Senior Lieutenant Pavel Kozen takes his position at the machine gun – the only soldier still able to fight. All the rest of his army lay dead or wounded.
Suffering from shell shock and with one arm bandaged, the 37-year-old fired at waves of Russian soldiers trying to storm his position. They did not even try to take cover but walked towards him in the open.
It was clear that Powell would not be able to hold this position for long, but he would have to bide his time for the rescue team to arrive. His last act of life was to ensure that his wounded comrades were safe.
The Ukrainian military says Bakhmut is now the scene of many such “unprecedentedly bloody” battles, where it now has to repel 50 attacks on its positions every day. Russia has concentrated massive forces in the region, and their brutal strategy of launching human wave attacks helps them advance slowly – but at a high cost.
Pavel was in charge of a forward observation group consisting of six Ukrainian soldiers. On February 17, shortly after starting his watch, he came under heavy fire. A tank began hammering their position.
Unlike countless mortar rounds, the tank’s aim was chillingly accurate. The shells were landing within a few meters of their trenches. Two soldiers were wounded and Powell told them to go into the dugout. A combat medic went down to treat their injuries and prepare them for evacuation. Moments later, the wooden shelter was hit by a direct shell.
“There was a bright flash,” one of the wounded soldiers with the call sign told JEE News. “I was thrown against the logs with such force that it almost crushed me. I couldn’t understand if I was dead or alive. Someone was screaming, it seemed like the sound was coming from 100 meters away.”
It was Powell’s voice checking them out. The other soldier was half buried under mud and logs. He was dead.
Tsygan could barely move and Pavel had to drag him over the broken logs that blocked the way. It was painfully slow to move Tsygan into a nearby trench just a few meters away. When the shelling stopped for a while, Pavel went back to try to find the others.
Two minesweepers arrived to clear the debris and find the bodies. But yet another shell hit the dugout, killing one man and wounding another. The tank continued to fire.
At that moment, the Russian troops started storming their position. Pavel called a relief party to evacuate the wounded and returned to his Browning machine gun to intercept the Russian infantry.
The 206th Battalion, in which Pavel served, fought in the southern Kherson and northeastern Kharkiv regions. But the battles on Bakhmut were very different from what they had seen before.
“The intensity of the fighting to break through our positions was shocking,” says platoon commander Mykola Helbets. “At times, [Russian soldiers] would get within 20 meters of us, crawling and walking under a tree or in an open field. This is where we had our first gunfight in such close proximity.”
“They would stand up and walk towards our positions without any cover. We wiped out one group after another, but they kept coming.”
Hlabets called them a suicide squad. Others call them cannon fodder.
Several videos have recently been shared on Telegram channels in which newly mobilized Russian soldiers appeal to President Vladimir Putin and authorities to stop “illegal orders” to send them to “slaughter”.
Last month, troops mobilized from Belgorod posted a video saying they were sent on an assault mission without proper training. After suffering heavy losses, he said they refused to follow his orders.
Often these poorly trained soldiers are allegedly forced to keep moving. The assault group Storm of the Russian army’s 5th brigade said in a video appeal that it could not abandon its position because of zagriad utriad, or blocking troops — troops that fire on their own men trying to retreat. .
These wave attacks are similar to World War I tactics, when soldiers charged the enemy and engaged in close combat. And despite their lack of training and experience, sending new recruits to such attacks is bringing some results for Russia, albeit at a high cost.
The Ukrainians expose their positions by opening fire to repel these attacks. This allows Russian artillery to identify and destroy the target, as was the case with Pavel’s post.
Also, soldiers in forward positions run out of ammunition while trying to fend off multiple waves of attacks. Then they become an easy target.
