Bakhmut in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk is hotly contested. The fighting spirit of the Ukrainian soldiers seems unbroken, like Andrea Beer reported. She met the commander Oleksandr.
Ukrainian soldiers fire from an armored vehicle. They jump out, shouting and cursing as they run and keep firing at Russian positions. The Ukrainian army has published the footage from the Donetsk region in the Donbass. According to them, they show the third attack brigade.
Oleksandr is also deployed in the Donbass. The 57-year-old has been fighting near Bachmut for around eight months, so he knows what he’s talking about. Because he has pain in the heart area, he undergoes a medical examination in Kharkiv and takes the time to make a phone call to the hospital. So far, he has rarely met the enemy directly to kill them, he says. During fights he was 300 to 500 meters away.
Difficult situation at the front
“Many comrades have the Ukrainian flag in their backpacks. When you know each other better and have fought a battle together, you sign each other’s flags. You formulate wishes or write down your phone number,” says Oleksandr. He comes from Cherson in the south of the country and was a shipbuilder and construction worker in civilian life. He is divorced, has a daughter in Romania and a son. Now he commands a unit of the fourth tank brigade in the longest battle to date with the Russian attackers for Bakhmut.
He cannot say how many of his brigade were killed. But right at the front at the “zero line” it is difficult. But Oleksandr wants to go back there. “I have the feeling that the boys want my presence. A lot of young people come to us as supplies. And they trust me, just trust my life experience. But I don’t want to be a burden to my people when we send them back into battle because this is a war where the evacuation of wounded and killed is a very big problem.”
“Russia has no tactics”
The Russian side has no strategy, just a lot of people and a lot of military equipment from the days of the Soviet Union – a seemingly endless reserve that wants to flatten Ukraine like a roller. His unit is motivated, even if the Russian artillery is very torturous. However, the attackers have neither strategy nor tactics, according to Oleksandr, whose surname will not be made public.
“Of course they have specially trained people, among them the Wagner mercenaries, who have been through several wars and can fight. They are now in Donbass, Bakhmut, Soledar, Yakovlivka, Makiivka, that direction. We’ll hold the fort there, because if If we can stop the Wagner people in the Bakhmut region, then our soldiers in the Cherson region will be able to drive out the Russians.”
Several soldiers probably in Russian captivity
His unit is tasked with holding and breaking through the line, along with other brigades that would defend specific sectors. Once we were fired upon by Russian artillery in a house. It collapsed and started to burn, according to Oleksandr. Some soldiers were buried in the basement and fell into the hands of Wagner mercenaries. “They probably had to surrender,” he says. Six soldiers from his unit have been taken prisoner by the Russians, and he too is afraid of being captured.
Some streets in Bakhmut were retaken by the Ukrainian side, says Oleksandr. The Ukrainian army is carrying out effective counterattacks, this is how the commander of the ground forces Oleksandr Syrsky described the situation on Telegram. On certain front sections, the Russian side had to retreat by up to two kilometers.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Waiting for Ukrainian counter-offensive
According to Syrskyj, the Ukrainian units around Bakhmut launched counterattacks. In some places, Wagner mercenaries have now been replaced by less good soldiers from the Russian army. Meanwhile, the announced Ukrainian counter-offensive is still an issue. Great Britain now wants to deliver cruise missiles of the type Storm Shadow with a range of 250 kilometers.
President Zelenskyj remained cautious on the BBC: “We are still waiting for a few things, and that will strengthen our counter-offensive. The most important thing is to protect our people.” Kiev is waiting for the corresponding armored vehicles, which will be delivered in parts. “We can make progress with that and I think we can be successful. But then we would lose a lot of people and that is unacceptable. So we have to wait and see. We still need some time,” said Zelenskyj.
Ukraine cannot afford high losses
No one in Ukraine would officially confirm when and where the much-discussed Ukrainian counter-offensive will actually take place. It depends on many factors, including the weather. They are coming, says Oleksandr. But he thinks it’s better to wait. In a counter-offensive, the Ukrainian side would have more casualties than the Russian side defending its lines. Ukraine just can’t afford that.
“Not a single death of a Ukrainian soldier is in vain now,” he says, but if it’s possible to avoid it, commanders and political leaders would do what he thinks is right. Oleksandr would like the sanctions against Russia to take effect and bring the country to its knees in this way. At the same time, he had no illusions that the attacker would have to be repelled.
Everyday wartime stressful, especially for young people
“Of course, all of this is a great burden that not everyone can withstand. Being constantly under fire, seeing wounded and dead comrades – not everyone can take it easily. I’m 57, I’ve seen a lot in my life, as the saying goes , and I’m more or less calm. The younger ones are worse off, and then little can be enough for a person to break,” says Oleksandr.
In terms of health, there is at least halfway good news: the pain in his chest was not caused by a diseased heart, but by his spine.