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A crucial role in the defense of the city was played by the local national guards – territorial defense units.
“The bridges were prepared to be blown up when the enemy appeared,” said city defender Kirill Nehimchuk.
“Wherever it rained, people shot at them from practically every meter,” remembers Oleh Bodyul.
Bridges had to be blown up
Voznesensk, with around 35,000 inhabitants, is a strategically important hub north of Kherson and Mykolaiv. Nearby is the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, the second largest in Ukraine.
The road near the Ukrainian city of Voznesensk
Photo: Gints Amoliņš, LTV
Russia had to take Voznesensk and the bridge over the Southern Bug, besiege Mykolaiv on the other side, then advance to Odessa and advance to Transnistria.
To block the enemy’s ability to move across the river, bridges were blown up in Voznesensk.
They blew up both the bridge over the South Bug River and a smaller bridge leading into the city center.
A bridge was blown up in the Ukrainian city of Voznesensk
Photo: Voznesensk municipality
Kirill Nehimchuk then worked in the Voznesensk territorial defense units, now he is already carrying out tasks in the direction of the Kherson region.
“If they manage to get through Voznesensk and, which was a version of their plan, go to Transnistria, Moldova and unite the occupied territories… unification of the occupied territories in the south of Mykolaiv Oblast with Odessa Oblast , and on to Transnistria in the Republic of Moldova. .. Then it is possible – but these are only assumptions – that the current fate of the left bank of the Kherson region may have been repeated in this entire area west of the southern Bug River, in the entire Odessa region.”
Then Mykolaiv could have become another besieged Mariupol. Maybe Odessa too.
Therefore, defending Voznesenka was particularly important.
Ready to defend the city
The units of the Russian army went from the Kherson side along Mykolaiv and from the Bashtanak side to Voznesensk.
Oleh Bodjul was involved in preparing the defense. “We have already organized hiding places because I and our leadership knew full well that the Russians would reach Voznesenka.”
The residents of Voznesensk are preparing to defend the city
Photo: Voznesensk municipality
The city prepared, and by March 2, six days after the invasion, the Russian army was already there.
The city’s mayor, Yevhenii Velichko, also took part in the defense of Voznesensk.
“Dear residents of Voznesensk, this is a very hard and stressful day for our city. The enemy has also hit us. Attack of the occupiers.
“Dear residents of Voznesensk. As of 6:30 p.m. – we are collecting information about the number of victims. We don’t yet know the full extent. I would like to contact you with a request. Please don’t go out. Go out on the streets tonight. Try to stay where you are for as long as possible.
The coordination of different units plays an important role
We meet the mayor of Voznesensk in the memorial alley, which was built in honor of the city’s residents who died in battles since 2014.
“Voznesensk was the first country in Ukraine that was able to stop and repel the attack. We only had three days in the occupied Voznesensk region, but it was a very long three days,” says Velichko.
War equipment of the occupiers in Voznesensk
“People’s self-organization was at the highest level back then. My phone was hot. People told me where to go.” kamaziem, where you can drive excavators. Because we have a river that armored personnel carriers could easily cross. But for a week, day and night, we dug the banks of the river with machines so that the armored personnel carriers could not cross,” explains Veličko. “They knew we were preparing.” There were already many of our soldiers in our neighborhood, but these soldiers lacked mutual communication.
Our main task was to gather them around a table to talk about certain things. For example, about setting up a communication group on a social platform in which we can inform each other in a timely manner about the movement of one or another unit. And also to avoid accidental collisions and confrontations with each other.”
The city defender battalion was ready in two days
In Voznesensk, a territorial defense battalion was quickly formed from volunteers. At the same time, units of the regular Ukrainian professional army moved through the city and were stationed there. Therefore, mutual coordination was extremely important.
“On February 24th, immediately after the start of the war, the battalion began recruiting. And it was completed on the 26th. Almost 600 people.”
We collected what we needed in two days. And then we waited to see what would happen next,” recalls Kirill Nehimchuk, a soldier of the 123rd Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine.
Soldier of the 123rd Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine Kirill Nehimchuk
Photo: LTV
“Since the town is small, everyone basically knows each other. According to the theory of the sixth handshake, everyone basically knows each other. You definitely knew about a hundred and a half people, but you knew them in their peaceful lives. You didn’t know that. I don’t know how they would fight and fight.
That’s why our commanders, when they gave orders, didn’t know whether or how these orders would be carried out. That was the hardest part at first. Yes, now we all understand who is capable of what and what can be expected from whom, but back then this understanding did not exist.”
There was no time for training
Kirill was a lawyer and notary before the war.
