This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Battle of Popasna | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the battle of Donbas in the Russian invasion of Ukraine | |||||||||
Ukrainian soldiers taken prisoner in Popasna during the battle | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Belligerents | |||||||||
Russia Luhansk People's Republic | Ukraine | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Aleksandr Lapin Roman Kutuzov Leonid Pasechnik | Valerii Zaluzhnyi Oleh Mikats Roman Mamavko [4] [5] | ||||||||
Units involved | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Unknown | Russian claim: ~ 1/3 of the 24th Mechanized Brigade personnel lost |
The battle of Popasna was a military battle during the eastern Ukraine campaign as part of the battle of Donbas. The battle began during mid-April and concluded on 7 May, when the city came under Russian control.
Popasna is an important regional hub with many roadway junctions key to separatist forces during the war in Donbas and the Russian advances in the eastern theatre of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Protracted battles between Ukrainian and separatist forces frequently took place throughout the years of the Donbas conflict. Prior to the full-scale invasion by Russia in early 2022, Ukrainian forces held a number of settlements around Popasna, including the villages of Troitske, and Novooleksandrivka, and the towns of Hirske, Novotoshkivske, and Zolote. Before the invasion, Popasna had a population of approximately 22,000 people. [12]
Troops of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and the Russian Armed Forces began advancing towards Popasna on 18 April.[ citation needed ]
In mid-April, Russian and LPR troops launched artillery and air strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Popasna area. As clashes and shelling continued, civilians living in frontline areas fled to basements for shelter. However, by 18 April, according to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian military was making little progress on the ground. According to pro-Russian sources, Russian-LPR forces launched more artillery and missile barrages in the region on 20 April following nighttime Ukrainian counterattacks. The same day, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed Hennadii Shcherbak, a "Ukrainian nationalist that collaborated with NATO instructors", was killed in Popasna. [14] [15]
On 21 April, Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade, one of the main units defending the sector, claimed to have killed what appeared to be a 25-man unit of pro-Russian foreign mercenaries in overnight clashes in and around Popasna. Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine's National Security Council, said Libyan and Syrian identification documents were purportedly recovered from the bodies of the unit. The 24th Mechanized Brigade said it had successfully repelled their assault and suggested the militants were foreign fighters of private military company Wagner Group and Russian citizens of rural origins. Danilov said Popasna remained under full Ukrainian control; however, the chairman of the Luhansk Regional Administration, Serhiy Haidai, said heavy fighting continued for the city. [16]
On 22 April, Serhiy Haidai declared that the Russian army had failed in Popasna. At the same time, Haidai said that Russian and LPR troops controlled 80 percent of the territory of Luhansk. [17] However, two weeks later on 7 May, the city was reportedly captured by Russian mercenary forces from Wagner Group. The city had been ravaged by the fighting and Chechen Kadyrovites were suspected of having participated in the last phase of the battle. Haidai confirmed Ukrainian troops had withdrawn. [18] [3]
On 7 May, Haidai initially said in his Telegram channel that the Russians controlled only half of the city, [18] but later admitted Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from Popasna. [19] Western assessments considered Popasna to be fully under Russian control. According to the pro-Russian Telegram channel RIA FAN, Russian and LPR forces began setting up a new Russian-backed government in the city and continued to advance westward as part of the larger offensive. [20]
In August, a video and photos of the head and hands of a Ukrainian prisoner of war stuck on poles appeared. The video showed the mutilated body of the captured soldier and then his head stuck on a wooden pole with his hands on metal spikes on either side of it, in front of the garden of a house. The footage was seemingly taken in late July and geolocation showed it was close to the center of Popasna; a sign on a wall of one of the photos showed "21 Nahirna Street". The video and photos were published by Haidai on his Telegram channel. Reactions to the video in social media were harsh. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian businessman, described the image as an example of the "Russian world", a propaganda term used by the Russian authorities to refer to a cultural and political union of Russian-speakers. Olexander Scherba, former ambassador of Ukraine to Austria, described the event as a war crime. [21]
Khrustalnyi or Krasnyi Luch is a city in Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Its population is approximately 79,533. It has historically been one of the most important coal mining locations in the Donbas region.
Pervomaisk, also known as Sokolohirsk (Сокологірськ), is a city in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on the left bank of the Luhan River. Pervomaisk is located 71 kilometres (44 mi), by road, from Luhansk, 133 kilometres (83 mi) from Izvaryne, where there is the de jure international border between Ukraine and Russia, and 736 kilometres (457 mi) from the capital Kyiv.
