Donbas Battalion: We are paying very dearly. But, for what? - By Maks Levin, photographer at lib.ua

Maks Levin

 

Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

 

Bad news, near Donetsk. From the words of Maks Dondyuk: Donbas [Battalion] is in Ilovaisk. Entrenched. Also there are motorized infantrymen there. There are armored vehicles. But really it’s a meat grinder there. Ours are being fired at with everything possible–Grads, mortars, anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft guns, tanks, snipers. In the Donbas, [there are] 4–[Cargo] 200’s [killed]. More than a dozen wounded. They cannot in any way get out of Ilovaisk. The place where Donbas is now based is being shelled–Grads, mortars. Shells completely destroyed a bus that was standing in the yard.

 

According to Maks, Azov and Dnipro Battalions left Ilovaisk.
 

Support is VERY much needed, in order to hold the city.

 

Semyonchenko was in an armored vest, but a very serious shrapnel ended up in his shoulder blade–knocked him off his feet. And then again in the leg. And I thought that the battalion commanders are invincible.

 

They killed the amazing Ukrainian American “Franco” (Mark Paslavski), fuck. A cheerful diasporan with a Canadian accent, how he cussed in Ukrainian, so fantastically beautiful. I was to give him these photos–[they] printed them out. He dreamed of entering Donetsk and then returning to Kyiv, to sell an apartment in Lviv and settle somewhere comfortable in the Carpathian Mountains.

 

 

Mikhailyna [Skoryk, journalist and wife of Shulz]. I have no words. Hang in there. ‘Schulz’–such a calm and confident guy. It seems he wasn’t afraid of anything.

 

 

 

 

We are paying very dearly. But, for what?

 

“Urban warfare is the most difficult art of all close combat tactics. The enemy can wait for you anywhere and shoot from an attic, basement or a kindergarten. The terrorists are firing mortars from the part of the city they control not caring whether they hit residential buildings. Last night after the death of Ulybka (Smiley) four other heroes of the National Guard Donbas battalion were killed as well as four heroes from the Shakhtarsk special police battalion. Also a Ukrainian citizen of American origin call sign Franco from the Donbas battalion was killed,” –Adviser to the Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko on his Facebook page.

 

 

Mikhailyna Skoryk:

 He wanted to go out a hero. He went. In Ilovaisk. For Ukraine, for friends, for victory and for a peaceful Donbas.

 

No need to call. Or write. It’s enough to pray for peace and an end to this nightmare.

After fierce daytime fighting Defense Force Donbas entered Ilovaisk, which is a key defense object of separatists situated to the west from Donetsk.

 As of 19:00 terrorists are dislodged from half of the city. The fighting is still going on.

Ilovaisk

 

Semyon Semyonchenko, Donbas Battalion Commander, FB post August 19^th:
We are in Ilovaisk.

Yesterday the Donbas Battalion, a separate company of the Dniepr Battalion, and the 2nd Azov Battalion platoon were engaged in heavy fighting on the outskirts of the city. Faced with fierce resistance, suffering losses, Dniepr and Azov gained a foothold on the outskirts of the city. Their job was done perfectly. Attack units of the battalion Donbas, sweeping away terrorist roadblocks, entered the city from several directions, and by 19:00 took control of the eastern part of the city. Judging by the desperate running away of  supporters of the “Russian world,” we have already learned to do coverage and raids.

 

We are entrenched for the night right in the city, nutrition and psychological assistance to residents who are in the basements of office buildings and bomb shelters has been organized. To build on the success, it was decided not to be a static target at night but to organize a night raid. During the night, three checkpoints and four enemy firing points were destroyed. It has not even helped the separatists to fire the Grad at Donbas, into the very center of city, which the terrorists held onto directly from the territory of Donetsk. The movement of the column [convoy] which was supposed to help the terrorists was also blocked. By 5 am, about two thirds of the city was under control, the city is completely surrounded. We ask people not to leave their shelters, we will try to finish everything quickly. The rotation of combined BMP APU [auxiliary power unit] also could not get into the city, but the morning brought armored vehicles, they are now with us. Glory to Ukraine!