completely freed from the almost bloodless liberation of the main strategically important ukrainian city on the azov river did not last long, the militants wanted to run away, but did not give up, and the most daring lurked in wait for a chance for an insidious snake attack in response to the defeat , he appeared the day after the assault on the morning of saturday, june 14. then through mariupol was transferred to the border with russia at checkpoints, additional forces of border guards set up a crossing in the novoazovsk region , tetrapods were placed there, fortifications were placed there, and the same was done on marusiki and that crossing. that is, we controlled it so that we understood that the troops would go from there, they would

throw armor with equipment at the newly arrived border guards who had not yet been fired upon in the battles, and set up an insidious ambush. this happened on the bridge over the kalmius river in front of the azovstal metallurgical plant . armored vehicles , only a passenger bus and a few passenger cars, completely unprotected, the targets tried to stop and yours and directly the personnel tried to restrain the scenario should 26 to the bus didn't fly, well, they smeared it and hit the left rear wing of the bus, and if the three shots of the militants from the grenade launchers from the ambush were not accurate, then their subsequent fire from small arms caused trouble only when we entered the bridge. nina's bang, eh, 26, most likely, there was a shot from behind er, the

branches were caught by the stabilizer and in front of them on the right then five border guards died in total, these were their first losses in this war, their memory is commemorated every year at the place of the ambush, now there is a memorial. and the next day , june 15, the police detained a woman who was one of of the political leaders of the denner underground, she tried to escape from the cities. natalia, a georgian woman, received information that you, our personal security , were moving in and out of the city of mariupol. grenades yes, we have uh, but we seriously injured her. she has a diagram where we drew a terrorist group that was active at that time. there are a lot of people, yes, the whole network

that existed at that time was located in the city in mariupol, someone was detained, someone was not detained during the summer of 2014, there were active combat operations throughout the donbass. ukrainian forces were on the offensive along the entire front, liberating cities and territories, pushing illegal armed separatist formations to the border with russia in order to prevent them from being crushed by the ukrainian forces of the russian army from the inside . in the summer, it began to carry out open, powerful artillery strikes across the border. but in mariupol itself, it was calm , the authorities were anxiously working, and order had already begun in the city , and everyone, well, everyone understood that there would be no fighting here. that is, the place became free and peaceful and began to work more, everyone was worried. well, as we worked on what was around us at the end of august, on the very day of ukraine's independence, on the 24th, there was an open invasion of russian troops,

a group of ato forces in ilovaisk, and under it was surrounded and later during the withdrawal from it on august 29, suffered the largest simultaneous losses in this war, the bitterness of the defeat was also suppressed by the fact that a real threat loomed over the city on gas, they entered novo azov, a column of armored vehicles that coming from taganrog the tail could not be seen, it was necessary to urgently delay the advance of a much stronger enemy and transfer additional forces to defend the city, they found a new azov on the side, of course , the shortest road to the crimea is from here. in addition, this is a large port, mariupol, for them, was a key place for the commander of the sector m - on august 27, general igor pavlovsky was appointed. he had combat experience in transnistria and bosnia. if you take the line of contact, it was somewhere between 50 and up

to 60 km by 60 km, if you take the number on that the time of military personnel, yes, we had two and a half battalions against the national guard, and it was on august 27. that is, we imagine that these forces are not enough, practically, the city of mariupol was completely opened. in the morning, around 8 o'clock, i called pavlovsky and said, roman, look, look, i offer such dugouts for manpower for equipment that cannot be taken by any system we are using by the russians come on, we will make a line of defense, he liked this idea very much to save mariupol, the metallurgical enterprises of the azovstal and ilyich plants became his big

workers and management, what can we do? i will say that we can deal with two factories here, build fortifications here, they will support the load, it will not be in the form of palings, but it will be laid out and fastened with concrete blocks, and on top we can put slimes - it is from 8 up to 10 m, a metal ingot with a width of at least 1,550 mm, and the one with a width of 2 m weighs from 10 to 12.5 t. that is, to translate it and lay it is a serious job of the right people to lay out the defense line for a reason. by enemy fire. i come to the workshop, i gather everyone and say that we have no one to build, i can only ask you to please go, but i want you to

