The Kyiv Post has reconstructed the tragic events during the Battle of Ilovaisk by telling the human stories of those who were there, in a multimedia project called Surviving Ilovaisk.
There are stories of confusion among military leaders, and chaos on the ground when soldiers came up against not lightly armed Russian proxy forces, but the full might of the well-trained and equipped Russian regular army. But there are also stories of the heroism of those who fought on, even when the situation seemed hopeless, those who clung on to their own lives, and saved the lives of their comrades. in dire circumstances.
A Donbas Battalion fighter tends to his wounded commander at school No. 14 in Ilovaisk, Donetsk Oblast, in late August 2014. (Markiian Lyseiko) (Markiyan Lyseiko)
In the first of these interviews, Medic Vsevolod Stebliuk and army air force pilot Vladyslav Voloshyn describe how they managed to escape Russian encirclement, and survive Iloviask.
In the coming weeks, read the stories of:
Colonel Mykhailo Kovalsky, then head of the engineering service for Operations Command South, with the nom-de-guerre “Dynamite”.
Colonel Mykhailo Kovalsky points at the map of Donbas in Honcharivske town in Chernihiv Oblast. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
“If we had given away our arms and armored vehicles, it would have been equivalent to surrendering. Some people might criticize me for this decision, but I’m a military man — I was taught to fight.”
Colonel Yuriy Sinkovsky, then deputy commander of the Kryvbas volunteer battalion.
Colonel Yuriy Sinkovsky, then the deputy commander of the Kryvbas volunteer battalion, talks to the Kyiv Post at his battalion’s museum in Kryvy Rih on March 7. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
“I was telling my guys to wait for another day or two, and the reinforcements will come. But the storming of Ilovaisk was a failure. Our morale was low.”
Taras Samchuk, then a soldier of the anti-tank unit of the 51st Mechanized Brigade.
Taras Samchuk, a former soldier of anti-tank unit of the 51st Mechanized Brigade, recalls how his unit had their first exchanges of fire with the Russian military on August 25, 2014. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
“It was a meat grinder, chaos. Some of our vehicles collided with each other. Sometimes our vehicles rolled over people who had fallen off vehicles.”
Andriy Kashuba, then commander of the Special Tactical Team South, known by the nom-de-guerre “Apis”.
“The war has taught me to trust no one, especially there (in the Donbas). Even though we were in our homeland, those people were sort of enemies.”
Oleksandr Fedorchenko, then a Donbas Battalion fighter.
Oleksandr Fedorchenko, a former Donbas Battalion fighter, talks to the Kyiv Post on Jan. 31. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
“(The Russian soldier) started begging not to kill him because ‘we’re brothers.’ I said what the f*ck are you talking about, you entered my country to murder us.”
Yuriy Dumansky, then deputy head of General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Yuriy Dumansky, then deputy head of General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, talks to the Kyiv Post about the Iloviask operation plan. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
“They (the Russians) just passed over the border and drove on the roads. Who could stop them? The border was not secure… That should have been the main idea of the whole operation — to take the big cities, airports and railroads under control. That was up to the army to do, but our military units were dispersed through the territory.”
