Guest
Russian military reporter, Senior Lieutenant Alexander Sladkov, described the situation in the town of Krasny Liman a few hours before the Russian withdrawal: Of course we’ll speak about Liman or Krasny Liman. It’s unpleasant when you are standing on the outskirts near the city sign, which says “Liman” with the flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic, and the next day the Ukrainians hang their yellow and blue flag there. Of course it is unpleasant! This is not like a loss by “Spartak” or “CSKA Moscow” for those who support football teams. We were humiliated! I want to say that I was a little confused by the situation. Everyone was discussing: “Liman, Liman, Liman!” And I think, I need to go, see, at least at the bounds near the settlement. I arrived, and there the DPR press service officer says: “Well, we are going to Liman!” We drove there. It turned out that the so-called ‘road of life’ was 30 kilometres. I thought: maybe 800 meters, 5 kilometres, and there were 30 kilometres to go through different settlements, through some strategic intersections, in Torskoe, if I am not mistaken, I do not remember the names, the one that is constantly shelled by Ukrainian forces. But I want to tell you: I arrived a few hours before we completely left Liman, and there was silence. There’s silence! The settlement was not “torn apart”, generally quiet! Some equipment was moving across. I will not discuss the rapid manoeuvre of the Russian army. At first, we came to the temporary deployment point of the 208th battalion “Bars”. To be honest, I do not know how it stands for them now, a detachment of volunteers. There was a huge crater in the town. This was not HIMARS, not Hurricane, not Tornado, but an aviation bomb! And the guys said that the Ukrainian aviation was active in Liman. Thus, it is not “dead” yet! Where are our air defense forces? This is a question, well, okay! Now you know: at the table the first toast is to the air defense operators. They were previously forgotten. When the air defense regiments were created in the landing divisions, they were called ZRP Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiments, and they were called the “Marshmallow-Roulette Regiment” or “In Vain-Deployed Regiment”, they laughed at them. When the war began so the first toasts are claimed to air defense! And the air defense forces, somehow, let these planes enter Liman. Bombs! Probably at least of 500 kilograms… And then it turned out that the Russian guys were redeployed. They were hit but they left this deployment point without losses, moved away. Then we drove to the commandant regiment of the DPR. I liked the officers! They have no fear at all and no reproaches in general! They did not complain, they did not raise their voices to anyone; they reacted completely calmly to our arrival. I said: “Can I film you?” They say: “Well, truly said it is not desirable”, and then: “though… how long we have left”. I understood they were going to stand to the end. Then, after the interview, one of the officers took me aside and said: “The situation is very bad, we have no connection with the 208 battalion, the control point of the unit of the Russian Ministry of Defense disappeared somewhere, no communications or interaction.” Aviation, pilots called the commandant’s regiment on the phone and said: “Guys, where should we hit?” And they replied: “We don’t know how to formulate targets for instructions, there is neither air support controller nor artillery spotter.” That is, “booming” such as we have here in Donetsk “Boom-boom, boom-boom”, no, there was not. I do not know if you can hear how the MLRS is working now. Do you hear? How much is there? The package has already flown away!
