On the night of July 29, Ukrainian armed formations attacked a pre-trial detention center in the village of Yelenovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)
According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the authorities of the DPR, two rockets hit the barracks with prisoners of war. It could have been an unsuccessful attempt to organize a mass escape, experts say. In turn, Russian troops delivered a series of strikes against enemy reserves in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. And Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the rank of Guards to another military unit – the 488th motorized rifle regiment of the 144th division.
Attack on prisoners
On the night of July 29, Ukrainian troops launched a strike from the American HIMARS multiple launch rocket system at a pre-trial detention center near the village of Yelenovka, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. The building contained prisoners of war, including militants of the Azov formation.
As a result of the strike, 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 wounded, eight employees of the detention center received injuries of varying degrees. DPR Ombudsman Daria Morozova specified that two rockets hit the barracks. Subsequently, representatives of local authorities are shown the wreckage of HIMARS found at the scene of the incident.
“This blatant provocation was committed to intimidate Ukrainian servicemen and prevent them from being taken prisoner. The circumstances of it are being investigated”, the Russian military department said.
Military expert Vladislav Shurygin believes that there are two main versions of what happened.
“HIMARS is a high-precision system that hits fixed coordinates, so it’s impossible to say that the missiles flew somewhere by accident,” the expert said.
“Moreover, it is known that there are no serious military facilities nearby that would be worth striking at. Based on this, we can say that the Ukrainians fired exactly where they hit”.
Most likely, they wanted to organize a mass escape of prisoners of war in this way, Vladislav Shurygin believes.
“With high-precision missiles, they could try to hit the guard room, which would allow the prisoners to scatter,” he said.
“Perhaps, in parallel, the special operation or a counter strike was being prepared, which would allow people to be transported to the other side of the front line. Such a release would allow Ukraine to formalize some kind of media victory. But nothing happened. The missile hit the dormitory with prisoners of war, setting up a meat grinder there. Looks like a common mistake. They, most likely, were guided by intelligence data, but it failed”.
The version that in this way the Ukrainian command destroyed the members of the Azov national battalion, who began to testify against the Ukrainian elite, also has the right to life, the expert believes.
“True, it does not quite fit with the subsequent reaction of the Ukrainian side”, said Vladislav Shurygin.
“They did not react in time with a prepared and profitable version of what happened. Instead, there was a three-hour silence when they didn’t know what to say. Only after that, Ukraine began to spin the unconvincing version that the Russians hit the prisoners of war, it is not clear why and for what purposes”.
Ukrainian nationalism in its current state does not spare even its own, Semyon Uralov, editor-in-chief of the SONAR-2050 research center for the study of integration problems, told Izvestiya.
“Now is the period of Petliurism, when armed people under the guise of patriots, under the slogans of fighting Russia and Russians, are engaged in terror,” the expert believes. – The peculiarity of Petliurism is that these are armed gangs that have nothing in common, except for more and more cruelty from lack of control. This is one of the archetypes that is often reproduced in this territory. Therefore, we must prepare for the fact that there will be more and more Petliurists, and they do not spare, in general, even their own.
Rear defeat
The Russian armed forces continue to strike at the military infrastructure of Ukraine.
“On July 28, high-precision sea, air and ground-based weapons hit enemy reserves in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. As a result of the strikes, the 30th mechanized brigade, which was preparing to be sent to the Donbass at a training ground near the settlement of Lyutezh, Kyiv region, completely lost its combat capability”, said the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov.
Also, after strikes with high-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the 57th motorized infantry brigade suffered critical losses, restoring combat capability in the Chernihiv region.
Operational-tactical, army aviation, missile troops and artillery hit the installation of the Tochka-U tactical missile system, the warehouse of missile and artillery weapons and ammunition of the 81st airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and 275 areas of concentration of troops in a day, the Ministry of Defense reported.
Su-35S fighter of the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed the launcher of the Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missile system in the Derg area of Kharkov region. Near the village of Razdolovka in the DPR, a Su-34 bomber destroyed a self-propelled firing system of the Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system.
