93: the Battle for Ukraine - War Diary of the 93rd Brigade Kholodny Yar 2014-2016

the only way to get to the airport was through the village of peacekey each time was a 50-50 shot we held both the old and new terminals the fire station and the flight control tower the battles near the donesk airport never stopped there was a mission to assault the enemy's stronghold outpost monastery [Music] this war well it was planned long ago 10 15 years back the rulers of the russian federation already had plans for a war in ukraine [Music] the last two ministers of defense were russians they did everything to destroy our army when we left the soviet union we had about 460 000 in the armed forces of ukraine during the last 20 years we had shrunk to 80 000. and at the time of the war we had about six to seven thousand combat units well it was destroyed by someone [Music] we had our hands tied so much by various regulations it was impossible to fire a single shot without a command from above we had relocated all troops from the area around donetsk and luhansk we no longer had anybody there at the time volunteer battalions played a very important role for about a month i was trying to find out which volunteer battalions were there all commanders gathered they sat down with me at the command post and talked we made the right decisions sometimes i listened to them and changed my mind sometimes they listen to me we came to an agreement together and i think they also played a very big role both in the defense of the airport and the defense of peacekey and when i was short on people when i took out the wounded but there was nobody to bring in any more i asked for help from the oun battalion the nunipur won the right sector and all those guys came for help it was also very nice to work with the karpatsuka sich unit most of them were ideological these were people who knew what they were going for and why they were dying if everyone had their minds made up the same way as they did we would have ended the war here a long time ago [Music] the story of the battalion itself goes like this the battalion was located on the border towards luhansk then the battalion was reorganized it went to savor mojilla and suffered very heavy losses there and after so i had to reconstitute the battalion for a third time on october 29th the battalion entered the ato zone to carry out its assigned mission [Music] the third mechanized company was also ordered to conduct missions at the donesk airport the only way to get to the airport was through peacekeeping through the takeoff runway by all accounts there were about three kilometers of runway and left was out of our control behind the airport fence were enemy positions with spgs and atgms they were constantly shooting at us enemy artillery did too there they only had seven minutes for the personnel to load or unload the vehicle to get out of the airport transport the wounded and change ships we could only move at high speeds exactly seven minutes to reload and retrieve if they had stayed any longer they could no longer get back in every way in or out from the airport i can't describe how difficult it was one tank lost a track it got stuck on the runway one ifv was wrecked then we realized that it was dangerous to approach in this way we decided that it is necessary to take control of the village of opening [Music] we conducted recon then a motorized infantry unit of my guys together with the guys from the right sector unit moved in they cleared all the houses all the streets everything was checked and after that armored vehicles and infantry arrived and then placed themselves there first of all it opened us a way to outpost zenith because outposing it held a full circular defense there it was impossible to get in there before we open the road to zenith [Music] then we took control of the high ground near the airport [Music] first of all from this hill we could get cover we could cover our guys approaching the airport via the runway there were only 25 of us we moved all night we walked right through the minefield the tripwires the tree line [ __ ] we came from their flank caught them by surprise and we attacked them from their flank knocked them out quickly and that was it even now it is the only height at the airport held by the ukrainian army foreign yes [Music] the first squad of the first platoon approached on november 9th the second squad was wiped out the third arrived on november the 12th on the evening of the 12th of november at five o'clock we were already at the old terminal already as part of the first platoon when approaching the terminal we were given the task just to stay there for a while and ensure everything was quiet you've also got to understand that the terminal itself was practically surrounded it was exposed to fire from the south side practically from the first floor to the roof the eastern part was controlled by the separatists and from the northern side behind the runway there was also positions from which they were shooting with small arms there was well-armed fire by the enemy suppressing the second and third floors and on the roof the only road which was 60 meters between the new and old terminal it was completely exposed to fire at about 10 o'clock in the morning on november 29th we heard an explosion and shooting a round from an rpg flew in at us and slammed into the column over my right ear at first we