ARTYOMOVSK, Ukraine - Holding one's ground in a village controlled by pro-Kremlin insurgents is not an easy task for a Ukrainian soldier.
Just like Donetsk Airport, the village of Nikishino south of Ukrainian-controlled Debaltseve in Donetsk Oblast has been compared to hell.
Nikishino is one of the most advanced positions of the Ukrainian army in the so-called Debaltseve cauldron, a Ukrainian-held area flanked by separatists from the west, south and east. The area has become a major direction of insurgent attacks, with pro-Russian separatists trying to surround Ukrainian troops.
Most of Nikishino is controlled by separatists but Ukrainian troops retain a foothold in the village.
Most locals have fled the village but a lone pensioner lives in a buffer zone between Ukrainian troops and insurgents, said Nikolai, a soldier who has come back from Nikishino and is currently on leave.
Another soldier, also named Nikolai, said that locals had told him the insurgents deceived them with tales of a better life in Russia. He hopes separatists will withdraw on their own because he says they lack local residents’ support.
Both soldiers, who hail from Ivano-Frankivsk and were sent to Nikishino in early October, did not give their last names because they are not authorized to speak to the press.
With insurgents just 250 meters away, the soldiers faced lethal dangers every day.
“We were basically at one end of the street, and they were at the other end,” the second Nikolai said. The first Nikolai said that, to survive in such harsh conditions, one shouldn’t “stick his head out (of the underground shelter) unless it is extremely necessary.”
Out of his 10-man unit, five soldiers have been wounded.
The second Nikolai said that, to avoid being killed in an open space, one must always run. Separatists were firing assault rifles, machine rifles, grenade launchers and mortars, the first Nikolai said.
They were moving around the village and adjacent fields in “mobile groups,” he added. “Judging from their military tactics, they were Russian servicemen, not local separatists,” the second Nikolai said, adding that the former were much more professional.
The first Nikolai said that, though he had no complaints against his immediate superiors, the strategy of higher command regarding insurgents was not always clear. When insurgents were moving military equipment to prepare for an assault, Ukrainian troops had no orders to destroy that equipment, which makes no sense, he added. “I’ve also been wondering – why not seize this village and take it under our control?” he said, adding that the Ukrainian army had resources to do that.
But he said he was not preoccupied with abstract questions like the usefulness of the Sept. 5 Minsk cease-fire agreement.
“If I think about it too much, I’ll go crazy,” he said. “There are positions to be defended, there are comrades. That’s what I was thinking of.”
Another issue often raised by critics of military leadership is procurement. The supplies of food and armaments were satisfactory, the first Nikolai said. He also said that the army had provided them with clothing but one had to be lucky to find high-quality clothes fit for winter conditions.
“Some wore civilian jeans with a pair of drawers,” he said. What has really gotten the soldiers through all the trials and tribulations is the support of comrades, the second Nikolai said. “We were like brothers,” he said. “We were all equals, regardless of rank.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]
