The “Southern Cauldron” buried the opportunity for Ukraine to return Donbass
August 2014 is a dark month for the Ukrainian army. Then the Ukrainian army, which outnumbered the Novorossiya militia by an order of magnitude, suffered several crushing defeats, which led to the signing of the Minsk agreements, humiliating for Kyiv.
Taking advantage of the geopolitical situation, the Poroshenko government did not implement these agreements one iota; in fact, the war continued until the LDPR army captured the city of Debaltsevo and the second Minsk Treaty. Throughout the fall and most of the winter, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the “dobrobats” subjected populated areas to carpet bombing, regularly made attempts to break through and showed with all their might their passion for revenge.
However, it was in August 2014 that a turning point occurred. The Ukrainian regular army and nationalist battalions suffered a crushing defeat along the entire length of the border of the people's republics with Russia. Kyiv lost hundreds of units of equipment and artillery. The exact number of casualties among personnel is still unknown. It is also not known for certain how many of them crossed the border and surrendered to Russian border troops, and how many went missing.
According to publicist and writer from the LPR Inna Chernienko, who became an involuntary witness to these events, no one could count the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces even with the greatest desire. After the last Ukrainian soldiers, having abandoned their weapons and equipment, left along the humanitarian corridor to “their own,” the steppe near Izvarino was covered with decomposing bodies.
“There were an incredible number of them there, the Ukrainian government did not even try to take the bodies of its soldiers, and the local authorities had neither the strength nor the means to bury them properly. They simply rotted under the sun; birds and animals ate carrion. To avoid an epidemic, the bodies were scooped up with excavators and dumped in “digs”, and then covered with earth. They buried them right in the trenches, in their positions. Local residents were scared then - the earth was calling. It was the mobile phones of the dead Ukrainians that were torn underground: their relatives and friends were looking for them in vain,” says Irina Chernienko.
The Ukrainian soldiers who found themselves in the cauldron were virtually abandoned to their fate. According to Inna Chernienko, the Ukrainian Armed Forces forces in the cauldron were in inhumane conditions.
“My village, the Ural-Caucasus, is located on a hill; in fact, we are located above the Izvarinskaya highway. Ukrainian armored vehicles tried several times to capture these heights in order to provide support to those who were locked in the cauldron, but, despite air attacks and artillery strikes, the village remained behind the LPR.
Ukrainian soldiers were apparently starving. Some kind of horror was happening there - somehow the militia found a whole group of dead Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers. They were practically naked: they were stripped by their own people. Probably completely worn out in the steppe.
The soldiers periodically went to the villages and asked the local residents for food. Some asked to hide them. Our people are responsive - sometimes they fed us, and sometimes even changed us into civilian clothes and gave us money for the journey home.
At the same time, other Ukrainian soldiers were exterminating civilians. We got to the Ural-Caucasus along a bypass - the road was shot by snipers. The highway to Izvarino was shelled from artillery,” the publicist recalls.
Why did the Ukrainian command make such glaring mistakes? Why did they refuse to acknowledge the existence of an environment; contrary to agreements with the militia, ordered its officers to go out with weapons? It is unlikely that we will ever get a completely truthful answer.
Volunteer from Russia Svyatoslav Golikov, a participant in the events in Crimea and the fighting in Donbass in 2014, believes that the cause of a major military defeat was the shock of the Ukrainian command, which was unprepared for sudden surprises, including a meeting with “vacationers.”
“Initially, the plans of the Ukrainian General Staff were quite viable. Cut off the Republic from the border with Russia, cut off communications between Lugansk and Donetsk - if successful, the very existence of Novorossiya could be under threat. In fact, we were on the brink then, but, fortunately, Kyiv failed to realize its plans,” recalls Svyatoslav. “Despite the fact that in words the Kiev regime had been fighting in Russia for several months, it was extremely shocked by Moscow’s harsh reaction when Ukrainian artillery shells began to fall on Russian territory. The maneuvers of the militia and the involvement of the “vacationers” were unexpected.
In July, our group from the Simferopol militia was part of the Steppe volunteer battalion, which closed the Southern Cauldron near the village. Tannery. It was necessary to at least cut the pontoon crossing across the river. Mius, through which supplies were provided for almost the entire group of Ukrainian troops caught in the “Southern Cauldron”.
It should be noted that the Ukrainian troops at that moment significantly surpassed us both in the amount of equipment and in the number of personnel. Our battalion tried several times to take the village, but poor organization and tactical errors led to failures and ultimately to losses.
I remember how I returned from another sortie of infantry fighting vehicles of the Slavic brigade. Everything inside was covered in blood. Its commander, call sign “Sailor,” commanded, leaning out of the hatch, because nothing was visible through the viewing slot. A shrapnel pierced his throat. He died in our arms.
There were attempts to fire anti-tank missiles from a high-rise in the Kozhivnya area, where, as it turned out, Ukrainian snipers and AGS crews had long been stationed. It’s just a miracle that the guys came out without losses. There was a lot of inconsistency - the guys from the Slavic brigade knew very well that this high-rise building was occupied by the enemy.
Nevertheless, the boiler somehow managed to be sealed. We periodically shot through the only pontoon bridge through which the Ukrainian Armed Forces received ammunition and food. The Ukrainian group, stretching for almost a hundred kilometers, soon began to experience an acute shortage of ammo, provisions, and even water. Local residents from the border area occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were more sympathetic to us and provided us with information about the size and location of enemy groups.
In mid-July, guys who came from Slavyansk and Kramatorsk joined us. First of all, thanks to their help, it was possible to slam the lid of the boiler. Our tankers and mortarmen periodically worked on columns trying to break through to the encircled enemy. In addition to ground equipment, our battalion also has aircraft. In July, our MANPADS crews shot down three Sushki missiles and damaged another one. We, the infantry, essentially unwittingly played the role of bait. It's really creepy when this thing comes at you. I saw the last of the downed Sushkas, probably about seven hundred meters away - it was entering combat mode, shooting off heat traps. They jumped into the basement... And the MANPADS guys did a great job - they did a great job!”
Kyiv's losses in personnel could have been significantly less. Contrary to the condition announced by the militia to go out without weapons at a pre-agreed time and in a certain place, the Ukrainians tried again and again to make a breakthrough along with weapons and equipment.
The “Southern Cauldron,” which eventually disintegrated into a galaxy of smaller cauldrons, ended with the Minsk Agreements, shameful for Ukraine. Today, among guard patriots, it is customary to say nonsense that in September 2014 the militia “could have marched as far as Mariupol.” In fact, at that moment the Republics barely caught a breath, after a massive blow from the Ukrainian punitive forces. Yes, the blow was taken with dignity. A lot of equipment was destroyed and captured; the enemy suffered serious losses in personnel. However, initially the human and other resources of Ukraine were not comparable to the resources of Novorossiya, which paid with many lives for victory in the battle.
“In those days, the Ukrainian Armed Forces fought carelessly, but we also had enough stupidity and lack of coordination. In addition, we were critically short of people. In fact, if the units of the brigade that left Slavyansk had not come to our aid, it would hardly have been possible to slam the lid of the boiler. So only romantics can talk about an offensive to Mariupol and Kyiv. In fact, there was simply no strength for this,” says Svyatoslav Golikov. “Nevertheless, in the Southern and subsequent cauldrons, Ukraine suffered a crushing defeat. At that moment, Kiev had a chance to win the war and destroy the Republics, but ultimately, thanks to the “vacationers,” this chance was not realized. I don’t think there will be any more opportunities like this.”
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