2024-09-02 18:33:55
It was the bloodiest clash between Ukrainians and Russians even before the full-scale invasion. After the events in the Ilovaisk cauldron, Ukrainians stopped trusting their neighbors. Since then, the fateful August 29 has been the Day of Remembrance of the defenders of Ukraine who fell in the battles for its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ukraine honored its fallen on the 10th anniversary of the Ilovaisk massacre. | Video: Reuters
The Ukrainian army was preparing to encircle pro-Russian separatists in the east of its country in mid-August 2014. It focused on Ilovaisk, whose capture would mean cutting off the city of Donetsk from the route through which supplies from Russia flowed into the city.
The Ukrainians managed to enter the city, but Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops across the unprotected border to help the separatists. Suddenly, the aggressor had eight tactical groups in foreign territory, which dramatically changed the balance of power.
The Ukrainian army was not in good shape at that time, and inexperienced volunteers were deployed in the battles. According to Andrei Teteruk, one of the commanders from Ilovaisk, a total of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers could carry out combat orders. In addition, minibuses reached the combat zones in the east.
According to the Kyiv Prosecutor General’s Office, approximately 3,500 Russian soldiers, 60 tanks, 320 infantry vehicles and five anti-tank systems entered Ukrainian territory because of Ilovaisk. Missiles started falling from Russia. At that moment, the aggressors outnumbered the Ukrainians in the Ilovaj cauldron seventeen times.
The Ukrainians asked them to withdraw and the Russians nodded. On August 29, 2014, the Ukrainians were supposed to leave through the so-called Green Corridor. “But the Russians wanted to let us go only if we put down our weapons and walk away. Then it started. That day turned into hell. The land was burning, people were burning,” recalled a Ukrainian veteran nicknamed Vinica, according to the Slovak website Aktuality.sk.
“Russian troops violated the agreements and opened fire on the retreating columns to destroy them. These events became a huge lesson. Putin cannot be trusted in any way, any compromise with him is a trap,” the head of state told the RBC-Ukraine news agency ten years later Ukrainian military intelligence HUR Kyrylo Budanov.
According to the official data of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, 366 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Ilovaisk, 429 others were wounded and 84 were missing. About 300 soldiers were captured. Two hundred people were to die on the Russian side.
In 2023, the Ukrainians saw partial satisfaction. Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Lisitsky was high on the list of Russian officers with whom Ukraine wanted to settle scores. The man who was supposed to have ordered the massacre near Ilovajsk was killed in the fighting in the east of the country.
Revenge for the slaughter in the Ilovajsk cauldron. A hated Russian commander died in Ukraine. (Full article with video here)
The Ukrainians announced that they killed the commander who was supposed to lead the massacre at Ilovaisk. | Video: Reuters, Aktuálně.cz/Twitter/Natalya Poklonskaya