A Village Retaken, and a Confidence Boost for Ukraine’s Troops
By Carlotta Gall, July 21, 2022, NY Times

The enemy captives were all members of a marine infantry brigade from the Russian naval base at Simferopol in Crimea, said Lt. Mikheichenko, who saw and talked to the prisoners.

“They were well-spoken, educated and well-equipped,” he said. “But they were all tired and lacked motivation.”

They had been fighting since February, he said, first in the city of Kherson, which Russian forces captured early in the war. Then the unit was thrown into the battle for the port city of Mariupol and fought a weekslong campaign against Ukrainian troops
for control of the Azovstal steel plant. Then, without a break, the marines were sent to frontline positions at Pavlivka.

Among some of the possessions, uniforms and weapons captured by the Ukrainians was a diary belonging to one of the Russians killed in the battle. A sergeant from the city of Kemerovo in Siberia, he had written a loving farewell letter to his wife. “
Maybe they felt something was coming,” Lt. Mikheichenko said.

The lieutenant provided photographs of some of the diary entries to The New York Times. The sergeant also wrote about an unsuccessful assault by the Russians on Mariupol and the fearful experience of coming under shell fire from Ukrainian forces. The
next day he wrote: “They said there would be another assault. I don’t really want to go, but what to do?”

He also wrote about Russian soldiers looting. “Guys went to apartments and brought out big bags. Marauding in all its glory,” he wrote. “Some took only what they needed and some took everything, from an old TV set to a big plasma TV, computers and
expensive alcohol.”

Delivering a defeat to the Russians was of particular importance to the 53rd Brigade. At the beginning of the war in February, the brigade was defending the town of Volnovakha, which guards a strategic highway into Mariupol. But in mid-March they were
forced to cede the town and retreat some 20 miles, even losing Pavlivka.

They fell back to the town of Vuhledar, a largely deserted conglomeration of battered high-rise apartment blocks where a few beleaguered residents hug the doorways and cook on wood fires in the courtyards. Without electricity or running water, they said
they relied on the army for supplies and protection from thieves.

A retired miner named Volodymyr, 65, sat on a bench in the courtyard on the north side of a building, which residents have learned is better protected from Russian artillery. “I did not think to leave,” he said. “My wife is buried here and I will
rest with her.”

Despite the destruction, Pavlivka had provided a needed boost, Kryha said. “We rolled back, rolled back, rolled back,” he said. “Then we stood up and stopped. We gained strength and resources. People have gained more experience. Now they realized
that they really can fight.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/todayspaper/ukraine-russia-war.html

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