KRASNOARMIYSK, Ukraine – Sick and exhausted, more than 100 soldiers left the surrounded checkpoint No. 32 near the village of Smile in Donetsk Oblast, some 30 kilometers southwest of regional capital Luhansk armed with their weapons and what remained of their armored vehicles.
They had spent two weeks surrounded by Kremlin-backed insurgents
who cut them off from Ukraine-held territory and outside support.
They became trapped on Oct. 14 when Russian-backed separatists advanced on their position from rebel-held Slovianoserbsk some nine kilometers
away. The encroaching forces managed to encircle the checkpoint manned by National
Guardsmen and members of the 80th airmobile
brigade. Soon their situation became
desperate as starvation settled in. They were reduced to drinking water from
puddles because all attempts to send them supplies were prevented.
More than 10 soldiers were killed over the last
month at checkpoint No. 32, Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman of the National
Security and Defense Council said at an Oct. 28 news briefing in Kyiv. “An
identification of dead bodies and investigation of the destiny of some
soldiers, who are believed to be missing (in action), is going on now,” Lysenko
said.
Late on Oct 27 after a series of negotiations that reached
even President Petro Poroshenko, the group’s commanders allowed them to leave
their surrounded position.
“They left with arms, driving what was left of their armored
vehicles,” volunteer Diana Makarova wrote on her Facebook.
Makarova told the Kyiv Post by phone that there were 119 people
in the encirclement and they couldn’t leave their checkpoint until their
commanders gave them the order to leave.
Their experience is typical of the unprovoked Russian war
against Ukraine in the easternmost regions of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Poorly equipped and a constantly receiving slow orders, Ukrainian soldiers
often get in disastrous situations on the frontline, which is expected to
become a new border soon.
They, however, often display courage and defiance in the face
of adversity.
Only on Oct. 27 were the soldiers of checkpoint No. 32 allowed
to carry their dead out. A shabby truck loaded with four dead troops and more
body parts brought its grim carriage to Ukrainian forces. Four soldiers who
brought the dead had only one hour to hand over them and then they had to
return to their surrounded position according to an agreement with the separatists.
“These
guys looked half-dead themselves,” said Makarova, who met them and shortly
spoke to the soldiers.
The troops at the checkpoint had faced shelling since
mid-October from Russian Cossacks armed with tanks, Hennady Moskal, governor of
Luhansk Oblast reported on his webpage.
The shelling never stopped. Attempts to break the encirclement
by Ukrainian troops or to negotiate a ceasefire with Cossack leader Pavel
Driomov were unsuccessful.
On Oct. 23 a truck with humanitarian aid escorted by the
special monitoring mission of Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) tried to reach the starving soldiers. Despite previous agreements
not to shoot, the insurgents shot anyway.
“The humanitarian convoy left Smile without reaching the
surrounded Ukrainian checkpoint,” OSCE said in a report.
After further negotiations, the volunteers managed to give the
soldiers only 100 liters of water and some bread.
“The insurgents cut with knives into small pieces, the clothes we
tried to give them,” Makarova said.
Poroshenko tweeted on Oct. 26 that water and food were brought
to the checkpoint. But families and volunteers of the soldiers kept saying that
it wasn’t enough because the sick and poorly armed soldiers had no chance of breaking
out of the encirclement to save their lives.
A video showing the transport of soldiers killed in action against Kremlin-backed proxies
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected].