thought it was a provocation that it would all fizzle out and everything would remain in its place but as the following events showed it was already a purposeful assault the attack began we heard wounded we have wounded here they blew up the wall i ran there saw a guy laying on his back covered in blood he had that white i began to apply a tourniquet i wanted to write on his forehead the time of the application with a marker and he asked don't write it on my forehead but on my hand i lifted up his glove and wrote on his hand on the right one no on the left one time of application with a black marker but he didn't make it he died yeah i saw that half of the second floor was empty and they retreated and bunched up downstairs i left my post on the ground floor i had my position at the bar i ran and fired single shots i reached the barricade took up position and started shooting to the far end of the corridor but there was absolutely no light a dark end that is i shot blindly at random with single shots my eight magazines were spent i didn't know how to shout that my mags were spent it meant i had to go back 20 meters i would have been shot in the back they shot at us from there out of the darkness so i shouted to the guys behind me guys my position is downstairs whoever's position is this go back to it i need to be downstairs at my position on the ground floor and while shooting my last mag i swore at them i said single rounds save ammo and ran to reload that was my mistake i should have reloaded on the spot and handed it over to someone we were inexperienced then at that moment there was a powerful explosion on the second floor and screams our guys were buried under they're dead the guys from the second floor ran up said that one died was buried under the wall everest and a crowbar i said vicha grab a crowbar let's run and dig him out i hope that this man was still alive there was a risk that separatists would capture him i made it unarmed to the place where the rubble was and started shooting to the far corner first at the corner then at the middle at chest level with the single shots in the dark they answered from there with something quiet because i saw the bullets hitting nearby but there was no sound of shots there was only a flash and bullets the enemy who attacked us in this offensive was quite prepared i think they were no ordinary soldiers while i was shooting i saw vitalik lying on his back the guys dragged him by the arms and legs and i finished off my magazines and retreated so who would volunteer to cross the runway under fire during the battle and take out the wounded otherwise they would die foreign the density of the fire was heavy and we had to cross 60 meters of that road which i just mentioned foreign i was shooting and behind my back the boys called commentary as if it was a football match they've gone 10 meters gone 20 meters gone halfway with the stretcher on the first day two men were killed and 10 injured the next day they were even more wounded on the second day my machine gun jammed completely it hadn't been cleaned we could not knock out cartridges from the chamber i was already hammering a cartridge into the chamber i was hitting the handle of the machine gun with a grenade or a magazine to make it shoot later i just took someone else's machine gun and finished them off with it sniper rifle bullets it didn't matter anymore how to shoot but only to suppress the enemy in the afternoon we were hit with many incidentary shells and the garbage caught fire there was a lot of construction waste there was plastic and different lining all not fireproof and it burnt well enough the wind was blowing towards donesk this smoke and fire did not bother us in the evening after dark the wind abruptly changed and all the flames and smoke rushed into our last room almost instantly the room was full of smoke and flames we did not have the opportunity to go out to put out the fire and they took advantage of that fire and there was no place to hide it turns out that all our barricades were mostly wood plastic and wood what are these terminals this is a new one modern construction there's mineral wool molding a lot of glass and a lot of metal which only holds the construction then i went [Music] at about six o'clock in the evening we got out there all of us and when the other group came in to fight back they came in and they saw that the walls were gone all the walls burned down and there was nothing to even use as cover to hide [Music] [Laughter] [Music] then the issue of moving personnel through checkpoints of the iag illegal armed groups was raised my second run was on december 15th already through the separatist territory but still we replaced our guys at a time when it had already been critically needed the boys got tired there as well we changed our second platoon two vehicles coming out were being fired at they punctured all the wheels smashed the windows and then the idea came up that if we took control of the meteorological tower we could go to the airport directly [Music] i went to the second company and said guys well we've got to take it they said nothing will work we are not able to hold it well we had all of those you know meetings conferences and so on i said well it's up to you either way i'll drive the ifv myself and go there and ten more men hopped on with i me at the wheel replacing the ifv operator they were on top of