“They don’t surrender and fight to the last man.” This is how Russian bloggers describe the soldiers from the group Storm Ossentia. But this week the volunteer Russians lost the battle for a small village in Ukraine. The village of Pjatykhatky is small and can hardly be found on a map. According to official figures from 2001, 301 people lived here. But one of the hardest blows in the last week has been in Zaporizhzhya county. Not too far from the large nuclear power plant in the area. The fighting was fierce and raged for several days, before Ukrainian authorities were able to raise the flag over the village’s destroyed administration building on 19 June. At the same time, messages began to appear on social media that the city was being defended by a unit of volunteers in the Russian defense called Storm Ossetia. After Russian military bloggers first reported on these soldiers’ “heroic” defense against a superior enemy, the details of a very brutal reality began to emerge. The map shows the areas where the war in Ukraine is currently ongoing. The deputy commander confirmed killed The department was surrounded. In the end, several hundred soldiers were killed. Only a few wounded had allowed themselves to be captured. It is true that some of the soldiers came forward and said that they were alive, but had withdrawn from the village itself. Photos of the department before and after the fierce fighting told the story. This photo will show the detachments with soldiers from Ossetia, before the battles for Pjatykhatky Photo: Screenshot A picture of the Storm Ossetia detachment after the fighting. Photo: Screenshot Those who got out posted a video in which they admitted that they had suffered heavy losses, but that they continued the fight against what they call the “Ukrainian Nazis”. Based on these images and video, it is impossible to establish the loss figures of the Russian forces that occupied Pjatykhatky. But other information confirms that here large parts of the entire department under the Russian defense had been more or less wiped out. Perhaps as many as up to 300 soldiers have been killed or wounded. Several sources confirm that one of those killed is the deputy commander of the Storm Ossetia units, Ajvengo Tekhov. He has a background as a correspondent for Russian TV in the Republic of North Ossetia, but is originally from South Ossetia himself. The journalist Ajvengo Tekhov was second in command of the Storm detachments from Ossetia. He was killed in Pjatykhatky Photo: Telegram On the local TV channel in North Ossetia, or Alania as the historical name of the area is, a larger feature was then also made about Ajvengo Tekhov. It was about the journalist who had voluntarily gone to “defend the fatherland”, in the so-called special operation in Ukraine. Former enemies join forces for Russia This part of Russia, often referred to as the North Caucasus, was characterized by much unrest until 15 years ago. It was in the city of Beslan that Chechen terrorists in 2004 took an entire school hostage. More than 300 people were left dead before the operation was over. Relations between the mainly Christian Ossetians and their Muslim neighbors in Ingushetia and Chechnya have been very strained. But now soldiers from these poor regions are being sent by the thousands to Ukraine to fight on behalf of President Vladimir Putin. Another of those killed is Sako Kenkadze, who comes from the town of Elkhotov in the far northwest of North Ossetia. The surname, which is Georgian, may indicate that he has his background from South Ossetia. The soldiers in the Ossetian units, who fight in Ukraine, also come from South Ossetia. South Ossetia is formally part of neighboring Georgia, but in practice is now more or less integrated into Russia. A Russian soldier photographed in the Novoazovsk region of eastern Ukraine uses drones to find mines hidden in the terrain. Photo: AFP The fighting is very fierce The messages about what happened to Storm Ossetia have spread quickly on social media. People there have hardly been particularly reassured by messages on Telegram saying that the situation for the divisions fighting in Ukraine is stable. What is certain is that the fighting in Pjatykhatky and several other places along the front in Ukraine is exceptionally fierce and bloody right now. The Russian forces defend their positions doggedly and with great courage. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj’s administration has sent out this photo, which is supposed to show Ukrainian soldiers somewhere at the front in the southeast of the country. Photo: The Ukrainian presidential administration There is so far no talk of a breakthrough for the Ukrainian army. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj also admitted that in an interview with the BBC. – The progress may not be as great as desired, but this is not a Hollywood film, Zelenskyj said. On Friday, Zelenskyj’s close associate and advisor Mykhailo Polaljak wrote on Twitter that what is happening now is an attempt to shape the battlefield. It is a little unclear whether this is an attempt to explain away the fact that the Ukrainian forces have so far made little progress. Claims Russian forces are being pushed back At the same time, it is interesting that the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Friday that the Ukrainian forces are actually now pushing the Russian forces back along the front in Ukraine. The head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says the Russian forces are being pushed back in Ukraine. Photo: AP – We wash ourselves in our own blood, says Prigozhin. He says that no reserve forces are sent to the front to replace those killed or wounded. He also goes so far as to say that the whole war was unnecessary and that the Ukrainian army never had plans to attack Russia. This was nevertheless before he launched his surprising action inside Russia, to remove Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. The culture war In the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian soldier Mikhail Nikolov has posted a picture of himself in what was once a library, in the village of Blahodatne. The Russian forces had one of their headquarters here, before they were forced out of the city in mid-June. After the match. The Ukrainian soldier Mikhail Nikolov in the library of the village of Blahodatne in Donetsk region, with the national poet Taras Sevchenko on the wall. Photo: Jurij Butosov/Telegram In the middle of the destroyed room hangs a picture of the Ukrainian national poet Taras Sevchenko. Perhaps the Russian soldiers did not even know who he was, and therefore left him alone in the midst of the fierce fighting. Somewhat strangely, and paradoxically, the Ukrainian soldier is nicknamed “Lermontov”, Mikail Lermontov is considered by many to be the very foundation of Russian poetry and literature.
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The storm that subsided – the story of a Russian branch that was wiped out – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
