Defense of Soledar, Bakhmut like a horror movie

This is the second spring that Ukraine has lived in a state of great war. The military say that Ukrainians are good because they have kicked the enemy army in the teeth. During this time, there have been heavy battles in which weapons could not withstand. But the guys fought!

Ukrinform met with soldiers from the 128th separate mountain assault brigade who survived the battles for Soledar. They call what they saw there nothing less than hell, and those they had to fight against as zombies.

IT'S LIKE A COMPUTER GAME, WHERE THE LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY IS GETTING HIGHER AND HIGHER

An ATO veteran from Vinnytsia region with the call sign "American" says that a month before the full-scale invasion, he began to prepare himself: he kept his car fueled, collected money, and prepared some documents. He says that there was a certain electrification in the air, and it was clear that a big war was about to begin.

- "The tension was palpable. Many ATO veterans realized that there was going to be a war," he says.

When the invasion began, his wife and daughter were at their relatives' house in Kharkiv. So the first thing he did was to go there to get them out, and then he joined the army, his native 128th Brigade, where he served in 2014-2015.

- "When I came to Kharkiv, there was no fighting there, and some people realized that there was a war, and some didn't. I saw people with their belongings trying to leave, there were traffic jams. But I didn't care, the main thing was to get my family back. They are now in Denmark. I insisted that they leave, it was easier for me to be at the front. There was no hesitation to fight or not, I was planning to go to the reservists' training anyway, as the President had just announced it the day before," he recalls the events of February 2022.

Since then, he and his comrades have fought not only in the Zaporizhzhia sector. According to him, at the beginning of the war, they held the defense with small forces, but nevertheless stopped tank convoys.

"We liberated the Right-Bank of Ukraine and defended Soledar. There were heavy battles near Soledar, and for those who came out of there, it was like a horror movie. They had only seen such things in movies before. The stoned or drugged climb on top of you, machine gunners shoot them in the legs, and they climb further and shout "for Russia". It's a horror, I can't imagine how such creatures can exist," says the soldier.

"The American" calls Soledar the biggest hell and says: God forbid I ever go through this again.

- "It's like a computer game, where the level of difficulty gets higher and higher. It's hard to fight with the prisoners, they were firing at us in a stupor. I think... no, I'm sure that no sane person would climb across the field, see that it is covered with dead, besieged by the corpses of their soldiers and climb further. What kind of psyche can withstand this? I don't understand. These are zombies. It's also difficult to fight against Wagner, because they are trained special forces who have devoted their entire lives to war. In the Kherson region, it was hardest to stand against Russian paratroopers," the source says.

A TEMPORARILY LIVE ENEMY FORCE

The "American" is 36 years old. During the ATO, in 2014, he stood on the defense of Debaltseve, near the height called "Valera" (height 307.5, near the village of Sanzharivka, then Artemivsk, and now Bakhmut district of Donetsk region). It was his unit that held back the Russians who wanted to break through.

Both then and now, he says, Ukraine has been sending its best.

- "You ask what is the most difficult thing? Everything. There were attacks over and over again. At first, they threw their prisoners and mobilized soldiers to identify firing positions. Our guys fought back, fired the enemy, we were immediately covered by enemy artillery, and after 15 minutes they started to climb again. The weapons were not holding up... People were trying and holding on, but the weapons were not holding up. The guys' machine guns were jamming.

It seems that it is becoming incredibly difficult for him to talk further on this topic. There are pauses between sentences and words, as if he is watching a "horror movie" in his head that he saw near Soledar.

The American's fellow soldier has the call sign "Bronik". He is 24 years old and from Mukachevo. Before the war, he was our colleague - he worked as a cameraman and editor on regional television. He has been in the army since February 27, 2022.

He also says that the enemy does not spare its "manpower". He saw this during the defense of Bakhmut.

"In Bakhmut, I was most impressed and shocked by their methodology. Their previous assaults, for example, on Orikhiv, were mostly equipment, but in Bakhmut they used only manpower. But they have to be destroyed. There is no other way. What is happening and has happened there cannot be conveyed to civilians. They will never be able to understand why this city needs to be held. But I will only say that they [Russians] have broken their teeth there and are suffering very heavy losses," the military says.

"Bronik" remembers Orikhiv because he was there himself. His brigade initially stood on the defense of Orikhiv and stopped the enemy's advance. Then they were transferred to the Kherson direction, followed by, as the soldier says, a "New Year's tour" of Bakhmut, Yakovlevka, and Soledar.

- "And now they are back in their native Zaporizhzhia sector. The situation here is tense, but controlled," he adds.

I ask him why he thinks the Russians are destroying Orikhiv. He answers that they don't need the town.

"This town has been a bone in their throat since the beginning of the war. And at the beginning of the war, a lot of their personnel and equipment were defeated in that direction. They already realized that they would not be able to take it. At first they tried, but they failed. They don't need Orikhiv as a city, they need the road," says the stormtrooper.

ENEMY PANIC AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ARMED FORCES

Both soldiers say that the situation at the front is still difficult, but easier than a year ago, because the enemy has lost its enthusiasm and is visibly panicking. The Russians have also started using aerial bombs more often because they have a certain shortage of shells.

- "If we compare how they acted at the beginning and now, the ratio of our shells to theirs was one to ten, and now the difference is much smaller... Long-range weapons are the most terrible, because they hit civilian cities, infrastructure, civilians... The enemy has no success at the front and therefore hits civilians. This is panic. They want to sow panic among the population," says "Bronik".

"The American" is confident that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will defeat the enemy. When asked whether the military has enough forces, he answers:

- "There will be a counteroffensive. But this is not the main thing. The main thing is what we have done. We destroyed the largest army in a year, we stopped it with conventional weapons. We had 100 units of enemy equipment coming towards us, and it was stopped by ordinary people, those who did not even serve in the army. We drove them out of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and part of Kherson regions, and stopped the offensive in Bakhmut. At a heavy price, but we did it. Ukrainians are great," he says.

In civilian life, he worked in metrology, and at the front he was a grenade launcher.

"We received an MK-19 grenade launcher from the Americans and because it weighs a lot, we installed it on a pickup truck. We travel, cover the guys, take part in assaults, and march in armored convoys. We cover the enemy's positions so that the infantry can continue to perform their tasks," he explains.

He has been seeing his family only online for more than a year. He tries to send at least a couple of messages a day. If he is in the rear, he can record a voice message, and if he is lucky, he can even talk via video.

- The child has grown up in a year - it's hard to recognize. She started going to school. "Unfortunately, I didn't take her to the first grade..." the "American" says at the end of the conversation.

Shortly before the war, he started renovating his house. He says he needs to finish it and take his family home.

- "We have to have the strength. We have to grit our teeth and keep pulling, so that those who died did not die in vain," he adds.

Olha Kudria, Zaporizhzhia

Photo by the author