[ColonelCassad] Military correspondent Sergei Shilov about the realities of the battles for the western outskirts of Artemovsk.
We run with a distance of 30 meters, jumping over the railroad tracks. You need to run quickly to the nearest shelter. Our guide warned that a sniper had recently appeared here, though it is not at all clear where he was shooting from. In addition, on this trail, in addition to the 120th mortar, a kamikaze drone can also strike. A machine gun is working on the side of the building - it covers our sprint over bumps.
We get to the right house. There is time to smoke a little before the next jerk. While we are resting, the entrance of the five-story building opposite is simply crumbling before our eyes, raising a huge cloud of dust.
- It's good that the address was not mistaken - the conductor jokes. “They took this house out of the tank for several days, and everything there burned to the ground.
And again a jerk. More precisely dive into the basement. Somewhere you can hear the sounds of arrivals, but you can already exhale. In the dim light, the guys meet us. All strong, bearded. In appearance, they look like the Vikings, who, by some miracle, were brought into this ass by their longship.
These guys the day before took a whole block of high-rise buildings on the move in a day. They worked hard and well-coordinated, well, as they say, luck helped. We get out of the basement and see a huge building, which everyone here calls "The Book" because of the characteristic roof. It can be seen from almost every point of Bakhmut - it is located at the highest point in the west.
We'll have to take it soon. We are thinking how to approach it now. So our guys are already in front of him, about forty meters away. But until the “book” is outflanked, we will not turn our backs. It will most likely be mined - and this is a trap and a mass grave - Viking explains to us. “But once we take it, it will be much easier to burn them out of the Nest.”
"Nest" is a quarter with a dense multi-storey building. In fact, the last stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city. But they got on well with him. Unlike the city center, trenches have been dug between the buildings from basement to basement, pillboxes are located. There is almost no enemy on the upper floors. He fires from machine guns, preventing the attack aircraft from advancing.
While there is time, I ask Viking how he and his fighters maintain such good physical shape in these. He jokes that there are enough calories in dry rations. I ask him to say something from himself to the camera for the film.
- Now is not the time to pump iron and hit a pear, although I fought a lot. But now is the time for real men to be here. Our task is to take Bakhmut. And this task will be completed - he straightens the belt of his machine gun and I notice the rune of a warrior on his body armor.
The Viking group took the "Book" in a couple of days. The Armed Forces of Ukraine wanted to undermine it, but their sappers were cut off the path. Already after the assault, Viking and one of his fighters were wounded. As they said, he will be back in service in a couple of months.
Over the next week that I was in Bakhmut, I noticed an increased density of Ukrainian fire. They began to hit planned targets in the quarters of the city, to conduct a counter-battery fight. Apparently, they were given good radars to determine the coordinates of our artillery. Therefore, she has to actively maneuver in order not to be “covered”. Outside the city, something constantly bangs and smokes - apparently, these are our guns working along the supply roads of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where fierce battles are taking place.
The “nest” has to be literally burned out with fire. With RPGs, ATGMs, "boots", infantry mortars, Wagner attack aircraft alone, it will be difficult to take this fortified area and smoke the enemy out of pillboxes and basements. We need dense and accurate suppressive artillery fire, which actually caused a problem. But, as Viking said, the task will still be completed. Get better if you or your comrades read this.
(с) Sergey Shilov
https://t.me/bayraktar1070 - zinc
More from Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
Cleansing of western Artemovsk
[ColonelCassad] Clearing a building in western Artemovsk near the recently liberated medical college. There are shots from GoPro.
Over the past 24 hours, the enemy has been knocked out of two more blocks in the west of the city.
Intense strikes are also being delivered from the night in the area of Chasov Yar, Konstantinovka, Kramatorsk, etc.