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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| 'Four days in a row.' How Russian soldiers were saved near Artyomovsk |
| 2024-03-31 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Mark Dranitzyn [REGNUM] A little less than a year has passed since the capture of Artyomovsk, and the fighting in the “Bakhmut Triangle” does not subside for a moment. Regiments of winged infantry, special forces groups "Akhmat" and other units fight here - not only pushing the front forward, but also strengthening the near rear. A military hospital near Svetlodarsk, the town closest to the mouth of the “Bakhmut meat grinder”. A conditionally safe zone where a wounded soldier is operated on and put back on his feet. There is nothing closer yet. The key is for now. On the floor of the granite corridor, as if painted with the brush of a lifeless artist, two thick bloody stripes turn purple. You can’t tell right away whether these prints are fresh or a hundred years old - the traces of the always unequal struggle between good and evil look so ordinary. “Let’s go to the first one, the second one is busy now, ” the senior surgeon with the call sign Caduceus, in the world - Alexander, pulling off his rubber glove as he walked, escorted him into the empty operating room. \ The phenomenon is rare, practically a failure in the system, the doctor admits. Usually you can’t breathe here: sometimes you have to heal for four days in a row. Sleep - two hours, the rest of the time - kilotons of coffee. - So what to do? “You just work automatically, ” says Caduceus, leaning his elbow on the rack with drugs. - One, two, three. Then you switch off and don’t count anymore. HEALING IS GETTING CLOSER, BUT EVACUATION IS GETTING SHORTER They say about people like Caduceus: “golden hands.” The former Wagner soldier now performs tasks as part of the Akhmat special forces. After serving in the PMC, he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense, where at first he was almost assigned to the attack aircraft. A doctor who has saved hundreds of lives and resuscitated countless injured limbs is a Stormtrooper! Fortunately, caring comrades recaptured him from the soulless bureaucratic machine in time. - There is not enough hardware. It’s catastrophically lacking, ” says Caduceus, frowning over his respiratory mask. Sasha doesn’t hide her face; rather, it’s a matter of habit—the medical visor feels like a second skin. “We’ll have to install tires soon, it’s no good.” “Iron” in professional slang is special medical equipment. Clamps, entrenching rods, supporting tubes... There is an acute shortage of all this in the hospital. And, as if one misfortune were not enough, the enterprises that produce unique items are loaded to capacity - sometimes there is nowhere to get them, even if there is money. “Here some armchair experts blame you - they say, your salaries are three hundred thousand.” Why, you can’t buy everything for yourself - under an IV in the ward above lies a huge bearded man with the call sign Glamor, the head of the local autobat. - And diesel, tires, spare parts - all this falls from the sky, or what? There is practically nothing to ride anymore. I saw the roads myself. The roads at the front truly provide an unforgettable experience. A terrible muddy road in which MAZs are drowning and Tigers are trying to roll over onto their sides. Even if the soil manages to freeze, it doesn’t last long—there are no winters akin to those in central Russia. With spring comes real bedlam. The asphalt surface beyond large urban agglomerations, such as Mariupol, is either completely absent or resembles a landscape sieve. It was not repaired for decades by the Ukrainian authorities and was supplemented by craters from the arrival of artillery and kamikaze drones. FLUTTER LIKE A BUTTERFLY, STING LIKE A HORNET “According to my “loaf”, one such bird just worked the other day, ” Hornet, who had just returned from a combat mission, is a stocky man, short in stature with a long gray beard, shaved temples and a punk braid falling on his shoulders, who has a black cap. -white and red PMC Group patch, barely catching his breath, shakes hands and continues the story. “It means we were driving during the day, and this is a guaranteed suicide.” She swooped down on us. I'm on the side of the road and the car flips over. We had only just managed to get out when our own “beha” drove over us to get away from the arrival. It's a miracle they survived. But it got a little crazy, of course. Not too much, tolerable! Hornet shows a short video. The consequences of the collision are clearly visible on the small screen: the torn UAZ turned into a pancake; fires are raging nearby without dying out. — That’s it, it was the last normal “loaf”, with medical attachments. “They put so much effort into it, ” Hornet laments, sipping a cigarette in the smoking room. - There is only one “farmer” left. I have no idea what to do. I’m trying to somehow cheer up my comrade. I say, let’s submit an application and I’ll show it to caring people. Maybe something will burn out. I ask if they have an office where the unit’s seal signed by the commander can be stamped at the end of the list. I look into the smartphone gallery - there are quite a few electronic samples of these very regimental applications from different directions: for communications, electronic warfare - and even for shovels with tires. I show the navigator one of them. “Oh, I understand, you need to rub shoulders with Uncle Lyosha, now I’ll look for him, ” Hornet suddenly stops in his tracks. - Or better yet, come with me right away. We go down to the ground floor. They are transporting a wounded soldier. We open the doors wider and hold them until the doctors with the gurney roll inside. Three hundredth cheerfully, as much as possible in his condition, talks about the meeting with the tank. I ask Caduceus, who promptly commands the preparation of the operating table, if it is possible to film the work of his fellow doctors. “No question, just cover up the guy later during editing, ” Sasha approves of the idea. - That's it, I'm running away on business! While we were waiting for Uncle Lyosha, we started talking about life. — You are the first in at least six months who came here to see everything in person. DATING AT THE FRONT IS FOREVER It's time to tell you how we met the guys in the first place. The Russian land is full of kind people. And so one volunteer, with whom he became friends in the Kherson region through local tank crews, collected several tons of cargo for the hospital. But there was nothing to transport - no one wanted (or could) provide transport. But every day spent is the lives of our soldiers. It was no longer possible to delay it any longer. “I was looking for a five-ton truck, I was ready