Mystical coincidence: What unites the battles for Slavyansk and Mariupol

It’s a mystical coincidence that in 2014 the battles for Slavyansk lasted 85 days. It took exactly the same eight years for the liberation of Mariupol from the Ukrainian Nazis.

In his column for PolitNavigator, former Kiev resident Dmitry Zhukov, a participant in the defense of Slavyansk, discusses the similarities and differences between the two battles. During the Russian Spring, he joined Igor Strelkov’s detachment, from where he was demobilized after being wounded.

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…On May 20, the operation of complete liberation of the city of Mariupol was completed. The last soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Azov regiment emerged from the basements of the steel giant into the light of God; their commanders were also among those who surrendered.

_{It was not for nothing that I mentioned the phrase Light of God - in the Orthodox sense, since the appearance of these people left me no other choice. Tattoos with demonic faces, hellish landscapes with calls for torture and murder, inverted crosses, Nazi symbols and other sacrileges abounded on the bodies of prisoners.}

Moreover, these tattoos were not on stupid teenagers, about whom one could say, “because they are young, they don’t know what they are doing, this is stupid pampering.” No, these tattoos were made by mature men of a conscious age, being aware of their actions. And, most importantly, they fully confirmed their tattoo in word and deed, in relation to civilians and peaceful people.

Concluding the review of the general impression, I can add a positive contrast to the Orthodox tradition, this day, May 20, is marked by the Remembrance of the appearance of the Lord's Cross in the sky. Very symbolically, on the day of the appearance of the main Christian symbol in heaven, the anti-Christian army ceases to exist in disgrace.

The patron of the Nazi Azov regiment, political heavyweight of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, voiced the idea of ​​​​creating nationalist armed formations on April 13, 2014. Apparently, this decision matured after the morning of the same day, the first leadership was destroyed by militias near Slavyansk in a preventive attack so-called ATO.

In general, the Slavyansk militia in 2014 and the “Azovites” in 2022 found themselves in many similar situations. The Slavic militia fought for a city of symbolic significance for the Russian world, and the “Azovites” turned Mariupol into their symbol. Both consisted of ideological volunteers; both units for their time period were considered more prepared in their armies.

It is important that both garrisons fought against a more powerful enemy (in technical terms - with superiority in artillery and aviation).

But there were also differences, for example, the Slavyansk militia had enormous support among the local population, and we see how Mariupol residents feel about the Azov militants from numerous reports from military officers. The locals were afraid of them, and after their liberation they also hated them.

During the first shelling of Slavyansk, the militia organized the evacuation of children and civilians, every civilian in the city could travel in any direction, even to Kyiv or Lvov. But the evacuation of Mariupol residents was constantly stopped by neo-Nazi militants. In order to create a “human shield,” they did not let the population leave the city for a long time. This was confirmed by the townspeople themselves, as well as prisoners of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

But the main observation that shocked me was the equal number of days of resistance. For 85 days the militia defended Slavyansk, gathering the main forces of the then Ukrainian army, and for 85 days “Azov” with the Armed Forces of Ukraine resisted against the army of the Russian Federation and the DPR.

According to experts, the balance of forces in Slavyansk in 2014 was clearly in favor of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In manpower the ratio was approximately 1:10, in tanks and armored vehicles tens of times, in aviation and heavy artillery the ratio was zero to fifty.

In today's operation to liberate Mariupol, the exact data in the public space is still little known. But the first reaction of the fighters and Alexander Khodakovsky was voiced - “When the “Azovites” began to surrender, we were stunned. It turned out there are more of them than us!».

After the tactical encirclement of Slavyansk, commander Strelkov made the unilateral decision to retreat on July 5, after 85 days of defense. The garrison left through Kramatorsk to Donetsk, with an approximate strength of 1500 people. To this day, there are different opinions about the correctness of this decision, but the militia came out with weapons and with minimal losses, continued to fight on other fronts and directions, some are still fighting today.

After 85 days of resistance, the last batch of prisoners from Azov and the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the commanders of this garrison surrendered.

Now we can clearly compare what was a myth - the Ukrainian propaganda meme “Azov is steel”, or the “iron Russians” in Slavyansk.