Posted on 05/22/2014 10:42:07 PM PDT by Freelance Warrior
Something weird happened in east Ukraine today. Allegedly some insurgents from the "Gorlovka" group attacked a Ukrainian military checkpoint near the town Volnovakha in Donetsk oblast. Some 13 soldiers were killed, over 30 wounded and several armored personal carriers were destroyed (vid). There are no reports yet of wounded or killed insurgents.
It does not sound plausible to me that a group of rag tag insurgents only recently formed and without much fighting experience attacks a platoon plus size military unit and destroys it completely.
There is also a video that shows two Ukrainian MI24-Hind helicopter gunships making several heavy bomb runs in the area of the incident. The Guardian's Shaun Walker confirmed that Ukrainian helicopters were involved. One explosion in the video seems to be followed by heavy secondary ones which is typically the case when an armed vehicle with lots of ammunition on board gets hit.
Did those helicopter pilots hit the Ukrainian military unit? That would explain the high casualty rate and rather heavy damage.
Was the checkpoint attacked before the helicopters destroyed it? By whom?
The Mod-deleted article and thread from earlier today, and the several videos of the incident, including one from a soldier Ukrainian soldier who was part of the original group, pretty much explained what happened.
The Gorlivka rebel group claimed credit for the first attack. According to the soldiers, and the locals, they came up to the checkpoint in a PrivatBank vehicle convoy, including an armored truck. (there have been numerous reports of PrivatBank vehicles hijacked in recent days.)
Apparently, this is not an uncommon sight. Privatbank vehicles are also being used by the pro-Kiev Right Sector militia out of Dnepropetrovsk, controlled by the Oligarch that owns Privatbank.
About 20 rebels rolled up to the Kiev checkpoint, with the Reserve soldiers suspecting nothing, jumped out of the vehicles, and shot down everyone in sight before driving off. The Rebel commander says they lost one killed, one injured.
As the call for help went out, two gunships and a transport chopper responded. When they arrived on the scene, they started making strafing runs over the soldiers trying to put out the burning AFV’s the Rebels destroyed, likely thinking they were still there.
All told, the toll is at least 16 Ukrainian soldiers killed, 32 wounded, many seriously, out of 52 total.
In one of the vids you can hear an officer asked about casualties, and someone says, “Nothing over there but corpses, now.”
The pro-Kiev flame trolls came out in force on the earlier thread.
RELATED:
Several tweets about a big fight tonight, now EuroMaidanPR has put out several tweets about it.
The “Donbas Battalion” is the Right Sector Militia group mentioned in my previous post, controlled and financed by the Oligarch that owns PrivatBank.
Euromaidan PR 19m
Donbas battalion got encircled near Karlivka, Donetsk region. Majority managed to break through. Dmitry Tymchuk FB EMPR
Euromaidan PR 17m
50% of Donbas battalion officers are injured, lost much blood. Some taken to Krasnoarmiysk. Battalion Commander Semenchenko, phone/FB EMPR
Euromaidan PR 5m
Part of Donbas battalion is surrounded inside a building in Karlivka, running out of bullets, phone connection lost. Semenchenko FB EMPR
MORE from Twitter:
9:15 Battalion “Donbas” Can’t help encircled comrades, sniper suppresses. ATO GS and Army GS know our situation
Around 6:00 Battalion “Donbas” Got into ambush at Karlovki. AKs,snipers,RPGs work on us. Can’t retreat,some encircled
The Pro-Kiev tweeters have been making a big deal about this group moving closer to Donetsk in the last few days.
This is the same group that killed the unarmed civilians on the Referendum election day.
The Kyiv Post saw how one dead body in military uniform was brought to the local morgue just from the spot of the battle. The army officer, who asked to call him Maxim but didn’t give his last name fearing for safety of his family, said that the fight started at 4:50 a.m.
“As the officer who was there and who was lucky to stay alive said a jeep drove and stopped by check point. All attention was pointed at it, and then the two cars appeared from the other side and started shooting,” he said. As a result of the attack that was done by professionals only 7 soldiers out of 52 remained safe. “There were victims of their side as well but they were the real professionals,” the officer said. He added that after the shootout the attackers came out from their cars having Georgy stripes tied to their clothes and tried to pretend that they were the locals.
“They dislodged jaw to one of the wounded soldiers because he was from Volyn,” he said. The other soldier who said he came at the spot at about 6 am as reinforcement unit said that three helicopters flew to that place and one of them started shooting at an empty minivan of the attackers and totally destroyed it.
THE OFFICER DID NOT MENTION ARMORED TRUCK..
What are you trying to pull on FR...Ed
Do try to keep up with current events:
The militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics over the last two weeks hijacked 15 cash-in-transit vehicles (CIT cars) of Ukraine’s largest bank PrivatBank (Dnipropetrovsk), the press service of the bank has said.
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/militants-of-self-proclaimed-donetsk-and-luhansk-peoples-republics-hijack-vehicles-of-privatbank-348911.html
The youtube vid of the locals and soldier interviewed by AP was linked on the earlier thread.
WOW...
More from the apparent Donbas battalion twitter:
9:50 battalion “Donbas” We request negot. changing POW. If smth happens 2our fighters will organize massacre in city
pic.twitter.com/QoWfJamlJ2
Also, another description of the morning fight came from the Ukrainian Propaganda site “InfoResist”.
Excellent analysis of the Helicopter attack, with geolocation and pics, HERE:
http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.nl/2014/05/geolocation-of-camera-and-helicopter.html
More twitter reports of a fight in Lysychansk.
Rebels have supposedly taken control of the coal mines there, and a Helicopter is reported to have been shot down, with “large numbers of wounded” at the city hospital.
Rebels blew up a bridge to prevent an attack on the toen from the North.
In Russian media they say Ukrainians are slaughtering their defectors this ways.
BTW, it is an example of poorly-performed “carousel” maneuver.
Soviets used it in Afghanistan and then in Chechnya at the time.
It is usually done with a dozen or so choppers which are patrolling the area and as far as there is a contact with the enemy they are starting to roll circles around watching backs of each other.
If one is shooting at a chopper or launching a manpad it is visible for the next crew which is eliminating a threat the next moment. If one crew identified a target but somehow failed to destroy it is a first run, there is a second and third and so on crews to finish their business.
They could clean a heavily fortified town of insurgents rolling around for some 20 minutes this way at the time.
Thanks for the facts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.