Over the weekend, after several days of fighting, the people’s militia of the LNR took control of Rubizhne. The city with a population of 60 thousand people has become the biggest success in the Severodonetsk direction in the last two weeks. The Ukrainian General Staff and the so-called Luhansk regional administration are trying unsuccessfully to refute his loss. How the battles for this strategically important settlement took place – in the report of the correspondent of Izvestia, who visited the scene.
From the outskirts
Last week, the LPR military attacked Rubizhne from two directions at once. From the north, the offensive came from the direction of the village of Varvarovka. From the west – from Staraya Krasnyanka. The Ukrainian National Guardsmen, located in the blocks of high-rise buildings on the outskirts, retreated after a short resistance.
Already on Thursday, the flag of the Luhansk People’s Republic was raised over the administration of Rubizhne. But his building is located near the northern outskirts of the city, stretching for eight kilometers. Therefore, this symbolic gesture did not yet mean the establishment of full control over the settlement.
Fighting for Rubizhne continued on Friday and over the weekend. Control over the city makes it possible to organize an attack on Lysichansk from a poorly protected direction, and from there to Severodonetsk. Their capture will complete the exit of the LPR to the borders of the former Luhansk region.
Realizing the strategic importance of this settlement, on Saturday and Sunday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred reinforcements and artillery here, including the Grad MLRS, intensifying shelling of the stubborn LPR forces. Over the weekend, the Ukrainian General Staff denied the loss of the city, and the National Guard even released a video stating that Rubizhne was under their complete control. But local residents quickly recognized that it was filmed at the NPP Zarya plant, located on the remote southern outskirts.
Moving away from the outskirts, the enemy entrenched himself in the private sector and at the enterprises of the city. It was clearly audible how artillery and mortars of the LPR were firing from the forest plantations north of Rubizhne. The gaps were in the areas of industrial zones. From there, black smoke from the fire rose. At times, the shelling subsided for a while and was replaced by the intense rattle of small arms – the infantry rose to the attack. Soon the sounds of the battle subsided and the identified firing points again began to methodically process heavy mortars.
Although there are only three kilometers from the outskirts of Rubizhne to safe Varvarovka, which is controlled by the LPR, this path turned out to be very dangerous for the exit of refugees. On the way, the vehicles have to maneuver intensively in order to bypass the tails from 82-mm and 120-mm mortar mines lying directly on the asphalt. This must be done at high speed in order to quickly pass the danger zone. The road is covered with steel fragments – on the way to the city we met a refugee car with a flat tire because of this. And soon the tires and three cars from our convoy were pierced.
Already on the spot, the residents showed us a high-rise building, behind which a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier was hiding, driving out from behind it to fire. On the ground, traces of the wheels of a heavy machine are still visible. They also told us that before the retreat, the Ukrainian military changed into civilian clothes. Here, indeed, a set of uniforms with all the necessary stripes was thrown on the ground. I even left in my pocket the identity card of a soldier Yuriy Grymchak from the 4th operational brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine.
The houses received many direct and close hits and were seriously damaged. But the main destruction of the microdistrict was not caused by battles during the assault. Already after the retreat of the National Guardsmen, five heavy ammunition “flew” here – apparently from the Smerch or Uragan MLRS. One of them got into the courtyard between several densely standing high-rise buildings. The shock wave, which intensified in a closed space, crushed all the balconies and most of the windows in four hundred apartments, taking out the entire frames in some.
From the scattering of large clods of earth from a huge funnel, it is clearly seen that the ammunition arrived from Severodonetsk, which is still occupied by Ukrainian troops. Perhaps, with artillery strikes, they tried to delay the offensive of the people’s militia of the LPR and destroy its fighters. Local residents have an alternative version.
“During the retreat, they decided to completely destroy the Russian-speaking population, this is pure genocide,” says Oleg Zhernovoi, a resident of a nearby house, pointing to a huge funnel two meters deep in the yard. “The only thing we want now is for a peaceful life to begin and some authorities to come here. For three days of anarchy, everything was looted here. Then everything will be all right.
The gathered people showed us the basements of high-rise buildings previously occupied by Ukrainian troops and the apartments on the first floors, where firing points were equipped. People said that before the retreat, the National Guardsmen plundered closed shops, getting food and cigarettes for themselves.
Destruction and hope
The common enemy of all the inhabitants of the city was not so much artillery fire as cold. At night the temperature dropped to -10. It was dank not only in the basements, but also in hundreds of apartments that had lost heating and windows – they had to be covered with carpets and blankets. People were interested in whether a film would be included in the priority humanitarian aid, with which it would be possible to seal up window openings for a while. But it is still not close to establishing humanitarian supplies.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian authorities announced an agreed regime of silence starting on the morning of March 19. The buses were supposed to start evacuating everyone from Lisichansk, Severodonetsk and Rubizhne. But, as local residents reported on social networks, artillery skirmishes during the “humanitarian truce” did not stop.
A group from the LPR, who delivered aid to the city on Saturday, was also convinced of the failure of the truce from their own experience. She was forced, together with local residents, to hide from the fire of the Ukrainian “Grads” in the bomb shelter of school No. 2. The evacuation from Rubizhne continued only privately – by car and on foot.
On Sunday, similar pictures of destruction had already been observed on the “old” territory of the LPR. In the area of the Pervomaisky Electromechanical Plant, which was subjected to another shelling on Saturday, windows and frames were broken in high-rise buildings. It is clear that this is not the first time. The walls of the houses are densely dotted with traces of fragments from hits from previous years. Instead of glass, many still have sheets of plywood or chipboard inserted.
“With the start of the special operation, the shelling by the Ukrainian troops in this direction intensified sharply,” an observer officer of the LPR representation in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime (JCCC) told Izvestia. – Shells now fly deep into the territory of the republic, into Irmino and even Stakhanov. This has not happened for a long time. Our small group works for several of these cities, and now we do not physically have time to leave to record all the damage.
While in the areas where the fighting continues, they are still waiting for help, in the liberated cities and towns that are deep in the rear, a peaceful life is gradually being established.
After two weeks of absence, electricity returned to the heavily damaged city of Shchastya. Late in the evening you can see the light in the windows of apartment buildings, street lighting has partially started working. On Sunday, cellular communications and mobile Internet were connected.
On Saturday, for the first time in eight years, the train Lugansk-Starobilsk made a flight with passengers. Now a four-hour trip from the republican center to the main refugee reception point costs a symbolic 26 rubles per person. A network of bus routes to the liberated regional centers in the north of the LPR is also being established.
Due to the fact that the population of the former Ukrainian territories does not have rubles, the leadership of the LNR ordered to temporarily accept Ukrainian hryvnia in all stores. Announcements that here you can pay in Ukrainian currency at the rate of 2.5 for one ruble appeared in all shops of the capital. Now people from Shchastya or Stanytsia Luhanska will be able to buy the most necessary things with their unconverted savings.
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