everyone, regardless of the level of training…
According to Kolovrat, since the beginning of the counteroffensive declared by Ukraine, the enemy, both here and on other sectors of the front, has changed its tactics. Despite the fact that the enemy repeatedly tried to counterattack with the same pressure as in the southern and northern directions, his zeal did not bring him success.
This was also due to his own mines. It is impossible to get through, and clearing mines under our artillery fire is not the best idea. Even the vaunted Western weapons and other equipment did not help the military forces.
However, as the military man admits, the enemy still has one trump card. These are FPV drones, of which several months ago the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters had tens of times more than ours. Now, every day, the quantitative advantage of Ukrainian kamikaze drones is increasingly disappearing. Various humanitarian and public organizations helped with this, as well as officials and businessmen of some regions, who were actively involved in the development and supply of FPV drones to the front.
– We are leveling the situation with drones, and soon, as always “It happens that we will be head and shoulders above in this matter,” the officer is convinced.