VOLNOVAKHA, UKRAINE – MARCH 12: A view of burned T-64BV tank is seen amid Russian-Ukrainian conflict … [+]
On October 24, journalist Yuri Butusov posted an interview with a grizzled Ukrainian tank driver-mechanic named Vasyl, callsign Vasilyevich, who had been in combat with Russian forces since 2014, seeing action at the battle of Donetsk Airport and even served on the frontline alongside his son in 2016.
Standing in front of a captured T-72B3 tank, Vasyl provides a rare account of the tank battle for control of the city of Volnovakha begun on the third day of the war. His brigade’s costly stand delayed Russia’s encirclement of Mariupol for fifteen days, by which time most of Volnovakha was utterly destroyed.
Butusov’s interview was subsequently provided English subtitles by the site War Translated, which you can see below.
Updated 11/13/2022
Stepan, a translator at War Translated, brought to the author’s attention that a second tanker named Vitaly (callsign Mars) also described the armored battle in Volnovakha in an earlier interview by Butusov. Though not confirmed, the author believes Vitaliy is the deputy commander of Vasyl’s battalion based on which units were in the region and similarities in their accounts.
This article seeks to contextualize these two account of their unit’s hasty defensive action begun late in February as part of the larger battle of Volnovakha. (The wording of the original oral translations has been adjusted in places for length and clarity.)
Volnovakha was founded in 1881 as a railway station (later, hub) connecting Donetsk 40 miles to the north and the port of Mariupol 30 miles to the south. Its strategic location made it the site of battles in the Ukrainian Revolution (1919-2020) and World War II, particularly in 1943. By 2001 it had a population of 21,000; a survey found 20% were ethnically Greek, 24% Russian, and 52.9% as Ukrainian.
Volnovakha’s train station in 2018.
In 2014, pro-Russian separatists seized the city after carrying out a deadly attack in May which killed 16 Ukrainian soldiers and wounded 13. Ukrainian forces recaptured the city in July, and then defended it against repeated attacks made in Russia’s initial effort to seize Mariupol, culminating in January 2015 when a Russian rocket barrage killed 12 civilians traveling in a bus. Close to separatist-held Donetsk, it was destined to remain a frontline city in the following years.
When Putin launched his full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022 Volnovakha was again in the crosshairs—and in fact before the war had even started, were bombarded by Separatist 152-millimeter howitzers the night of Feb. 22-23 (12 am-5 am) to adjust their fire, killing one Ukrainian soldier.
While Crimea-based forces broke through Ukrainian defenses and advanced on Mariupol from the west, securing Volnovakha would allow Russian troops to descend upon the strategic port from the north, completing the encirclement and cutting the defender’s remaining supply line running along the H20 highway.
Separatists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR or DNR) spearheaded the attack. These troops were generally considered less well trained and equipped than regular Russian military units, though some did benefit from prior combat experience.
DPR 100th Brigade (known for blue vests and berets similar to Russian airborne units)
DPR 3rd Separate Guards Motorized-Rifle Brigade (1000-2000 personnel)
DPR ‘Sparta’ an elite ultranationalist reconnaissance/assault battalion
Defending was Ukraine’s 53rd Mechanized Brigade, which Russian propaganda claimed had been ‘surrounded’ and begun surrendering on day one.
By February 26, separatist troops were streaming into Volnovakha itself, at which point they encountered the brigade’s T-64BV tank battalion, the attached 24th “Aidar” Assault infantry battalion, and elements of the Ukrainian National Guard’s Azov and Donbas battalions.
Vasyl’s tank company had initially been deployed to a defensive position at Karlivka, then shifted to Kurahova; likewise, Vitaliy states his battalion’s three tank companies (each theoretically disposing of 13 tanks) were dispersed to defend multiple locations. Seeing little combat, on the 26th Vasyl’s company was reassigned to establish and defend a circular perimeter around the bus station at the center of Volnovakha.