the armor we drove in there we set up a defense checked everything started the generator we repaired the light and dug two shelters completely covered masked and that was it i stayed with them for two days there at the meteorological tower and two days later i left [Music] [Applause] [Applause] is then we already had two paths of approach to the airport one from peacekee and one from oputne we were then able to slightly deceive them for example in peacekey we would start heavy vehicles and tanks and start riding in circles we created a commotion they were expecting us there and then we would get through the meteorological tower transferred back and forth everything was well done a good job we usually went there in pairs two tanks and two ivs when the tanks worked all the time in winter there were no problems we would easily go in and out so but the ifv and mtlb multipurpose light armor towing vehicles are lightly armored vehicles these reinforcements would not reach the terminal and would not bring them anything and the wounded would not be taken out but when a tank came out everyone aimed immediately at the tank and let the reinforcements go through [Music] so so it was a daily job their tanks would appear and our tanks would start shooting at them we would not allow them to go out and conduct aimed shooting at the airport [Music] you've got 180 degrees so only your rear is safe but left right and front are in the direction and shooting at every flash well usually i was in a tank if i saw something i would aim and immediately fire bang we had battles every day but there was a very heavy fog and practically no visibility there were tank duels tank battles two three tanks would drive out and shoot sometimes three full tank ammunition loads were used today all the time we were covered by our meteors we were grateful to them they rarely let the enemy artillery do anything because they would hit them fast from the first to the last day of the defense of the airport my unit covered our troops defending it we were conducting counter battery missions identifying and suppressing the enemy's batteries and covering our troops [Music] the location of our artillery and the enemy artillery was like this we were set in small settlements villages fields and so on the enemy was in donetsk itself believe me there were lots of people there on our side who are giving us clear coordinates of the enemy artillery positions but if they shot from the city from behind a house we were not allowed to open fire on them namely artillery cover [Music] choice until this one story happened [Music] our battery was completely destroyed several mortars were hit by shrapnel some had their aiming sites destroyed some had the tube damaged we also lost 9 people out of 60. there was a platoon of the wounded and there were 20 of us left still mission capable we got together with our two remaining mortars and we helped as much as we could we were shooting and firing quite successfully at first we generally thought we were all enchanted to be bulletproof everything was flying around whistling and hissing some stuff almost fell under our feet and everyone stayed alive and well i really thought we were enchanted one of the most important combat missions was to protect the donest airport being at the control tower i spotted for the artillery fire [Music] almost all the artillery around donetsk was dedicated to the battle for the eudonesk airport at the airport my friend and i could be on duty for up to 10 days because after 10 days the instinct of self-preservation starts to fade around the clock fire that's it you need to constantly hide somewhere behind something plus the observers were climbing to the very top of the tower [Applause] one could see the outskirts of donetsk from the tower all the approaches to the airport were visible too you could go up there take a position it's cold windy but you've got to lay down and watch targets coordinates you command the artillery battery to take out the enemy [Music] speaking about counter battery combat we definitely destroyed about 10 enemy artillery batteries it's not confirmed for the enemy this tower was like the thorn in their side and they constantly tried to destroy this [Music] the tanks moved 400 meters in front of us we could see smoke and hear the rumble they stopped in front of the tower and fired once to the tower once at the old terminal wanted the new one and so in this sequence the anti-aircraft mounting covered them they would shoot and then move away it was almost impossible to hit them it was very difficult because they were a moving target we were chasing these tanks there for several days but finally they got caught um i was given a choice to go to the high ground 93-17 but i had already been there i hadn't been in the control tower so i said i will go to the control tower i haven't been there yet we stayed there for several days we held the defense at the bronier post then the separatists asked us to return the dead bodies to them they said they would not shoot and gave us 20 minutes to collect their guys to later exchange for our dead there were three people in total and head shots and in green uniforms and one was in a paratrooper's shirt we checked their documents and it turned out that they were russian they were russian tankers it was the crew of a russian tank then the guys remembered that the tank had been