Only some, like Oleh Bodyul, had military experience. He had previously served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces for five years and had already joined the Voznesensk territorial defense at the time of the large-scale invasion.
Oleh Bodyul, a soldier of the 123rd Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine
Photo: LTV
“Few people knew how to use the latest weapons, such as the NLAW anti-tank grenade launcher, so only people who already had combat experience and understanding resorted to such weapons. I asked her quickly: one, two, three, you know? Once you get it, take it. There was no time to teach,” says Bodjul.
“We noticed that they were already approaching. We did all of this in quick steps. The battalion was formed on the run. A volunteer arrived – ready? Yes! That’s it, an automatic machine. Who knows how to use something. If you don’t If you don’t know how to shoot a mortar, all you need is an automatic machine. If you normally served as a grenade launcher or machine gunner, then become a machine gunner.
The occupying forces were poorly prepared
The Russian invaders in Voznesensk were clearly superior in terms of military equipment, weapons and personnel.
“We couldn’t fight them in the open field. We had to fight on the streets, where the advantages of armored vehicles are small.”
“Using grenade launchers and small arms, we managed to attack the Russian column that entered the city quite effectively,” says Oleh.
“I have a grenade launcher on my back, the same NLAW. With our mobile attack group in a car, we drove through the streets of the city and, depending on the situation, fired anti-tank weapons on the right and left against the enemy, against the Russian columns.
The destroyed armored vehicles of the occupiers in the Ukrainian city of Voznesensk
“About the Russians – when the fighting took place in the city, there was a kind of great disorganization and fear, confusion among them, at least as I saw it all. They didn’t understand at all what was happening to them. Why are they doing this? Why, wherever it rained, they were shot at from practically every yard? What surprised me – when they approached the city, they drove calmly in a column. While sitting on armored vehicles, they drove in.
“It is clear that we immediately mowed down everyone who was sitting on the armored vehicle with heavy machine fire,” Bodjul recalls.
Incorrect planning at the beginning of the invasion, supply problems, underestimating the enemy – these were the main mistakes of the Russian troops, the defenders of Voznesensk conclude.
The enemy was driven away, not allowed to advance further, but was pushed back – this in turn laid the foundation for the possibility of counterattacks and liberating Kherson a few months later.
Russia has eaten up its democracy
But in nearly two years of all-out war, both sides have drawn conclusions and learned, and the front line has remained stagnant – despite heavy, bloody fighting every day. A long war is a war for resources. And Russia is pushing the masses forward.
“There were certain hopes that perhaps in Russia, in the period of better life since the 2000s, the value of life and the attitude to life as the main value, as is the case in democratic societies, has grown. But unfortunately Russian society is in its attitude to democratic values – to put it bluntly: they ate it and sold it,” says Kirill Nehimchuk.
“They simply ate up their democracy, exchanged it for food, for comfort. And of course the value of life has not increased in their eyes under such conditions.”
And this is a huge problem, because their willingness to spend and lose people in the 21st century on the scale of the wars of the 20th century is a tragedy for us, Ukraine.”
“They don’t care about the losses they suffer. They’re so lazy. And probably until they’ve lost a few million they apparently won’t even think about it. Well, or the jackpot will be hit and Putin will explode.” (laughs).”
We no longer have a place to retreat
Almost two years later, Oleh Bodyul and Kirill Nehimchuk are already working closer to Kherson.
“We continue to fulfill our core tasks. The tasks of territorial defense are primarily defense. After all, we are not such a specially trained attack unit. Territorial defense. Whatever you call the boat, it will float,” he tells Kirill.
Oleh says that he is working towards the Kherson region. The front line is the Dnieper River.
“Let’s say the situation is like this: the Russians are trying to eliminate us, they’re trying to conquer the islands. But because they do it all stupidly and don’t think about their staff, they won’t be successful. Our guys with less forces and more competent work… If they take over our unit, our unit will do better than their two leaders combined.
Tactics, operational planning – we are better at that. They try to hit more with live power.”
“At the moment the front is flexible. Today one island is ours, the next day another is theirs. It’s quite problematic to level the front there because there are water hazards.”
The enemy has a lot of people to send in mass attacks, Ukraine’s defenders admit, but add that in this way the Russian army is depleting its resources.
“We fight for our country and defend it. We have nowhere else to retreat. But they fight and are only driven with stakes,” concludes Oleh.
And the fight isn’t over yet. But the fight of the Voznesensk National Guard, its territorial defense units, in the first days of the full-scale war remains a source of inspiration for many of Ukraine’s defenders.
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