Debaltsevo falls to the rebels
2015-02-19
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
The rebel campaign to encircle and destroy between 6,000 and 8,000 Ukrainian solders ended on Wednesday morning as hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers held within the pocket began to surrender to pro Russian rebels, according to Russian and Ukrainian language news and videos accounts.
Although the pocket was created ten days ago, and sealed at Logvinova February 9th, rebel forces say they continue to search for and eliminate armed resistance inside the pocket, and that effective resistance is at an end.
Debaltsevo is a rail and road center that serves the region, and has been a critical problem for the rebels since a Ukrainian attempt to encircle Donetsk city ended last August. It was unclear back then how many forces were inside the salient created when the Ukrainian Army in conjunction with another more famous -- and failed -- operation in the south at Ilovaisk, failed to link up and encircle Donetsk. But when the rebel encirclement operation began to unfold four weeks ago, it was known that as many as 8,000 Ukrainian troops occupied Debaltsevo and several other nearby towns.
Originally, the rebels' plan was to cut off the salient at Svetlodarsk and Mironovskii, which would net all 8,000 troops, but Ukrainian immediate counterattacks put an end to "Plan A" -- as Russian military analyst Boris Rozhin called it -- and thus, began Plan B. At one point before February 9th, Ukrainian troops managed to successfully drive rebel forces from Troitskoye on the eastern side of the salient.
Until February 9th, rebel forces attacked all along the walls of the salient taking Uglegorsk and eastern sectors of Debaltsevo, which turned out to be in fact a subsidiary operation meant to pin down Ukrainian troops to their positions as more mobile forces attempted to close off the salient. When a tiny gap in the Ukrainian defenses was detected by rebel forces, a Donetsk special forces light rifle company, reinforced with tanks and armored fighting vehicles took the tiny farming community of Logvinova in a coup de main at night in a six hour operation covered with artillery fire.
It wasn't until just three days ago that the Ukrainian ministry of defense publicly admitted that several thousand Ukrainian troops had been surrounded, and cut off from supplies and relief. Between the successful completion of the Logvinova operation and the Ukrainian admission that something was wrong, a few attempts had been made to either relieve or resupply forces from the outside, but those which did come into contact with rebel forces at Logvinova were destroyed. Ukrainians also repeatedly attempted assaults on other rebel held towns including Kalynivka, Redkodub, and Lozove.
News did leak out, however, that the supply situation was critical just three days after the lid on the pocket was snapped shut by rebel forces. A series of reports written by Nellie Werner for lb.ua revealed just how bad the situation was and how quickly it went from bad to worse.
According to one article published February 13th, a soldier in the Ukrainian 40th "Krivbass" Separate Mechanized Rifle Battalion, identified as Nikolay Kolesnik complained in a Facebook posting that Ukrainian commanders were not reacting to requests to withdraw even though the unit had been completely surrounded in Debaltsevo.
It is important to note that by February 12th, rebel units had already snapped the pocket in Debaltsevo shut only three days before, and that rebel attacks and probes had reached inside Debaltsevo at some points, while barely reaching the outskirts in others.
According to the lb.ua article, eight soldiers were reported wounded with another five dead. The dead and wounded could not be evacuated in any case, since parts of the battalion has been separated from the main body.
Another soldier reported in social media that rebel rocket artillery fire was hitting their positions every 15 minutes.
The following day, rebel soldiers appeared at the battalion checkpoint and offered safe passage in exchange for abandoning arms and equipment. The offer was rejected by commanders.
The unit was scattered across parts of Debaltsevo with some checkpoint "kilometers" apart, and some of those checkpoints, namely Moisha and Kol'e surrounded by rebel troops.
Three days later, repeated requests for reinforcements/relief forces and for supplies had been made to the unit's headquarters, now housed inside a residential basement. According to the article, the unit's deputy commander, identified as Colonel Yuri Sinkovsky, said that supplies had been sent, but the article indicated the supplies had not arrived.
Soldiers at the surrounded checkpoints had reported to command that a rebel ultimatum has been received. Put down all weapons and leave, or be destroyed.
At about the same time, the head of the Ukrainian ministry of defense operations in southeastern Ukraine told the Werner that the MoD was aware of the situation, but that the soldiers of the unit were hold not to surrender and to hold out.
Incredibly, the spokesmen of the command, Andrei Lysenko, said, "And, in the case of attacks, our soldiers are ready to fight them off. Communication is, the commander on the spot, and all the units in place..."
In a separate report filed only hours later, Colonel Sinkovsky went before local reporters saying that the General Staff -- i.e. Kiev -- was not responding to requests for reinforcements. Given the time frame, it appears from the report that the Ukrainian general staff either was lying to its commanders about that they were facing, or was generally unaware of just how badly the situation in Debaltsevo had deteriorated.
The following day, February 17th, commenting by phone, Colonel Sinkovsky said that his units were just sitting and awaiting reinforcements. There were dead, wounded and prisoners, and the roads were mined.
An attempt to move wounded from one checkpoint ended with ten dead and "many wounded" as the column ran onto a minefield.
Colonel Sinkovsky told Werner that his hope was for reinforcements or a counteroffensive, "but just to watch them die, it is impossible." Soldiers said that rocket artillery was falling on their positions, but that no one was hurt in those attacks. Communications were improved enough that Colonel Sinkovsky was in contact with four of his outposts.
Andrei Lysenko said much the same as he said the day before: "I have no information on the 40th battalion now," when he was contacted by Werner
"In Debaltseve now fierce fighting on the outskirts of the city. Sabotage and reconnaissance groups constantly assaulting our positions. We repel these attacks around the perimeter in Debaltsevo."
Breakout
According to another story filed on February 18th, parts of the 40th Battalion and Ukrainian 128th Brigade attempted a breakout of Debaltsevo, reaching as far as Novogrigorevka, which was already in rebel hands, this time newly deployed Cossack units. It is unclear in the story how many made it out, only that a number of dead and wounded were eventually evacuated from the area, in a humanitarian corridor to an area where the Red cross could take them into custody.
According to the story, the breakout group continued to fight until they ran out of ammunition. Indications in the article are that the unit was nearly completely destroyed in the attempt, and that the commander, Sinkovsky was probably facing charges for the breakout attempt.
According to Donetsk Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Colonel Eduard Basurin, a breakout attempt by Ukrainian forces was destroyed, as he put it, yielding 153 prisoners including 12 officers. How many were from Ukrainian 40th Battalion and how many were from the Ukrainian 128th Brigade are unknown. Basurin in his daily summary said 150 Ukrainians were killed, but it is unknown how many were from the breakout attempt
It is unknown if Colonel Sinkovsky survived he breakout attempt.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. Click here for a list of stories in the The 2014 War in Ukraina category.
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