Ukrainian military leaders desparately try to restore futile situation in Donetsk
2015-01-22
Posted by: badanov
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
As news of the tactical defeat of Ukrainian forces holding the airport begins to leak out from official and unofficial Ukrainian sources, stories are starting to emerge about a Ukrainian military leadership desperate to deal with a sharp reverse at a key position, hastily throwing newly formed combat units into combat, and on the same day, having them utterly destroyed by rebel fighters.
Two or three days ago, a video was posted which showed Donetsk president Aleksandr Zakharchenko conducting a press conference with three Ukrainian soldiers who were captured as they attempted to mount a relief operation at the new terminal, and to the Putilovsky bridge near Spartak.
The small group sent to the airport was apparently part of a larger one, said to be an element of the 95th "Zhitomir" Independent Airmobile Brigade which included a Ukrainian colonel, now identified as Colonel Oleg Kuzmin, who was part of the task force sent to evacuate Ukrainian wounded at the new terminal. The only problem was that most of the Ukrainian soldiers holding the new terminal at the airport had been given safe passage back to their lines almost four days before, while the rest that stayed were so badly wounded, they could not be moved. At least one Ukrainian officer had fled the new terminal.
The relief operation was mounted as an icy fog descended on the region with visibility down to about 20 meters. The relief column included a number of armored vehicles and at least one rifle company, said to be an element of the 81st Mechanized Rifle Brigade.
According to one of the captured soldiers, his unit was ordered to go to a location between the old terminal and the new terminal where they could expect to pick up wounded, but instead were met with rebel fighters. According to Zakharchenko and the soldier, the entire rifle company was killed after four hours of combat with rebel forces, save for about 10 effectives.
Zakharchenko said, without further elaborating, "I couldn't imagine an entire tank battalion being destroyed within a day..." Presumably, according to Zakharchenko, a total of 31 tanks were destroyed or disabled in the Ukrainian counterattack.
As previously described, a second armored unit, two tanks and one BMP Infantry Fighting Vehicle, had been sent to the Putilovsky bridge, after being told they were part of a larger counterattack. One soldier was apparently riding aboard the BMP when it threw a track, and the soldier was forced to bail out. Zakharchenko said in the press conference that the entire reason for the Putilovskiy bridge operation was to provide video evidence that the Ukrainian Army had matters in hand at the airport, and that the airport was surrounded.
A Facebook page posting by a Ukrainian identified as George Tuka said that the Ukrainian military leadership has attempted to develop a counterattack against the rebels using a deep flanking attack intended to push rebel forces back three to four kilometers back from the airport.
According to the post, part of the counterattack was successful. Rebel media described the same attack on Tuesday that was pushed into Donetsk city into Petrovsky district from Maryinka and Alexandrovka before it was stopped by rebel forces. Tuka said that part of the counterattack was successful.
Tuka said that the Ukrainian attack failed because of an enormous number of vehicle breakdowns. According to Tuka, of 20 armored vehicles tasked as part of a separate operation, only two were in operation. The rest became inoperable. Tuka said that the vehicle breakdowns were the main reason for the failed counterattack on the airport.
Ukrainian military journalists Dmitri Tymchuik and Roman Burko said that the rebel operations were a diversion from rebel offensive operations in Lugansk, further east. Tymchuk said that a relief column of Russian troops consisting of 12 tanks and a mobile tank workshop were sent into the area near Spartak as of January 20th.
Burko dismissed the Ukrainian counterattack as an "unsuccessful foggy sortie".
A separate Ukrainian website said that the airport has fallen to the rebels with a total of losses amounting to 37 killed. A separate tweet from a Ukrainian doctor identified as Vlad Sergeev, said to be detached to an unidentified Ukrainian National Guard unit, said that 12 Ukrainian special forces operators, affectionately known as "Cyborgs", were killed defending the new terminal. Another 15 special forces operators were captured.
One of the rebels' top commanders, identified by his call sign "Motorola" said that his units found 30 Ukrainian soldiers buried in the rubble at the new terminal, but only 14 were still alive. "Motorola" said that all the soldiers carried on them a solar powered recording device which feature homilies spoken in English and Russian by American Baptist pastor Charles Stanley, which "Motorola" said were used the "hypnotize" the soldiers about the fear of death.
Attacks on Peski and Avdievka
According to rebel media, Peski is already in the hands of the rebels. It was last reported that much of the fighting the night before was basic artillery duels, and that rebels had seized about 60 percent of the village.
According to Ukrainian tweets, Russian tanks were attempting to encircle Peski as a part of their counter operations by going to Netaylove, which is about four kilometers due west from Peski. Rebel media has made no mention of that maneuver, however.
A separate part of the rebel campaign to take the airport included taking the much larger town of Avdievka. So far, it was has been reported in media media that rebel forces have entered the town and are currently engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces there.
Rebel media also reported that Ukrainian artillery attacks continue throughout the city, including artillery hits in Oktyabrsky and Kievsky districts. By nightfall, Ukrainian artillery attacks continued.
Combat operations in northern Lugansk
Rebel forces continued to try to force the issue at highway 3103 by hitting Ukrainian police checkpoints all along the route, according to rebel media.
Tymchuk said that rebels are using as many as 25 D-30 122mm howitzers and ten rocket artillery launchers fired on not only on the checkpoints but on Ukrainian troops concentrations. Rebel artillery are also hitting routes used by the Ukrainian to supply and switch forces in the region.
Tymchuk wrote on his website that Russian were already moving large amounts of ammunition west towards Donetsk through border points in Lugansk.
Burko hinted, without elaborating that rebel forces now occupying the North Donetsk riverine town of Slavyanoserbsk, were having little success in expanding their zone of operation. Previously rebel combat units had been able to conduct small scale attacks on outlying settlements, but now, those units are no longer able to continue those operations.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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