know that we can be fired upon, someone can die, or someone can be injured, we did not have a single refusal not a single hero howitzer such nonsense as hail remains only a contractor to penetrate a tank 100 i.e. it is 100% it is possible there you can withstand any blow a direct hit just such fortifications allowed the defenders of the city to withstand massive prolonged artillery fire and then and a powerful enemy offensive on the fourth of september at the border of shkaye ne pavlopil. 22 km east of the city, we withstood heavy shelling for several hours. we had about 12 wounded, half of them contused, but in general, we

all remained alive on this side, the losses were 27 or 28 people with two hundred tanks, all the dangerous directions east of mariupol were mined, and here a certain role was played by the retired colonel of the main directorate of intelligence vyacheslav galva with the call sign kusmich, he was an instructor in the azov battalion as military professionals. the professional taught many things to the volunteers himself. he died during a self -inflicted detonation of a grenade. we were exchanging a bridge immediately behind novoazovsk along with his head on the night before his death. he was one of the ukrainian officers i knew at all. was only for two or three weeks, but during this time, several detonations of enemy tanks and armored vehicles taught us a lot about the resolute resistance of all available forces and the rapid reinforcement by artillery of the military group under in mariupol, they did their job, the advance of the enemy by land was stopped, it is necessary

to understand that even if they had simply entered the outskirts of the city, the city would have become a metallurgy, we would have had a huge humanitarian disaster for the simple reason that hundreds of thousands of people would have been running around ukraine, so it was important to protect mariupol not near mariupol, not in mariupol itself. and on the approaches to mariupol in september, the general staff conducted , although unsuccessful with losses, but in his opinion a necessary local offensive raid operation of two the landing brigades of the 79th-95th in the north of sector m and the following comintern broadside in the south had two goals: diverting raiding operations with the idea that directly in the direction from volnovakha to mariupol there are certain troops that are actively defending themselves and, accordingly, the second question is what to reject of the enemy to stop at those

lines where we were where we were stopped and the minsk agreements were signed at night on september 5, 2014, the first minsk agreements were signed and there was a temporary ceasefire in the war in donbas, but it lasted it did not last long in the autumn, fighting gradually resumed in various areas of the front without active offensive operations, the situation was very problematic for mariupol because after the city was liberated from the russian military and separatists in the 14th year, the front line actually passed along the eastern borders of the city of mariupol, in fact, it was possible to protect them in the most difficult period of the end of august, the beginning of september, but immediately beyond

its eastern outskirts, the so-called large gray zone began, where there would periodically be but they did not have any tactical or operational significance, that is, when some were hunting for others, relatively speaking, they were conducting reconnaissance, that is , there were no tasks there, creeping over some key heights, there was no movement there, no change of position, and so on . in 2015, separatists and russians began a winter military campaign after long battles, captured the donetsk airport, began an offensive on debaltsevo, and in the south moved to mariupol , the eastern residential neighborhood is a front-line the outskirts of mariupol, standard nine-story buildings , the private sector, schools, kindergartens, markets , car parks, they became the site of one of the bloodiest russian crimes against

humanity in this war, hundreds of rockets of jet systems, hail and a hurricane indiscriminately rained down on the residents of the eastern neighborhood, they by no means expected such deadly and merciless of precipitation on that terrible winter morning on january 24, 2015, the driver and passengers of this car were just lucky, by some miracle, he was not affected by the deadly breaks in front of them more than 120 high-explosive rockets fell on the peaceful city, i got to the street where

corpses were lying in the middle of the streets of the city, children were killed. we helped collect these corpses, we helped the local residents to evacuate them from this neighborhood, we provided them with assistance, and indeed such terrible, terrible events have already happened 29 peaceful residents of mariupol were killed by shelling, more than 100 were wounded, some were killed by entire families, everything was good. the 18th year of azovstal residents. yes, there are terrible things, everything is terrible. i was there for all of us. i can't even tell you, the same day i was detained such a valery kirsanova, who became

