February 18, 2026, marks the 11th anniversary of the end of the Debaltseve operation.
Debaltseve was not the first time it became a battlefield in the struggle for an independent Ukraine. On April 28, 1918, as a result of a battle with the Bolsheviks, the Bohdanivsky Regiment of the UNR Army, led by Colonel Volodymyr Sikevych, liberated the Debaltseve station. The enemy lost more than 1,000 coal cars, 16 locomotives, a cannon, and a machine gun. Thanks to this, the young state was able to supply coal to its other cities for some time. But seven months later, Debaltseve was occupied again, this time by the Don Cossacks.
In 2014, history repeated itself.
Our troops bravely defended the Debaltseve salient. As a result of coordinated actions by the ATO forces, they managed to hold back the much larger enemy forces for a long time. The enemy had an advantage in terms of personnel and weapons, but could not overcome the bravery and courage of Ukraine's defenders.
The battles for Debaltseve became another page in the chronicle of the Ukrainian people's heroism and vivid evidence of the Russian Federation's criminal actions.
In the second half of January 2015, Russian occupiers threw all their forces into expanding the territories of the so-called "DPR" and "LPR." The offensive was planned simultaneously in three directions: Schyastya-Troyizbenka in Luhansk Oblast, Debaltseve, and Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast. The main direction of the attack was the Debaltseve salient.
The most intense phase of the Debaltseve operation lasted from January 25 to February 18, 2015, including massive artillery shelling, street fighting, and tank battles.
The fighting intensified during the preparations for the meeting of the "Normandy Four" and the negotiations themselves, which lasted 17 hours in Minsk on February 11-12, 2015.
The withdrawal from Debaltseve is considered one of the largest and most difficult operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the Anti-Terrorist Operation.
Between January 15 and February 18, 110 servicemen were killed, 270 were wounded, 7 were taken prisoner, and 18 went missing. During the entire defense of the Debaltseve salient, 136 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen were killed and 331 were wounded.
The Debaltseve operation is part of the national memory of how the Ukrainian army stood its ground in the most difficult times, despite the enemy's technical superiority.
At the same time, the Debaltseve operation is the main proof that Russia is not complying with the signed agreements.