Google/Maxar satellite map of area around Volnovakha bus station, where a tank battalion of … [+]
Ironically, in an adjoining park an ancient T-34/85 tank stood on a pedestal commemorating Soviet tankers killed in World War II.
A T-34/85 tank serves as a memorial to Soviet tankers who diead in action in World War II located … [+]
Vasyl’s company engaged Russian forces immediately after deploying: “They started attacking us from two sides. Since I’m the driver-mechanic I had smaller range of view [peering through the hull vision slit, not the turret optics]. I heard the gunner already firing. I saw BTRs, BMPs catching fire. Don’t know who hit them. A couple of our guys too.”
[BTRs are a family of Soviet 8×8 wheeled armored troop carriers, BMPs are more heavily-armed tracked fighting vehicles.]
“We began crushing them. Then my tank was hit. It was almost a direct hit, but I’d reacted, put the vehicle into reverse gear and the shell glanced off the turret. “Sons of a bitches!” I thought. But I’d saved the tank.” [Note: Though the sequence of events is unclear, it seems that when Vasyl backed up the tank, it caused a shot to ricochet off a side or corner angle of the armor.]
Later in the battle, flames began licking up from the turret. “As it turned out, it was the camo net that caught fire. I jumped out, put it down. Of course we stayed in position.”
[Non-penetrating hits can still cause externally stored equipment to combust, particularly in the storage ‘bustle’ on the rear turret. Such external fires risk panicking the crew and damaging sensitive external sensors.]
But while Vasyl’s crew was extinguishing the fire outside their vehicle, a Russian tank passed in front of them. “I didn’t see who hit him, but he didn’t go too far, just 50 meters. The turret flew away, the crew was on the trees. It wasn’t a sight for the weak-hearted.” [Ammunition storage in the turret makes all later Soviet tanks prone to fatal detonation when penetrated, often causing the turret to fly off.]
VOLNOVAKHA, UKRAINE – MARCH 12: Civilians walk by a destroyed BMP fighting vehicle in the city of … [+]
Visibility was generally poor. Vasyl recounts: “There was smoke everywhere, and also snow. I could only see the asphalt in front of me due to the explosions, fires and so on.”
Asked about the losses inflicted, Vasyl recalled: ‘they were saying later on the new that only 50 of them came, well, I saw at least 50 bodies. Vehicles? Two tanks, immediately, two BMPs, just 5 minutes into the battle.”
Both Vasyl and Vitaliy report one tank was captured. Vitaly describes the incident as follows:
“Our T-64 rolled out on a position that happened to be just 200 meters in front of the enemy tank. The T-64 came to a stop 200 meters away and fired the first shot. A round landed near enemy vehicle, our gunner shot under the enemy tank. There was an explosion under the tank and the crew simply fled.”
As for Ukrainian losses, Vasyl recalled “Although one of our tanks was hit there, the crew survived. But no one got scared, no one ran away, everyone stood on spot. Of course, we had to relocate periodically, because we couldn’t stay in one spot.”
VOLNOVAKHA, UKRAINE – MARCH 12: Civilians are seen in a bomb shelter under the hospital amid … [+]
Vitaliy emphasized the stress and fear of experiencing combat for the first time:
“We had training. But training is not war… Say you see a target, but you don’t know whether you hit it or it rolled back into cover. Then all of the sudden there’s an explosion in front of your tank. Then you shoot. And the butchery starts. The first one to shoot [and hit] wins. It’s either you or him. No other option.”
Vitaly felt the battle revealed the superior performance of Ukraine’s T-64s over Russian T-72 tanks, claiming they were faster firing, have better distributed armor protection, and are more reliable, which he says may also be due to more experienced mechanics. That said, DPR T-72s are mostly older models lacking many of the upgrades on Russia’s latest T-72B3 tanks.
