Can you copy and paste?
Sorry I canât it seems to have gone behind a paywall now.
VOZNESENSK, UkraineâA Kalashnikov rifle slung over his shoulder, Voznesenskâs funeral director, Mykhailo Sokurenko, spent this Tuesday driving through fields and forests, picking up dead Russian soldiers and taking them to a freezer railway car piled with Russian bodiesâthe casualties of one of the most comprehensive routs President Vladimir Putinâs forces have suffered since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
A rapid Russian advance into the strategic southern town of 35,000 people, a gateway to a Ukrainian nuclear power station and pathway to attack Odessa from the back, would have showcased the Russian militaryâs abilities and severed Ukraineâs key communications lines.
Instead, the two-day battle of Voznesensk, details of which are only now emerging, turned decisively against the Russians. Judging from the destroyed and abandoned armor, Ukrainian forces, which comprised local volunteers and the professional military, eliminated most of a Russian battalion tactical group on March 2 and 3.
The Ukrainian defendersâ performance against a much-better-armed enemy in an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking region was successful in part because of widespread popular support for the Ukrainian causeâone reason the Russian invasion across the country has failed to achieve its principal goals so far. Ukraine on Wednesday said it was launching a counteroffensive on several fronts.
âEveryone is united against the common enemy,â said Voznesenskâs 32-year-old mayor, Yevheni Velichko, a former real-estate developer turned wartime commander, who, like other local officials, moves around with a gun. âWe are defending our own land. We are at home.â
Voznesensk Mayor Yevheni Velichko, left, atop a bridge Ukrainian military engineers blew up.
The Russian military says its Ukraine offensive is developing successfully and according to plan. Moscow hasnât released updated casualty figures since acknowledging on March 2 the death of 498 troops, before the Voznesensk battle.
Russian survivors of the Voznesensk battle left behind nearly 30 of their 43 vehiclesâtanks, armored personnel carriers, multiple-rocket launchers, trucksâas well as a downed Mi-24 attack helicopter, according to Ukrainian officials in the city. The helicopterâs remnants and some pieces of burned-out Russian armor were still scattered around Voznesensk on Tuesday.
Russian forces retreated more than 40 miles to the southeast, where other Ukrainian units have continued pounding them. Some dispersed in nearby forests, where local officials said 10 soldiers have been captured.
âWe didnât have a single tank against them, just rocket-propelled grenades, Javelin missiles and the help of artillery,â said Vadym Dombrovsky, commander of the Ukrainian special-forces reconnaissance group in the area and a Voznesensk resident. âThe Russians didnât expect us to be so strong. It was a surprise for them. If they had taken Voznesensk, they would have cut off the whole south of Ukraine.â
Ukrainian officers estimated that some 100 Russian troops died in Voznesensk, including those whose bodies were taken by retreating Russian troops or burned inside carbonized vehicles. As of Tuesday, 11 dead Russian soldiers were in the railway car turned morgue, with search parties looking for other bodies in nearby forests. Villagers buried some others.
A Russian soldierâs body before transfer to the Voznesensk morgue.
Bodies of Russian soldiers in the freezer train car turned morgue.
âSometimes, I wish I could put these bodies on a plane and drop them all onto Moscow, so they realize what is happening here,â said Mr. Sokurenko, the funeral director, as he put Tuesdayâs fifth Russian cadaver on blue-plastic sheeting inside his van marked âCargo 200ââSoviet military slang for killed in action. A Ukrainian military explosives specialist accompanied him, because some bodies had been booby trapped.
About 10 Ukrainian civilians died in Voznesensk during the combat and two more after hitting a land mine afterward, local officials said. Ukraine doesnât disclose its military losses. There were fatalities, mostly among the Territorial Defense volunteer forces, local residents said.
The Russian operation to seize Voznesensk, 20 miles from the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, was ambitious and well-equipped. It began after Russian forces fanned out of the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow severed from Ukraine and annexed in 2014, and thrust northward to seize the regional capital of Kherson on March 1. They pushed to the edge of Mykolaiv, the last major city before Odessa, Ukraineâs main port.
About 55 miles north of Mykolaiv, Voznesensk offered an alternative bridge over the Southern Bug river and access to the main highway linking Odessa with the rest of Ukraine. Russian forces raced toward the town at the same time as they made a successful push northeast to seize the city of Enerhodar, where another major Ukrainian nuclear power plant is located. Voznesenskâs fall would have made defending the nuclear plant to the north of here nearly impossible, military officials said.