Popasna is a city in Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Popasna urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. In 2018, it was estimated that it had a population of 20,600 people.
Zolote is a city in Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Population: 13,007. The town consists of villages that were merged to create Zolote. Currently these villages are numbered in a sequence from Zolote 1 to Zolote 5. Before the creation of Zolote they were named Karbonit, Rodina, Stakhanovets, Maryvka and Partyzansky.
Hirske is a city in Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Hirske urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is 9,100.
Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, primarily the People's Militias of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), were pro-Russian paramilitaries in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. They were under the overall control of the Russian Federation. They were also referred to as Russian proxy forces. They were active during the war in Donbas (2014–2022), the first stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War. They then supported the Russian Armed Forces against the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the 2022 Russian invasion. In September 2022, Russia annexed the DPR and LPR, and began integrating the paramilitaries into its armed forces. They are designated as terrorist groups by the government of Ukraine.
The war in Donbas, also known as the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began in April 2014, when a commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast. The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. The war continued until subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Luhansk People's Republic is a republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, with its capital in Luhansk. The LPR was proclaimed by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022. The entire territory of LPR is viewed as sovereign territory of Ukraine by nearly all UN member states.
The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war fought between armed Russian separatist groups and Armed Forces of Ukraine, with Russian regular forces playing a central part. After a defeat at Ilovaisk at the end of August 2014, Russia forced Ukraine to sign the first Minsk Protocol, or the Minsk I. It was drafted by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, consisting of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with mediation by the leaders of France and Germany in the so-called Normandy Format. After extensive talks in Minsk, Belarus, the agreement was signed on 5 September 2014 by representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group and, without recognition of their status, by the then-leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). This agreement followed multiple previous attempts to stop the fighting in the region and aimed to implement an immediate ceasefire.
The Donbas operation of 1919 was a military campaign of the Russian Civil War, in which the Southern Front of the Red Army regained control of the Donbas region from the Armed Forces of South Russia.
Ukraine's easternmost oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv, have been the site of an ongoing theatre of operation since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The battle of Rubizhne was a military engagement on the eastern theatre of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The city came under Russian control on 12 May.
The battle of Donbas was a military offensive that was part of the wider eastern Ukraine campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The offensive began on 18 April 2022 between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine for control of the Donbas region. Military analysts consider the campaign to have been the second strategic phase of the invasion, after Russia's initial three-pronged attack into Ukraine.
The battle of Sievierodonetsk was a military engagement in the wider battle of Donbas of the eastern Ukraine campaign during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bilohorivka is a rural settlement in Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is located in Lysychansk urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It is located approximately 88 kilometres (55 mi) northwest from the centre of Luhansk and 25 kilometres (16 mi) west-south-west from Sievierodonetsk. The population is 0
The battle of the Siverskyi Donets was a series of military engagements which took place in May 2022, most notably from 5 to 13 May, on the Lyman–Sievierodonetsk front of the battle of Donbas. It was part of the wider eastern Ukraine offensive during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The battle of Lysychansk was a military engagement between Russia and Ukraine in the wider battle of Donbas of the eastern Ukraine campaign during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By May 2022, Lysychansk and its twin city of Sievierodonetsk were the two largest cities of the Luhansk Oblast not under Russian control. Russian forces launched an assault on Sievierodonetsk in May where a fierce battle occurred until late June, when Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city. Fighting then continued as Russian forces started to attack Lysychansk across the Donets River.
The battle of Soledar was a series of military engagements in and around the urban-type settlement of Soledar during the battle of Donbas in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Since 19 September 2022, a military campaign has taken place along a 60-km frontline in western parts of Luhansk Oblast and far-eastern parts of Kharkiv Oblast amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Also known as the Svatove–Kreminna line or the Kupiansk–Svatove–Kreminna–Bilohorivka line after the major settlements along the front, the campaign began a day after the Ukrainian Army recaptured the nearby city of Lyman during the Kharkiv counteroffensive after of which the front line froze over the next few months.
The Wagner Group, also known as PMC Wagner, a Russian paramilitary organization also described as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, and a de facto unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, has conducted operations in Ukraine since early 2014.
However, the Ukrainian army withdrew from Luhansk's embattled city of Popasna, Haidai said on Sunday, adding troops "moved to stronger positions, which they had prepared ahead of time"