"This is not only a story of tragedies, it is also a story of deception. It is a story of demonstrated heroism. People should also write about it, and people should remember it. We were not sheep in a slaughterhouse, you shouldn't think of us like that. We fought, and the guys fought heroically, and inflicted considerable losses on the Russians, being in a losing position in advance. This is what the people of Ukraine should remember about the guys."
Colonel Vyacheslav Vlasenko, commander of the Donbas-Ukraine Special Forces Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
In August 2014, one of the worst battles for the Ukrainian army in the war in eastern Ukraine took place near the town of Ilovaisk.
The battle for the town lasted for almost a month, from August 6 to 29, and went down in history as the "Ilovaysk Cauldron," becoming one of the most tragic pages of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
On August 18, in the course of fierce fighting, Ukrainian forces, largely consisting of volunteer battalions, entered Ilovaisk. They were able to take control of part of the city.
Moscow's plans did not include surrendering an important strategic point, so it threw its regular troops against the Ukrainians. On the night of August 23-24
2014, units of the Russian Armed Forces entered the territory of Ukraine near the settlements of Pobeda and Berestove in the Starobeshevo district, and then marched to the area of Ilovaisk. As a result of the enemy maneuvers, on August 24-25, the battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine "Dnipro-1", "Myrotvorets", "Svityaz", "Kherson", "Ivano-Frankivsk", the National Guard "Donbas" and the forces of sector "B" were surrounded by the enemy.
On August 28, the situation of our military became critical. Negotiations were held between the ATO leadership and the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces to provide guarantees of safe humanitarian corridors for the Ukrainian military to escape the encirclement along agreed routes.
Playing the peacemaker, Russian dictator Putin on August 29 offered the illegal armed groups controlled by Russia to open a humanitarian corridor for the Ukrainian military to get out of the encirclement.
On August 29, the Ukrainian military began moving out of the city in organized columns along routes previously agreed with the Russian side. At first, the Ukrainian convoys moved unhindered past Russian fortified positions, but after a while, the occupiers opened fire, shooting the columns on the march.
According to the National Military History Museum and the Prosecutor General's Office, 366 Ukrainian soldiers were killed during the entire Ilovaisk operation from August 6 to August 31, including more than 250 who were killed while leaving the corridor on August 29.
2014. More than 400 soldiers were wounded and about 300 were taken prisoner. About two dozen people had been missing for years. The Ukrainian defenders were then shot along with captured Russian soldiers who were also in the convoy and were supposed to guarantee that the Russians would comply with the terms of the "corridor."
Ilovaysk became the starting point or the line after which the ATO ended and it became clear to everyone: Russian troops are fighting against Ukraine, and in the endless fields near Ilovaysk they lost the last drops of their conscience, military and human honor.
The war with the insidious enemy continues to this day. And August 29 - in honor of the victory of Ukrainian soldiers who fell near Ilovaisk - became the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country.