destroyed earlier and it was dragged away but nobody knew where the crew was the next day a fire broke out in the tower the after the attack at the control tower the guys were hit and the ammunition caught fire the rocket hit and all the ammunition that was there detonated everything burned up ammunition weapons sleeping bags and uniforms [Music] [Applause] jumped into the burning room and started kicking the mattresses shouting fire i didn't understand what he was doing it turned out the guys were sleeping in there wrapped in mattresses having bundled up from the cold i knew and he saved them they were sound asleep and the room was completely engulfed in flames caught fire and began to burn like a torch from top to bottom i couldn't distinguish it with anything we had nothing but cellophane no blankets nothing everything was on fire and then the medic ran up he grabbed edick by the shoulders like a cat lifted and held him in the air 100 kilogram man while he was tearing off his burning clothes the fire was so bad that some people were literally left only in their underpants and the only ammunition left was what they had in their magazines [Applause] and we ended up with one automatic rival for seven people everything else was burning and exploding in the tower for about a day the separatists didn't understand what was happening there and didn't bother us at that moment the floor was burning under us the floor was so hot that the soles of our shoes burned and the ammunition exploded i ran downstairs leaving traces of fire behind me like a genie and we have to hold the control tower there is nothing else left and the deputy was making an arrangement with motorola the notorious separatist commander to let us deliver weapons and everything else to our guys i can say when i agreed to meet one-on-one the man with whom i negotiated indeed went out without a weapon but behind him stood about 30 people with automatic rifles i realized that the other side no longer cared and if i just backed out they would immediately shoot me standing there shaking motorola's hand truck full of stuff radios ammunition and food came from the side of the meteorological tower [Applause] foreign motorola says well let's go where to motorola says you're my prisoner now responds no i've never been to dunes and i don't want to go there and then he took out his phone and called the brigade commander mikatz comrade colonel motorola is taking me prisoner [Music] after they stood there they tried to take a couple to the nest saying you fooled us and so on well maybe he did make them fools a little well that's it you know [Music] the control tower was hit with a tank when the upper floors were destroyed two floors remained later the second floor was destroyed when the control tower was completely destroyed together with the paratroopers we were holding the fire station the last position was the fire station [Music] foreign between the terminal and the control tower there was a group of guys shell shocked and slightly wounded who left [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign is [Music] the dunbas battalion was recalled to juniper patrolsk for reorganization for movement and then when the elections began we saw that the battalion command went into politics we decided to transfer to the 93rd brigade i had a lot of guys who were originally from donbass from donetsk proper whoopsie the guys fought for their land people were motivated and couldn't wait to get into the hardest battles and the 93rd brigade our task as a sixth company was to assist with an assault on the enemy's stronghold outpost [Music] and the position did not allow convoys to pass from peacekeeping to the airport they fired heavy weapons and broke the connection between the terminal and pesky uh terminal as we arrived it turned out that everything was not that simple in front of us was a large 2 meter wide ditch and a mound about 3 meters high for an ifv this is an impossible obstacle the paratroopers landed and began to attack the enemy's position with the support of the ivs [Music] the enemy had heavy machine guns but we were able to neutralize them in the first few minutes of the battle quickly looked around and had already begun to defend our combat vehicles then i saw a man running i launched a couple of fragmentation grenades in there as i thought he was dangerous and he didn't run anymore [Music] broke through the enemy's position and destroyed it during the assault we lost two men [Music] 24 people were wounded i was wounded five times during this assault we were promised a reinforcement of 40 soldiers and some ammunition they didn't arrive by the evening [Music] we already understood that if we stayed there after dusk it would be fatal for us [Music] it was decided to retreat from this position at night because there was nothing to hold it no ammunition but we arrived there in the daytime when we could see our reference points so instead of going to our side as we were supposed to we went towards don esque was already driving sticking his head outside to see where he was going because there was zero visibility and we drove onto the ice rushed into the middle of the lake and the ife went under the water the operator tried to drive it out but nothing worked we got a good bath there even our heads were wet we took all the weapons we were able to carry the separatists began to run around and shout