a fire adjuster of jet systems in the myrnyi microdistrict, you were quickly identified as a person who guided and adjusted wagons of russian artillery. e who gave instructions, all these surnames of the russian military have been established by the security of ukraine, they managed to establish all those who committed this crime against humanity, ex-policeman kirsanov kept in touch with two militants of the dpr serhiy ponomarenko with the call sign terrorist and oleksandr yevdokiy with the call sign ashes break the devil i asked you, uncle, that's the eastern hell there, uncle , there are slippers. how many houses will there be, brother, there will be

eastern ones today. don't worry, uncle, i went there . i cleaned it. i gave the coordinates yesterday by sms, they were supposed to work at night, but they worked in the morning, when in the morning at approximately 8:00 a.m. today, yes, today i went to see what happened there and told peppa that they missed on 1 km who shot in the eastern neighborhood, the ash unit oleksandr greatly, greatly overdid it, it went through the houses on 9 floors in the private sector kyiv market is shorter, but in addition to the actual housebreaking militants, the

personnel officers of the russian army from the territory of russia were involved in the crime against humanity, the criminal operation was led by the chief of missile troops and artillery of the southern military district, general stepan yaroschuk in donetsk, his orders were received and carried out by colonel oleksandr tsaplyuk with the call sign horets, he in his in turn gave orders for the meeting of the transfer to firing positions and the use of two missile divisions in mariupol to lieutenant colonel maksym vlasov with the call sign yukra, and he was already directly in charge of the artillerymen of the 200th pechensk and fifth taman motorized rifle brigades, the fifth separate guard tasman motorized rifle brigade all i i understood you 205 damn tell me when it will be ready yes i understood you understood i understood you so ready all by one ready yes so good yes two hundred by one ready fire by one understood hello what

i went to the hall, they all opened fire, that's all, that's it, red-haired red-haired man, ring bells there, but when the russian military found out that they struck a residential neighborhood and killed peaceful people, they began to cowardly hide from the crime. got it, who got it hello ruben, call the red-haired one everyone rebuff you all rebuff everyone under pressure for markin it's clear yes baltsi got it now wait i 'll go again now let's let's hide the division so that it was not visible, understood , remove the division, the commission is going, understood, understood everything, charge and hide, understood, so that it is not visible, and also hand over to ryzh to drive the vangars away, understood everything so quickly, only understood that

the osce commission is coming to us, understood, understood, understood, both batteries, hide all the evidence of this terrible military of the crime was collected and transferred by ukraine to the international court of justice of the united nations, the attack of separatists in the russian army with hail on mirny mariupol on january 24, 2015 showed that the city is not protected in its own a strong insidious enemy is standing at the eastern gate, at the same time in the north of donetsk region, his offensive on debaltseve began, so in the south there were favorable conditions for a counterattack by ukrainian forces, so i went to the military cabinet on the initiative of the military cabinet, they asked me to organize an offensive near

mariupol from one side it was necessary to push back the front so that there was no danger for the city, and on the other hand, to attract the russian troops, to stretch them to give the opportunity to withdraw our guys and hope that these are the two tasks they agreed with my proposal to organize. i studied near mariupol and there they did a pretty good job and the guys from azov and the military of the armed forces of ukraine again became the main striking force during the winter offensive . up to two thousand already experienced, motivated and well-armed fighters, the

morale was high in this regard, everyone perfectly understood that with this strike we would secure and protect mariupol from shelling, and we would withdraw it unequivocally of the enemy from debaltsevo to a large extent and this clearly improved the ukrainian position on a practical level in the east of the country , in principle, as a result of the shykin offensive, all three tasks were completely completed on the cold morning of february 10, 2015. azov went on the offensive with three assault detachments, one company along the main road to mariupol , new azov entered with a fight and captured the seaside village of shirokine at the beginning of september, after this village the enemy's advance on mariupol was stopped and now this city has been liberated for 4 or more months

