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A Village Retaken, and a Confidence Boost for Ukraine’s Troops


PAVLIVKA, Ukraine – A shepherd dog roams the streets by himself, the only sign of life in this destroyed village. Flames rose to the rafters of the school and smoke billowed from a burning house a few streets away after a Russian artillery attack earlier in the day.

Amid the smoke and rubble, Pavlivka seems like a dubious prize. But for the Ukrainian military defending it last week, after retaking it from Russian forces three weeks ago, it is seen as a rare success as much of Ukraine, and the rest of the world, is devastated. by the fall of the last two cities in the east. The province of Luhansk is coming overwhelming Russian firepower.

In this small corner of the adjoining Donetsk Oblast, a self-sufficient mechanized brigade is bucking the trend.

“I told you when I see you next time, we’ll liberate somewhere,” the unit’s commander said triumphantly. “Well, we have.” Like most officers serving in the Ukrainian army, the commander, a 30-year-old major who heads an anti-tank unit, is required to be identified only by his codename, Kryha, has means Band.

Pavlivka, just a few miles from the nearest Russian positions, remains a precarious position for Ukrainians. The Russians had bombarded the village so heavily since the loss of the village, that only a small group of Ukrainian soldiers lay under the entrance. The few civilians still living there were hidden, nowhere to be seen.

Villages, towns and cities across eastern and southern Ukraine have been similarly devastated as Russian forces have made slow progress over the past five months, leaving the Ukrainian army in the face of artillery attacks. relentlessly and killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

Still, the recapture of Pavlivka is a welcome change for Ukrainian troops in the region, after months of stagnation. It also gave them a close look at the enemy, and what they saw gave them confidence.

Lieutenant Andriy Mikheichenko, deputy commander of an anti-tank missile unit, said: “People need to believe in themselves, see the enemy, see them captured, killed, see that they too are easily shot. hit. “Moreover, we have a lot of rookies. These people also need to feel successful. “

He said that Ukraine’s 53rd Brigade seized the village on June 21. Overnight, they negotiated the surrender of 10 Russian prisoners of war, including the commanding officer stationed in the village.

Kryha, who commanded the operation, said his troops caught the Russians off guard in both the timing and direction of the attack.

“This was a complete surprise for them,” he said. “We surrounded them so they couldn’t move forward or back. They were blocked. We also block reinforcements who might come to their aid.”

Sitting in an underground operations room at his base, the walls of which had maps and video feeds of the surrounding countryside, he said the Ukrainians had been planning the attack for a month in advance. on the move, to ensure minimal casualties. The preparations paid off and they secured the village for 48 hours, with only one soldier killed and three wounded, he said.

The enemy force consisted of about 150 men, half of whom were Russian marines and the other half were pro-Russian forces drawn from breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, but he said they had complacent and not very smart.

During his visit to Pavlivka on Sunday, the commander passed the wreckage of three Russian armored vehicles next to the central square. One car was turned into a jagged mess of metal, its turret exploded with such force that it lay 100 yards away from the street.

The central buildings were badly damaged and gutted by fire. “You see what this war is doing?” said the major.

Further along the street, the Russians used a residential area as their headquarters. An abandoned SUV marked with a Russian Z-code stands in the yard amid the ruins of battle. It was here that the Russian commander was captured. “He walked out and immediately raised his hand,” Kryha said.

There were brief street battles but the Russians fought very little. “They realized it didn’t make sense anymore,” said the commander. “They can’t continue.”

The Ukrainians weren’t about to get bogged down in taking prisoners, but they ended up taking 10 Russians. The Russian commander asked to be allowed to withdraw without weapons on his side, but the Ukrainians refused to accept it, Kryha said.

His men showed less concern for the Ukrainians who were fighting alongside the Russians. Dozens of them were killed in the battle, he said, and the rest escaped.

Lieutenant Mikheichenko, who saw and spoke to the prisoners, were all members of a marine infantry brigade from the Russian naval base at Simferopol in Crimea.

“They are well-spoken, educated and well equipped,” he said. “But they’re all tired and unmotivated.”

They have been fighting since February, he said, first in the city of Kherson, which the Russians had captured earlier in the war. The unit was then sent into the battle for the port city of Mariupol and fought a week-long campaign against the Ukrainian army for control of the Azovstal steel plant. Then, with no respite, the marines were sent to frontline positions at Pavlivka.

Among some of the assets, uniforms and weapons seized by the Ukrainians was a diary of one of the Russians killed in battle. A sergeant from the Siberian city of Kemerovo, he wrote a loving farewell letter to his wife. “Maybe they sensed something was coming,” Lieutenant Mikheichenko said.

The lieutenant provided photographs of several diary entries to The New York Times. The sergeant also wrote about a failed Russian attack on Mariupol and his experience of fear of being shelled by Ukrainian forces. The next day, he wrote: “They said there would be another attack. I really don’t want to go, but what to do? “

He also wrote about looting by Russian soldiers. “The boys come to the apartments and bring big bags. Maraving in all its glory,” he wrote. “Some take only what they need and some take everything from an old television to a large plasma TV, computers and expensive alcohol.”

Delivering a defeat to the Russians was particularly important for the 53rd Brigade. At the beginning of the war in February, the brigade was defending the town of Volnovakha, which guarded a strategic highway into Mariupol. But in mid-March, they were forced to give up the town and retreat for about 20 miles, even losing Pavlivka.

They returned to the town of Vuhledar, a largely desolate collection of dilapidated apartment buildings, where a few entrenched residents held doors and cooked meals on firewood in the yard. With no electricity or running water, they said they relied on the military for supplies and protection from thieves.

A retired miner named Volodymyr, 65, sits on a bench in the courtyard to the north of a building, whose residents are known to be better protected from Russian artillery. “I don’t think I’m leaving,” he said. “My wife is buried here and I will rest with her.”

Despite the destruction, says Kryha, Pavlivka gave a much-needed boost. “We go back, go back, go back,” he said. “Then we got up and stopped. We have gained strength and resources. Everyone has had more experience. Now they realize that they can really fight.”

Kamila Hrabchuk Reporting contributions from Kurakhove, Ukraine.



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