come on guys bring the uttos here the ukrainian ife was drowned nine of us got out we split up into two groups we went aside and started a fire and the separatists thought there were only three of us that this is the whole ifv crew and the other guys were able to hide with the wounded we spread out in the tree line it was good that it was really dark and they followed us and the whole night we danced around there with them they tried to catch us alive and when it didn't work out they decided to shoot at us with mortars when we wandered at night we accidentally appeared at a machine gun nest but we were lucky that the machine gunner was just reloading and when he saw us out of fear he was unable to close the lid of the machine gun um since there was no time to stand and reload we had to quickly vanish from there because he was going to close the damn lid at some point we didn't know where we were we managed to contact our guys i don't know his name his call sign is seraphim by the reference points that i saw which is little bacardi he pinned down our location on the map and told us which way to move to get out [Applause] we turned on the phone and looked at the display it said artema street city of donetsk we decided to stay there for a while to treat our wounded and to plan a way out later [Music] it was important to treat the wounded we gave him injections changed his bandages and stopped him from bleeding in the fog we came up to a concrete wall which had a hole in it like this big and a man stood there and asked who are you i said and who are you who knows i didn't know where ours are and where the enemy is he said password i said what password you thought was a ghost and he immediately raised his gun and then i fired a couple of shots there which i later regretted well then because they saw my shots flashes too [Music] and they began to wallop us from all sides so it was bad [Music] a circle began to close around us and we sat there waiting for it for half an hour half an hour later i called again and asked where's your signal flare it's getting cold here and they replied unfortunately we have run out of signal flares [Music] we will shoot into the sky from a large caliber i turned my head and saw 12 7 caliber tracers shooting around me [Music] i didn't get where to go so i called back and asked him to raise the barrel 90 degrees up and shoot it somehow different from all this bang bang around us and they lifted the barrel up from their position in an opening and made a short burst well then i realized where to move we are not far from there on the fifth day our wounded guy felt better and we decided to go out we heard by phone that the day before the rest of our group had gotten back to our side it gave us hope we went on the move at night what britishly they crossed the field across the wood line then we saw two ifvs passing by and hid and prepared to fight but thank god we noticed the ukrainian flag on the ifvs our guys were on their way back for six days and they came back with their weapons i'm proud of my men somehow [Music] [Music] our casualties at the airport were enormous shrapnel wounds contusions there was one day really i had a day when i only had 20 people left at the airport in the new terminal and there was no one else there was no possibility to hold the airport anymore because there was nothing left [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] and the third company where there used to be 100 soldiers only 17 remained if only the terrorists knew that at the marvel position we had just four people left i was just placing other rocket and grenade launchers in position like this and then i was just running around firing them one by one to make the terrorists think that there were plenty of soldiers here so they wouldn't attack us they were able to seize us with no weapons just their manpower we shot here and there and everywhere yes that's how it was and we continued to hold on we were running around holding the position and all went well mostly they were attacking us with tanks well the airport fell many of our guys died while amid the meteorological tower [Music] collapsed [Music] on the 23rd they attacked us with all their strength that means they used tanks we were unable to counter attack and there was a moment when we were hit and our ammunition was completely destroyed all our stuff burned and we sat there i was in a trench with my last round of ammo so i pulled the pin off of an f1 [Music] i turned to the guys and said if you don't want to stay with me leave now [Music] we when i was wounded we were retreating he gripped the grenade in his hands smell himself and said guys get out i'll cover you but thank god help arrived huh that was scary for two hours i sat with a grenade in my hand without a pin with my last round of ammo until the second battalion pulled us out occupied the so-called high ground position pulsar which the separatist called maravenic the airfield was exposed to fire from this hill it was the only ukrainian armed forces unit that still remained on the territory of the airport it's wrong to say that we completely left the donez airport some of our units are still there [Music] well if not for the airport it would have been another objective we held a favorable position there it was okay for us to hold it and the losses at the airport other than those who were killed by an explosion