to get behind the wheel myself—there is a suitable category of license, ” says volunteer Seryoga. Together we managed to find the treasured truck. But also not right away, because, ironically or by some unknown plan from above, the car at that moment was transporting a large cargo to the Lugansk region. And part of the parcel was intended for the 299th Guards Parachute Regiment, which is now based exactly in the Bakhmut direction. One of the commanders of the unit is the famous Guard Colonel Vityaz. It was he and his soldiers who stormed Mariupol and entered Azovstal. The paratroopers of the 98th division, which includes the regiment, are right now fighting in the vicinity of the “Artyomov triangle”, where the enemy is trying to squeeze our guys out of advantageous positions. So the famous “Bakhmut meat grinder” did not stop for a second. “Andrey, the son of my friend, Hero of Russia Alexei Voloskov, a young lieutenant, commanded a platoon, recently fell in battle, ” Colonel Vityaz shares with bitterness an almost personal tragedy. — In the morning, the enemy began a massive rocket and artillery shelling, and then moved on the offensive. After the start of the artillery barrage, Andrei Voloskov, regardless of life and health, waited for a second between the explosions of enemy shells, rushed to the dead VSEushnik, took the ammunition and returned to his position. Alas, a little later a kamikaze drone flew into the dugout, which tore off the lieutenant’s left arm up to the shoulder. At the same time, Voloskov, setting an example of the impeccable courage of a Russian officer, categorically refused evacuation, because there would simply be no one to command the battle at its height. The enemy fought head-on for several hours, and then turned on mortars. As a result, one of the ammunition exploded near Andrei and broke his legs. It was thanks to the courage and dedication of Lieutenant Voloskov that the airborne platoon entrusted to him did not allow a single breakthrough on the allocated section of the front. A little later, Andrei Voloskov was awarded the highest title - Hero of the Russian Federation - by presidential decree. Father and son are both Heroes of Russia. Fortunately, the glorious line of warriors was not interrupted - Andrei still had a little boy. Who, without a doubt, looking at his great ancestors, will grow up to be a worthy man. “To be a warrior is to live forever, ” the winged infantry warriors proudly remember their fallen comrade. After a minute's pause, the captain, who shared the details of the battle, takes the floor again. “It was with difficulty that they took his body from there.” They don’t allow you to enter or exit - the “birds” are circling, the art works uninterruptedly. It is important to clarify something - the enemy now does not skimp on attacks, even against single targets. He throws all his bestial hatred into mowing down our manpower. Because of this, rotation on the front end is extremely difficult. What can I say - it’s almost unrealistic. “Here, look at what they’re sending!” - the military officer shows boxes of either stewed meat or other canned food. - What should I do with this? “Add army biscuits there and send them back, ” a sudden proposal is born. Severe peasant laughter can be heard throughout the commander's dugout. I don’t know if the guys managed to bring their intended joke to life. But I can report with confidence: good people sent the paratroopers the first batch - among other needs - of extremely important cargo specifically for solving their combat missions. Four hundred anti-thermal imaging raincoats. What kind of thing is this? Let's explain it in our fingers. Thanks to the special coating, the fighter is almost impossible to see through a thermal imager. Let it not be long - only about forty minutes. But thanks to camouflage, his chances of survival are greatly increased. For example, during the previously mentioned rotation, run to your own. And those who are replaced in positions should go back to the PVD. Of course, this is only a small part of what our glorious citizens, including major politicians and businessmen on their own behalf, do for the front (which, by the way, the author witnessed. And more than once!). However, we must understand that where there are intense battles, all these, of course, useful things are just consumables that will soon become unusable. And you will need to bring more. THE TONGUE WILL BRING YOU TO A “GLASS” “Get in, let’s go now, ” commands the senior medical group with the call sign Narva. He, as it turned out, is Lyosha’s uncle, a veteran of the Syrian campaign. I even visited Africa. No fancy tactical bells and whistles - just a regular worn-out pixel. The eyes are warm and fatherly. The voice is hoarse, but even and calm. Or, rather, magical: when he speaks, no one moves, no one shifts from foot to foot. The soldiers do not listen to the order, but to the person from whom it comes. And they listen like yard boys - they look into their mouths, catch every word and try to race to show who is the fastest and bravest here, so that next time Uncle Lyosha will ask them for something again. “It’s a good night today, we’ll come back alive, a hundred pounds, ” the eldest reassures. “If you’re not afraid, then we’ll go for a drink.” “We’re afraid, of course, but we’ll go, ” I brag a little in response. When asked what kind of “glass” this was and why, they answered briefly: “You’ll see!” Hornet turns off the light in the cabin, and we set off. Artyomovsk awaits us, where our fellow doctors plan to set up a field hospital so that the soldiers can be operated on right there, on the spot. And for such an enterprise you need beds, equipment and... And a bunch of other stuff, in general. That’s why we’re driving into the deep darkness along the most shot-through highway from Kleshcheevka. Which, to match the black army humor, was called the “road of life”: burnt equipment, including fresh equipment, is a frequent visitor at this crossroads. The soldiers are already using the silent skeletons of military and civilian vehicles to navigate turns. Scary? And how! But if our guys risk their lives every day, do we have the right to sit out in the warmth? It was in these thoughts that time flew by until Artyomov’s “drink.” An ideal place for a rear base for airborne guards. Which are now being trained to the point of sweat nearby, in the hunting grounds of a separate regiment, directly subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of the Airborne Forces, General Mikhail Teplinsky. And this is not just an exemplary, but an elite assault unit, into which it is difficult even to become an instructor - the vacancies are closed. Venerable warriors serve here, all of them with advanced combat experience. IA Regnum will talk about them separately. |
| Posted by:badanov |