How Ukrainian Defenders Left Sievierodonetsk In Boats Under Cover Of Night

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine, June 27 (Reuters) – One of Sievierodonetsk’s last Ukrainian defenders said he withdrew in a boat, embittered to be leaving after weeks of a Russian attack on the devastated city but happy at how he and others were doing on Being life crossed the river to a higher level.

Russian forces fully occupied the eastern front city on Saturday, both sides said, confirming Kiev’s biggest battlefield setback in more than a month after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. Continue reading

“It was obviously a shame because a lot of effort went into defending it – it took months,” said Danylo, a 24-year-old soldier who said he was almost one of the last to leave.

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“But… we’re not too upset because we want to live too.”

He and another soldier, Anton, who also left in recent days, described their retreat across the Siverskyi Donets river in interviews on Sunday.

They spoke to Reuters in Sloviansk, a town about 60 km (35 miles) west of Sievierodonetsk that has now become one of Ukraine’s key strongholds for defending the industrial Donbas heartland that Russia’s assault is focused on conquering.

“It was mostly in the dark for security reasons. The locations of the crossings were constantly being changed because they were also being shelled,” Danylo said.

He said no one was killed in the retreat, as far as he knew.

FEARS OF ANOTHER MARIUPOL

Anton said Sievierodonetsk’s defenders feared a repeat of the encirclement of the Azovstal Steel Works in the southern port city of Mariupol, where hundreds of Ukrainian fighters holed up before finally surrendering.

Anton (R), a soldier who returned from Sievierodonetsk, poses with his friends amid the Russian invasion of the country in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine June 26, 2022. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

In Severodonetsk, too, the Ukrainian armed forces were pushed back into a large industrial zone, this time into that of the Azot chemical plant.

“There were many civilians, soldiers and everything was moving towards us to be surrounded,” Anton said, accusing the Russian army of using “scorched earth” tactics.

“If it was just infantry and an attack we could still defend ourselves but their tactic is to destroy all buildings, destroy everything that is there and we just don’t have a place to fortify ourselves, nowhere to fight a positional war, nowhere to defend,” he said.

“They’re just testing our endurance. There are no logical explanations for their actions, but they just exhaust us, that’s their whole tactic,” he said.

Moscow denies targeting civilians in a so-called “military special operation” in Ukraine. Kyiv and the West accuse Russian forces of war crimes in a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions abroad.

Anton said the defenders were ordered to retreat because the casualties were so heavy that there was no point in holding out. He said he believed Russian forces suffered much heavier casualties.

“When you fight for every street…every patch of this land becomes your own home and you fight for everything.” It’s hard (the decision to retire) but that’s the order and that means it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Back in Sloviansk, Tatyana Khimeon, formerly a choreographer, said she volunteered to distribute supplies such as socks, wet wipes, body armor and helmets.

“It’s difficult for the boys when they leave occupied cities. So we smile at them and hug them to lighten the mood a little bit,” she said.

“But in general their morale is good. We believe in them, we hope in them.”

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writing by Tom Balmforth; Adaptation by John Stonestreet

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