The Battle of Voznesensk
South Ukraine
nuclear facility
UKRAINE
Area of detail
Controlled by or
allied to Russia
3
Detail below
Voznesensk
MYKOLAIV OBLAST
P06
2
P55
Connects
Voznesensk
and Odessa
ODESSA OBLAST
Mykolaiv
1
M14
Kherson
Controlled
by Russia
Odessa
Black Sea
On March 1, the Russian military column departs Kherson headed north and northeast.
To reach Odessa, the column must cross the Southern Bug in Mykolaiv or Voznesensk. The river runs in a deep canyon and can only be crossed via bridge.
1
2
VOZNESENSK
4
Bridge
destroyed
AREA OF BATTLE
Mertvovod R.
RAKOVE
3
The column reaches Voznesensk, where the bridge over the Mertvovod tributary of the Southern Bug has been destroyed by local forces, stopping the northward progression.
After two days of fighting, most of the column is destroyed. Survivors escape east toward Bashtanka.
3
4
Source: staff reports
Mayor Velichko worked with local businessmen to dig up the shores of the Mertvovod river that cuts through town so armored personnel vehicles couldnât ford it. He got other businessmen who owned a quarry and a construction company to block off most streets to channel the Russian column into areas that would be easier to hit with artillery.
Ahead of the Russian advance, military engineers blew up the bridge over the Mertvovod and a railroad bridge on the townâs edge. Waiting for the Russians in and around Voznesensk were Ukrainian regular army troops and members of the Territorial Defense force, which Ukraine established in January, recruiting and arming volunteers to help protect local communities. Local witnesses, officials and Ukrainian combat participants recounted what happened next.
Missile strikes
The Russian assault began with missile strikes and shelling that hit central Voznesensk, destroying the municipal swimming pool and damaging high-rises. Helicopters dropped Russian air-assault troops in a forested ridge southwest of Voznesensk, as an armored column drove from the southeast. Mr. Velichko said a local collaborator with the Russians, a woman driving a Hyundai SUV, showed the Russian column a way through back roads.
Ukrainian officers estimate that some 400 Russian troops took part in the attack. The number would have been bigger if these forcesâmostly from the 126th naval infantry brigade based in Perevalnoye, Crimea, according to seized documentsâhadnât come under heavy shelling along the way.
Natalia Horchuk, a 25-year-old mother of three, said Russian soldiers appeared in her garden in the village of Rakove in the Voznesensk municipality early March 2. They told her and neighbors to leave for their safety, and parked four tanks and infantry fighting vehicles between the houses. âDo you have anywhere to go?â she recalled them asking. âThis place will be hit.â
âWe can hide in the cellar,â she replied.
âThe cellar wonât help you,â they told her. Hiding valuables, she and her family fled, as did most neighbors.
Children play near the shelled clinic in Rakove.
One of the Ukrainian troops inspecting ruined houses where Russian soldiers rested.
Outside Rakove, Volodymyr Kichuk, a guard at a walnut plantation, woke to find five Russian airborne troops in his hut. They took his phone and forced him to lie on the ground, said his wife, Hanna. âOnce they realized there was nothing to steal, they told him: You can get up after we leave,â she said. By dayâs end, the couple were gone from the village.
Russian soldiers took over villagersâ homes in Rakove and created a sniper position on a roof. They looked for sacks to fill with soil for fortifications, burned hay to create a smoke screen and demanded food.
A local woman who agreed to cook for the Russians is now under investigation, said Mr. Dombrovsky. âA traitorâshe did it for money,â he said. âI donât think the village will forgive her and let her live here.â
Downhill from Rakove, Russian forces set up base at a gas station at Voznesenskâs entrance. A Russian BTR infantry fighting vehicle drove up to the blown-up bridge over the Mertvovod, opening fire on the Territorial Defense base to the left. Five tanks, supported by a BTR, drove to a wheat field overlooking Voznesensk.
A group of Territorial Defense volunteers armed with Kalashnikovs was hiding in a building at that fieldâs edge. They didnât have much of a chance against the BTRâs large-caliber machine gun, said Mykola Rudenko, one of the cityâs Territorial Defense officers; some were killed, others escaped. Russian troops in two Ural trucks were preparing to assemble and set up 120mm mortars on the wheat field, but they got only as far as unloading the ammunition before Ukrainian shelling began.
Russian soldiers took over villagersâ homes during their advance on Voznesensk; above and below, Ukrainian troops inspect such houses in Rakove.
Phoning in coordinates
As darkness fell March 2, Mr. Rudenko, who owns a company transporting gravel and sand, took cover in a grove on the wheat fieldâs edge under pouring rain. The Russian tanks there would fire into Voznesensk and immediately drive a few hundred yards away to escape return fire, he said.