when the airport fell we had a lot of wounded but many few were killed but from the airport we were able to inflict a great deal of damage on the enemy they tried to take it we held it and those who attack always take much more losses on the separatist side it happens like this the gang comes after the battle to receive money for the airport seizure the fewer people left after the battle the more money the survivors would collect for them it was a way to make money after the flight control tower fell by the order of the chief of general staff we retreated to the positions we have nowadays at that time the brigade had already been conducting missions in the danesque area for about a year in spring i was assigned as brigade commander as well as the 11th separate motorized infantry battalion then two of my mechanized battalions from the brigade and one battalion which returned to the area of operation after a refit it was already our second rotation [Music] zenith [Music] is that the enemy turned into a second airport it was necessary to hold it for operational and tactical reasons because the road to pass through it as well as the direction in which both tank columns and armored columns would be able to conduct offenses therefore holding positions like outposts can be considered the main direction of the enemy's efforts [Music] on the night of may 13th to the 14th we arrived on heavy equipment part of which belonged to us and part of which belonged to the unit we were replacing right as we had thrown out all of our things from the ifv the mortar fire began i stood like this wondering what was going on i didn't understand anything at first but then when we're heated remember [Music] as i saw my first two hundred for me the first three weeks were very difficult all i wanted was to survive until morning they tried to get us out of there in every possible way we were just covered we were just completely covered with concrete fragments i think there were 45 people left at the mine at the time the line of defense needed the full company staff they had three hours rest and then three hours of duty they shot at us with 120 caliber mortars tanks and artillery in two weeks all the second floors disappeared [Music] drivers and welders in civilian life but they discovered themselves to be real warriors imagine people working to the limits of their human capabilities especially considering tough weather and living conditions [Music] then it was already clear that the russian federation was involved in this war it supplies equipment and weapons we already had found evidence russian documents and weapons the infantry unit in front of us were real separatist trained by professional instructors they were not soldiers but tankmen artillery men these were real ones russian army regular soldiers after the battle we found two officers in the meteorological tower with russian federation documents and passports and recently a similar case happened at the boutique mine near the company's headquarters my soldiers shot a young soldier with russian documents we handed his body over in a russian army bulletproof vest and a russian helmet our guys did well two wounded one killed the dead one was pulled out he had a russian passport and salary cards from a russian bank literally 300 meters away the industrial area of donetsk begins it's the city line so everyone is constantly disturbed by the firing of shots but we're holding on our fighting spirit is high nobody complains about anything we have enough of everything volunteers visit us greetings to all my relatives and friends i love you all greetings to everyone who knows me will be home soon [Music] [Music] then gradually the 22nd and 11th battalions went back under the command of their units and in may the entire brigade deployed to battle positions on the designated lane at that time it was the most intense area of fire if there were 57 barrages identified over the whole ato zone 53 of them were in our area of operation outpost zenith [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] it as an artillery preparation for an [Music] offensive of taking a step back [Music] my wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Lidi Ya Films

Views: 1,559,776

Keywords: видео реального боя, Ukraine, war, война, Украина, війна, Україна, ОУН, OUN, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, 93, омбр, 93омбр, ak47, warfare, warzone, military history visualized, war video, world war 3, ww3, what_is_ukraine, what is the 93 Mechanized Brigade Kholodnyi Yar, what.is.93.brigade

Id: 0AtszHyy8rY

Length: 66min 10sec (3970 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 31 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/IKraftI]

Witnessing the airport battle live was crazy, nobody really knew what was going on exactly

[u/brycephotography]

Really keen for Part 3 to come out. Great project and historical record.

[u/DogHammers]

Excellent documentary and footage. I shall now have to watch Part 1. In the wrong order but I don't think it'll matter too much as it all comes together anyway.

[u/Kastrenzo]

there's supposedly a part 3 coming soon. that channel uploads infrequentley though, they will upload in Ukrainian, and then you might get a German translation , but the English one is usually last

[u/unHiddenone]

i got a weird feeling in me when i saw cameraman malysh was dead

[u/Lobster_Dobster]

Thanks