In the DPR, the offensive of the people’s militia forces together with the Russian troops in the direction of Volnovakha continues. On February 27, representatives of the Donetsk Republic announced that they had managed to recapture Nikolaevka, Dmitrovka, Svobodnoye, Donskoye, Chicherino, Trudovskoye. Nikolaevka, taken two days ago, became the first recaptured settlement in the Donetsk region. However, the fighting in this area continues, most of the civilians remain in the basements.it is too early to talk about the return of peaceful life to this territory. Izvestia special correspondent reports from the scene.
To Mariupol
Two days ago, heavy fighting took place in Nikolaevka, on Sunday, for the first time in eight years, there is an opportunity to be in this village, bypassing the district checkpoints, and in general any checkpoints. True, so far only the military can get into it, and as an exception – journalists. Crossing the former front line by civilians is out of the question: despite the fact that the village came under the control of the DPR, massive shelling of it by the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not stop.
Nikolaevka borders on the Starobeshevsky district, and is located some 5 km from the very village of Petrovskoye, where for several years the warring parties, according to the Steinmeier formula, tried to disengage forces.
Military actions in Donbass today are going in different directions, but the main thing is here. The task of the armed forces of the DPR, going to Volnovakha, is to develop an offensive against Mariupol.
As long as you pass rare settlements to the point of arrival, there is no special feeling of the proximity of war. It is noteworthy that the names of some villages are still written in Ukrainian, and power lines are painted yellow and blue. When leaving behind the last village of the DPR, a sharp smell of burning hits the nose – the fields are blazing after shelling. And on the country road leading to Nikolaevka, you can’t turn around from military equipment – tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, Urals with rocket launchers, UAZs with a red cross go there, to the westa field kitchen with cans, ordinary road “Gases”, reoriented for the transportation of fighters.
Along the road stretches enclosing black plastic tape. To the left, to the right – it is impossible, the fields are mined. From that it is necessary, crowding, to move at low speed along a narrow road. If one car stalls, the entire convoy stops, and this is deadly, while we are driving – on the left, that is, to the south, where the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are located, in varying degrees of proximity, it constantly rumbles. The road, as the only artery, is regularly shelled.
small shiver
The former frontier line that recently separated the DPR from the Donetsk region is a line of Ukrainian dugouts and trenches crossing the road, it was this line that had to be opened three days ago, it was this line that had been insurmountable for almost eight years.
From Nikolaevka, DPR fighters are sent to new areas of the offensive.
– On the breakthrough – to the right, the center of the village – to the left! – the officer at the crossroads explains to us, shouting over the roar of engines.
At first glance, there is a feeling that the only inhabitants in the village are servicemen. But we notice a young woman.
“Alesya,” she introduces herself, and the feeling that the woman is suffocating is from excitement. – I went to the store, but there is nothing there, empty!
And he adds that It was only the second time she went outside in the last three days. Children – three and seven years old – are scared at home, they do not let go.
She practically does not remember the day when the village came under the control of the DPR:
Photo: Izvestiya/Sergey Prudnikov
— I fainted. Everything shook, everything shook.
Alesya is still shaking with a slight shiver…
Most of the fighters refrain from commenting, apparently – there is no time for talking, a quick breakthrough is possible, everyone’s nerves are on edge.
Do not mind saying a couple of words – units.
One of the soldiers Eldar is 22 years old, he is from Starobeshevo. BTR-80 driver. Says he lives with the crew in his car, it’s their mobile home. Waiting for warmer weather! Only the fire saves. They did not participate in the recent breakthrough of the defense. He and the crew in the unit came up yesterday, their common task is to control Nikolaevka, and if the enemy makes an attempt to return – repulse the attack.
19-year-old Kirill is from Donetsk. A year ago, he still lived with his mother in Moscow, then he returned and went to serve. Cyril’s forehead is cut by a long, curved wound. He explains: the day before yesterday, a mine was blown up on a Kamaz …
“Be patient, please”
Approximately at these words, he whistles over his head, and a gap is heard nearby. Out of the corner of my eye I see something taking off into the air – land, buildings, equipment? Here it strikes again.
– In cover! Everyone seems to be screaming.
We are on a patch near two-storey brick buildings. Before the houses where there are cellars, do not have time. Everyone – and around dozens and dozens of people – is looking for somewhere to hide, but there is nowhere to hide, we are in an open space.
I throw myself under an infantry fighting vehicle standing nearby, crawling under it. The “grads” are hitting – exactly on our cluster. Because of the heavy wheels of the car, which seem to be a salvation, you can see how something flies around and more into the air…
The shelling continues for an endless minute.
Photo: Izvestiya/Sergey Prudnikov
The silence after that does not last long – there are screams, wounded …
But you don’t notice them either, and you don’t really hear them – take cover, while there’s a break, hurry!
Shelter in one of the houses – in the basement. It’s dark inside, crying civilians hiding. It seems the whole basement is howling.
“They bombed on February 24, for my daughter’s birthday,” a woman says in the dark, comforting her crying daughter. And today is the continuation of the birthday.
And he says more, tightly squeezing his daughter:
— Everyone is afraid and crying. And my aunt is crying nearby too. Nothing, please be patient..
Photo: Izvestiya/Sergey Prudnikov
Medics are already screaming outside.
Arriving in Donetsk in the evening, we also find close breaks here. According to official information, at 19:00 on February 27, the Armed Forces of Ukraine opened fire 23 times on the territory of the DPR, including with the use of multiple launch rocket systems, 122-mm cannon artillery, 120-mm mortars. 13 settlements of the republic fell under shelling.
Sergey Prudnikov, Nikolaevka