mr. dnr is suffering from the occupation of the russian very strong groups that often stand here yes. now we hear on the central universal that there is a firefight with small arms, and there the height of the caliber of the kolomyki is another company completely to the north, that is, further from the sea in the depth of the territory on land in several cars and on foot entered the village of pavlopil from armored vehicles, there was one btr-3 armored personnel carrier, winter mask coats for all the soldiers, then there were simply not enough terrorist troops for a long time, they have not allowed the city to live peacefully , local residents convince that they are coming people are afraid to come here from time to time, because of that, many local residents left for pablo already in the evening of february 10, the azov residents met a determined resistance of militants in

the area of ​​the sakhanka settlement, they fought for it for several days, then the gods from both sides already left, and the tanks from that side went to support there moved, changed positions, it was very difficult to detect him, and here they methodically worked meter by meter meter after honey in the evening. yes, the offensive stopped there, and when the words literally collided with tanks with firing points, two tanks stood on the sakhanka and between the sakhanka, if you attach it to the video card, you can see that between the sakhanka and shirokino, there is a bare, clear field without heights, no shelters, and so on, and the tanks there pressed everyone hard, but they

managed to overcome the enemy resistance, move forward and liberate almost everyone was inspired by their own land, the mood is great, now we'll tie up , gather the group, check again the equipment of weapons or buried ammunition and we'll move there, the mood is great, all the guys want to get there faster, take this checkpoint, it's already like a nose in the ass the first one, yes, the first one. we worked yesterday , in fact, on the 10th, it was quite fun. we went to all the villages. everything is positive. everyone is coming from all sides. applause. everyone says that everything is fine. the generals are applauding you there from the general staff. they tell you that the model operation is still different here. in fact, without losses, all of them were still in all directions, two hundred and all, panic and similar things were thrown away by them,

but after three days, the enemy launched a counterattack for the village, on the whole, broad sides fought for a long six months in the spring and summer of 2015, but in the end, his they held, the enemy left, although today the wide village does not resemble a ghost village, now there is nothing left of shirokiny it is just a compartment of bricks to understand the complexity of what was there, the village is not left, it is not there, there is not a single building with at least a roof factor wide, there was not one in front of mariupol and to the left of the sea, if you take everything empty, now there is a line formed there that goes along the perimeter of pavlopol granitne, there are some fortifications, districts, parts of it, and other possibilities to

fire at mariupol, as it was possible until the 15th year is gone, the city lives completely calmly, is not afraid that something will come to them, the small priberezhna before the war, even the kurortne village with one and a half thousand inhabitants became the very defensive line for mariupol against which the enemy broke its teeth from here from the shores of azov and stretched directly to the north as far as pavlo pole a strong defensive line for 15-20 km, it was quickly erected thanks to the industrial potential of powerful mariupol enterprises, precisely the dedication of the city's residents and the heroism of the defending soldiers in the most difficult september in 2014, the line of defense held the enemy without

letting them into the city. and in february 2015, during the successful shykin offensive operation, the enemy was pushed far to the east, so the powerful industrial city on the azov sea, mariupol, got the opportunity to live peacefully and develop in the mountains of mariupol. he thought that he definitely controls completely in mariupol. he thought that the population was definitely on his side and he did not expect that we would have the forces and means there, it was important for us not as a symbol but as a function of direct action operation on a wide area, when the forces of the national guard, the azov unit, we pushed mariupol away from

the line of fire. now it is a peaceful city on the azov sea with a population of more than half a million, a port, beaches and a large developed industry. it is the second only ukrainian city after the capital where it takes place. let it be small, but its military parade is a shame. glory to ukraine heroes glory, it is held every year on june 13, on the day of the liberation of mariupol, the real city of the unconquered

. voice of america, time, in nataliya leonova's studio