Zakharenko Calls Up the Donetsk Reserves: Donbass Gears Up For Full-Scale Kiev Offensive
– Gun Commander, target 201, stand by!
– Target 201, ready!
This week, in the Donetsk People's Republic, a rear defensive echelon has been forming as a response to Kiev's statement that Donetsk will soon be besieged. The reservists have been called up. They are under the command of the Republic's MIA. A military exercise took place; it involved repelling an attack in the rear in case the Ukrainian troops breach the front-line.
Codename "Kaban", Battalion Commander:
– We simulated a situation which has a 99% chance of occurring in any corner of the Republic at any time. In other words, a conventional attack by an armored infantry or mechanized battalion.
– You mean, a Ukrainian one?
– Yes, a Ukrainian unit's action and our response as a company on the defensive.
This week, Ukrainian artillery units shelled the small town Kurganka, which is in the outskirts of Horlivka. Patrick Lancaster, an American reporter, was in the line of fire.
– Get down! Get down! That's not a joke, that's an artillery gun.
Patrick is from the USA, a freelance journalist, lives on donations from the subscribers of his channel. He served as a seaman on an American aircraft carrier, then resigned and left the US to come to Donbass four years ago. Now he has a wife here, Nadezhda, and a little son. This week, he was visited by his father, Timothy Lancaster, a retired police officer from the state of Missouri.
Patrick Lancaster: "I want him to see what the real situation is like out here. He had watched my reports and he has a much better understanding of what's going on here. The majority of Europeans and Americans don't have the full picture; they watch BBC, CNN, NBC, and get only half the truth, or outright lies".
Timothy Lancaster: “I was scared to death for the whole first year when he was here, and then I saw how good he was at it and how important what he did was. He has thousands of subscribers on Facebook, people that just love him. Of course, I'm still scared for him, but it's his job, which I support 100%.Э
– Hello!
– Hello!
– I'm a correspondent. Where's the fire coming from?
– Where's the fire coming from?
– Yes.
– From Ukraine, of course.
People on the outskirts of Horlovka, taking cover from Ukrainian fire, live in basements.
Here's the war-time announcement in Kugranka: Dear residents! In accordance with the order of the Acting Head of the Horlivka Administration and HQ, due to the escalation of shelling, the porch doors should remain open, and the door phone turned off.
This week, a second projectile hit the apartment of Nikolay Sheludko, a retiree.
– Who fired?
Nikolay Sheludko: Who? Our saviors, the Ukrops (Ukrainians) and Sir Poroshenko. Over here. 36 pieces fell off this spot. Here they are.
– Alexander Vladimirovich, why is Horlovka being hit the hardest? That's Horlivka, I assume.
Alexander Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic: The enemy will most likely try to find our weak spots via massive reconnaissance efforts, and basically, if the offensive is successful, they will cut our communications between Lugansk and Donetsk. That's why it's happening here. Today, the enemy has neither the strength nor the capability to mount an offensive on a wide front upon the entirety of our territory. They can only selectively gather some units and attack two or three spots. Most likely, those spots are the Svetlodarsk arc, Donetsk itself, the outskirts, places like Petrovka, or the city of Dokuchaievsk.
This week, Kiev stated that they would seize the hills around Horlovka, start a bombardment of the city, and the DPR military would scatter.
Alexander Zakharchenko: "To these wishful-thinking Ukrainian generals, who claim that they can destroy us in two hours, give it your best shot, come get some, and get what you deserve — something you're used to".
Those are the hills which were mentioned by the Ukrainian military this week. They claimed that they are ready to occupy them in order to bombard the territory of Horlivka from there and then besiege Donetsk.
A Ukrainian sabotage party almost infiltrated the city of Donetsk's Petrovsky district this week.
Eduard Basurin, DPR armed forces spokesman: “The group headed to our positions. It was eliminated. One may assume that it was a minor reconnaissance operation. First of all, they want to find out how we react and how we track the situation on the front-line, whether we have any special equipment which could have detected their movement, and a probe of our minefield perimeter. It was a combined effort".
Here are the photos found on the cellphone of one of the dead Ukrainian saboteurs. The DNR military claim that the group was under the influence of psychotropic substances.
Eduard Basurin: "Since 2014, there have been a lot of cases where they continued moving forward despite losing arms or legs. The man fell only when the head was off. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh here, but these people were under the influence of psychoactive drugs".
Donbass is obviously digging in. The DPR military has given us a demonstration of some anti-tank systems, howitzers, and Grad launchers. This is how the territorial defense of the Donetsk People's Republic looks like. So, at the end of the week, most of the fire has been here, in the rear, on a range.
Alexander Sladkov, Pavel Vydrin, Igor Uklein, Alexey Yaldin, Oleg Bondarenko, and Andrey Rudenko for Vesti News of the Week, reporting from Donbass.