In effect February 26-28, DPR troops were forced out of Volnovakha. But on the first day alone, Russian shelling killed 20 civilians there. With electricity and heating cut, most of the town’s citizens were left shivering in their basements. The dead remained frozen on the street, or were hastily buried in the backyards of family homes.
DPR troops were soon back on the attack, bolstered increasingly by Russian regular forces and heavy artillery and air bombardments. Pro-Russian media circulated imagery of dead and surrendering Ukrainian troops, claiming the 53rd brigade had been annihilated and its command section had abandoned troops in the field.
That Russian media repeatedly needed to declare Volnovakha ‘captured’ hinted at the rocky course of events as more troops from both sides were sucked into the struggle.
Reinforcements on the Ukrainian side—many retreating from compromised positions—included the Georgian Legion (a foreign volunteer unit), the 15th Mountain Assault Infantry battalion, and the 503rd Naval Infantry battalions. Elements of the 54th Mechanized Brigade, the 56th Motor-Rifle brigade (mounted in Gazelle vans), and the 109th Territorial Defense Brigade also contributed to the defense.
Russia’s own force commitments, discernible from equal parts media coverage and soldier’s obituaries, included:
As the fighting dragged on, DPR infantry repeatedly pressed Vasyl’s tank unit. “They were coming up to 100 meters, perhaps even less. Sometimes they’d come at night, but didn’t make it. Because we were on duty. [At least a third of Ukraine’s T-64BVs are upgraded with modern thermal sights.] But they mostly tried to strike with artillery form afar, and also snipers. Our boys were afraid of snipers. Once one of our guys was shot in the leg by a sniper. Under fire, we threw a smoke grenade and got him out.”
Vasyl was nonplussed when they found a bottle of vodka and a chocolate bar in the backpack of a dead separatist fighter. “I thought to myself, what the hell are they going to battle with? Then we captured three of them. One of them turned out to be from Horlivka, another from Yenakiieve, and a youngster from Kharkiv. They admitted they were sent into slaughter, they never thought we’d have tanks here.”
DONETSK, UKRAINE – MARCH 11: A tank is seen in Volnovakha, Donetsk, Ukraine on March 11, 2022. … [+]
Vitaliy concurs in his account: “Their [separatist] IFVs, APCs, tanks were simply going up in flames. Their people were not ready for this. These are just children, not trained, villagers used only to manual labor… And they’re very fast to abandon a vehicle. If there’s a breakdown with a vehicle, say it doesn’t turn properly, that’s it, they bail out. There’s no need to shoot, they’ll simply run away from us.”
Artillery proved a greater threat. Vasyl recalls in the video: “Every day and night—shelling. The vehicle needs to be warmed up of course to stay in working condition, to be able to get out and do the work on short notice. So I was constantly running under shell fire, warming it up, helping guys who abandoned their vehicle, or whose battery died or they had power go out, I’d go have a look.”
Shelling eventually neutralized the combat effectiveness of Vasyl’s tank. “Once our main gun was hit, it wasn’t firing anymore. It needed to be taken out, but we couldn’t due to the shelling.” Vitaliy also says constant shelling prevented crew from exiting from their tanks.
Ukrainian civilians are evacuated from Volnovakha on March 3.
The plight of civilians drew increasing concern. On March 1 an initial batch of 346 civilians were withdrawn from the city, which by then reportedly had 90% of its buildings destroyed or damaged. Another 400 followed on March 6. Finally on the 7th Russia agreed to create a humanitarian corridor, though some of the evacuation vehicles still came under fire.
Both sides’ Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack jets—and Russia’s faster heavier Su-34 bombers—contributed to the bombardment. On March 3, 54th brigade anti-aircraft troops downed the Russian Su-25SM3 Red-08, whose pilot ejected. When a Russian Mi-8 rescue helicopter attempted to extricate him, it too was downed by Ukrainian fire, with two crew captured. A Ukrainian Frogfoot was downed near Volnovakha on the 14th, after the battle’s conclusion.