Russian air defense shot down six unmanned aerial vehicles, 12 multiple rocket launchers over the settlements of Chernobaevka in the Kherson region and Gorskoe in the Lugansk People’s Republic, as well as a Tochka-U ballistic missile near Chernoy Oskol in the Kharkiv region in a day.
– In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 260 aircraft, 145 helicopters, 1,631 unmanned aerial vehicles, 361 anti-aircraft missile systems, 4,181 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 768 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems, 3,213 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 4522 units of special military vehicles,” Igor Konashenkov listed.
On Friday, the 488th motorized rifle Simferopol Red Banner Order of Suvorov Regiment named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze received the honorary title of Guards. The corresponding decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The document says that the name was given “for mass heroism and courage, fortitude and courage shown by the personnel of the regiment in combat operations to protect the Fatherland and state interests in armed conflicts.”
The mined bridge
On July 29, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation spoke about new cases of the use of social infrastructure facilities by Ukrainian armed groups for military purposes.
“In Artemovsk of the Donetsk People’s Republic, militants of nationalist battalions equipped a stronghold and an ammunition depot in the building of a medical college, the approaches to the educational institution were mined,” said Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation.
According to the general, in Berezovka, Odessa region, military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are stationed in the buildings of the Higher Vocational School of the National Polytechnic University and the Agrarian Lyceum, and artillery and armored vehicles are located in the adjacent territory.
In Slavyansk, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and territorial defense are stationed in the buildings of the College of Transport Infrastructure on Gagarin Street, checkpoints and firing points are set up on the approaches to the educational institution, and residents of nearby houses are forcibly kept in the premises under the pretext of supposedly ensuring security.
In addition, militants of the Ukrainian armed formations in Novopavlovka, Dnepropetrovsk region, mined a road bridge across the Salt River, which they plan to blow up and accuse units of the Armed Forces of Russia and the DPR of allegedly indiscriminate strikes on transport infrastructure, Lieutenant General Mikhail Mizintsev added.
Rapier strikes
On July 29, the Ministry of Defense spoke about the soldiers and officers of the Russian Armed Forces and the 1st Army Corps of the People’s Militia of the LPR, who showed courage and dedication during the special operation.
The battalion tactical group of senior sergeant Sergei Korolevich was liberating the settlement from Ukrainian nationalists when Sergei discovered a group of armed militants who were preparing an ambush. The sergeant decided to suddenly attack the radicals, as a result, the crew of his tank managed to destroy the multiple launch rocket system and up to 20 nationalists.
“The bold and decisive actions of senior sergeant Sergei Korolevich, as well as the skillful command of the tank crew in battle, made it possible to safely continue the movement of troops,” the Ministry of Defense said.
Acting commander of the anti-tank artillery battery of the Guards Motorized Rifle Slavic Brigade of the 1st Army Corps of the People’s Militia of the DPR Guards Lieutenant Dmitry Kolesnichenko is from Donbass. In 2014, he volunteered for the People’s Militia of the DPR and has been at the forefront since the first days of the SVO.
In a few days, Dmitry’s subordinates destroyed four strongholds and knocked out more than a dozen units of Ukrainian military equipment. Artillerymen of the DPR, operating from closed positions, hit enemy heavy equipment with strikes from 100-millimeter Rapira anti-tank guns, and also open platoon and company strongholds of the VFU.
The commander of the anti-tank artillery battery of the separate guards motorized rifle Slavic brigade of the 1st army corps of the People’s Militia of the DPR Guards, junior sergeant Anton Chernov has been serving in the ranks of the People’s Militia of the DPR for four years. He began his service as a gunner, and now he has become the commander of an anti-tank gun. On account of the calculation of the guards, junior sergeant Chernov, four Ukrainian tanks, destroyed by direct fire.
Sergeant Eduard Borodin, deputy commander of an engineering platoon of the 1st Corps of the People’s Militia of the DPR, used to work as a repairman for household appliances. He began his service in the communications unit, and after that he underwent retraining and became a sapper.
During a special military operation, Sergeant Borodin’s unit was surrounded. Eduard, having shown restraint and courage, brought his comrades out of the “cauldron”, thereby saving their lives.
Anton Lavrov, Andrey Fedorov, Izvestia
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