Mr. Rudenko was on the phone with a Ukrainian artillery unit. Sending coordinates via the Viber social-messaging app, he directed artillery fire at the Russians. So did other local Territorial Defense volunteers around the city. âEveryone helped,â he said. âEveryone shared the information.â
Ukrainian shelling blew craters in the field, and some Russian vehicles sustained direct hits. Other Ukrainian regular troops and Territorial Defense forces moved toward Russian positions on foot, hitting vehicles with U.S.-supplied Javelin missiles. As Russian armor caught fireâincluding three of the five tanks in the wheat fieldâsoldiers abandoned functioning vehicles and escaped on foot or sped off in the BTRs that still had fuel. They left crates of ammunition.
Mr. Rudenko picked up a Russian conscript days later, he said, who served as an assistant artillery specialist at a Grad multiple-rocket launcher that attacked Voznesensk from a forest. The 18-year-old conscript, originally from eastern Ukraine and a Crimea resident since 2014, suffered a concussion after a Ukrainian shell hit near him. He woke the next morning, left his weapon and wandered into a village, Mr. Rudenko said. There, a woman took him into her home and called the village head, who informed Territorial Defense. âHeâs still in shock about what happened to him,â Mr. Rudenko said.
Mr. Dombrovsky, the reconnaissance-unit commander, said he captured several soldiers in their early 20s and a 31-year-old senior lieutenant from the Russian military intelligence. The lieutenant, he said, had forced a private to swap uniforms but was discovered because of the age discrepancyâand because Ukrainian forces found Russian personnel files in the columnâs command vehicle.
âThe Russians had orders to come in, seize, and await further instructions,â Mr. Dombrovsky said. âBut they had no orders for what to do if they are defeated. That, they didnât plan for.â
Ukrainian troops in a village where the Russian forces camped in their advance toward Voznesensk.
Russian military gear from the Voznesensk battle.
Russian troops had detained a local man on March 2 after they found him to have binoculars, villagers said. âThey had put him in a cellar and told him they will execute him in the morning, for correcting artillery fire,â Mr. Dombrovsky said, adding that the detainee wasnât a spotter. âBut in the morning they didnât have time to execute him. They were too busy fleeing.â
The Russians retreat
As the Russian forces retreated on March 3, they shelled the downhill part of Rakove. A direct hit pierced the roof of the local clinic, where Mr. Dombrovskyâs mother, Raisa, worked as a nurse. âWeâve just built a new roof,â she sighed, showing the gaping hole. âBut it doesnât matter. The main thing is that we have kicked them out, and survived.â
When villagers returned to Rakove on March 4, they found their homes ransacked. âBlankets, cutlery, all gone. Lard, milk, cheese, also gone,â said Ms. Horchuk. âThey didnât take the potatoes because they didnât have time to cook.â
This week, village homes still bore traces of Russian soldiers. Cupboards and closets were still flung open from looting, and Russian military rations and half-eaten jars of pickles and preserves littered floors.
The Ukrainian armyâs 80th brigade was towing away the last remaining Russian BTRs with âZâ painted on their sides, the identification markers that in Russia have become the symbol of the invasion. About 15 Russian tanks and other vehicles were in working or salvageable condition, said Mr. Dombrovsky. âWe are ready to hit the Russians with their own weapons,â he said. Others, mostly burned-out wrecks, were removed from streets because they scared civilians and contained ordnance, the mayor said.
A Ukrainian army truck tows a Russian armored vehicle in Voznesensk on Tuesday.
Ukrainian troops build a defensive position on Voznesenskâs outskirts.
Electricity, disrupted during combat, has returned in Voznesensk, as have internet, gas and water services. ATMs have been restocked with cash, supermarkets with food.
The only explosions are from bomb squads occasionally disposing ordnance. Mr. Velichko, the mayor, fielded citizen phone calls Tuesday, telling one he would take care of a possibly rabid dog and assuring another that her utilities wouldnât be cut in wartime even if she was late in paying. He argued with an army commander because Ukrainian soldiers had siphoned fuel from the gas station.
Spartak Hukasian, head of the Voznesensk district council, said the cityâno longer near front linesâwas starting to get used to relatively peaceful life again. âHe who laughs last laughs best,â he said. âWe havenât had a chance to laugh until now.â
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com
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Appeared in the March 17, 2022, print edition as âA Ukrainian Town Deals Putin One of His Most Decisive Routs.â
The documentary Winter on Fire is on YouTube with subtitles. You could do a lot worse than give it an hour and 37 minutes.
Time for them to fuck off home to Mordor.
Lovely stuff. Fry the pigs like bacon.
Slava Ukraini
Spoiler that. That is as distressing a thing as ever Iâve seen on here.
Really?
I was more upset by this one to be honest
Itâs horrible.
But shur NATO/USA have brought all this onto the Ukrainians 
May Putin die roaring.