Russia’s growing troop concentration around Mariupol bogged down an attempted Ukrainian counterattack on March 9. Just two days later Ukrainian forces finally withdrew, with closing skirmishes on the 12th.
Vitaliy recalled: “The enemy had vastly overwhelming forces. Tactics usually call for a 1:3, 1:4 ratio of attackers to defenders, but in this case there were many more of them. There was no way we could hold them, and there was an order to retreat.”
Volnovakha was finally seized by the 163rd Tank Regiment (from 150th Motor-Rifle Division) and the DPR’s 11th Motor Rifle Regiment. By then, much of the city had been completely destroyed.
VOLNOVAKHA, DONETSK, UKRAINE – MARCH 27: A view of a damaged residential area in Volnovakha city, … [+]
The DPR Sparta battalion’s commander, Vladimir Zhoga, had been killed March 5 and buried in a military funeral in Donetsk. His father Artem inherited command of the unit.
DONETSK, UKRAINE – MARCH 07: A funeral ceremony of Sparta Battalion commander Vladimir Zhoga held at … [+]
A company commander in Ukraine’s 503rd naval infantry, Capt. Pavel Sbitov, fell in a rearguard action near Volnovakha on March 12.
While the battle’s total casualties remain unestimated, it’s safe to say hundreds more soldiers and dozens of civilians fell to be mourned by families across Ukraine and Russia.
BILA KRYNYTSIA, UKRAINE – MARCH 5: Khrystyna Hrynchuk, 29, the wife of deceased Denys Hrynchuk, … [+]
Photos posted on Russian social media confirm Ukrainian forces left behind at least 8 abandoned or destroyed T-64BV tanks, one T-72B, a few BMP and BTR troop carriers, and an Uragan rocket-artillery truck. Vitaliy states his unit lost seven tanks, but that the crew escaped alive.
One of the knocked-out Ukrainian T-64 had sidled next to the World War II tanker memorial to shield its side armor.
Volnovakha’s capture was an important, if delayed and costly, victory for pro-Russian forces, as it cut off Mariupol from resupply, sealing the fate of the port city’s defenders. After two months of brutal urban combat, starving Ukrainian defenders ensconced in the Azovstal factory complex surrendered.
Vitaliy recalls seeing videos of Russian tanks callously rolling over civilian buildings in Mariupol. “This is panful, when enemy comes to your home and is smashing everything.”
However, Vasyl found solace that his unit’s stand at Volnovakha bought crucial time:
“I think one of the reasons, though the command center certainly knows better, we held the defense for 15 days was so that the armed forces could build up the defenses further back, strong enough to properly hold and block further advance. And still today, the Russian haven’t tried. Velika Novosyolovka, Vodyany, are still [held by Ukraine]. They didn’t reach Vuhledar.”
Indeed, in November, Russian marines dispatched on unsuccesful assaults on Vuhledar’s suburb of Pavlivka suffered hundreds of casualties, losses so heavy they caused a political scandal in Russia.
From Vitaliy’s perspective, withdrawal was necessary: “When enemy forces are overwhelming, I face a choice: whether to save a crew and a tank, or to die there… When they were attacking from all directions, you spot them, you shoot, and they are still approaching, and they get through. Their tanks, BMP-3s are coming at you all the time, and there are too many of them.”
Asked by Butusov in the video what advantage Ukrainians possess in the conflict, Vasyl—whose son has already been wounded in combat—concludes:
“Our boys’ strength is that they’re fighting for their Ukraine. We didn’t come to them, we aren’t taking from them. I don’t want to be grandiose. It’s as they say, cliché. But in my own words: I think if my mom was a bit younger, then she would be at positions here as a medic. The whole family is fighting.”
Updated November 13 with commentary from Butusov’s interview of the tank officer Vitaliy also present in the battle of Volnovakha.