On August 29, Ukraine commemorates the fallen defenders of the country.
Day of memory of defenders of Ukraine introduced in 2019, coinciding with the anniversary of the shooting by the Russian army on August 29, 2014 of Ukrainian volunteers near Ilovaisk in the so-called “green corridor”.
In the 10 years since the shooting of Ukrainian soldiers in the “Ilovai Cauldron”, Radio Liberty recorded numerous eyewitness accounts, interviews with the then Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine General Viktor Muzhenko and the then commander of Sector “B” General Ruslan Khomchak, and also collected video facts given by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. reports of investigators of the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Radio Liberty soldier Levko Stek then worked in the ATO area, spent two weeks with the volunteer battalion “Donbas”, was in the Ilovaisk region and filmed a video that entered the chronicle of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
“This day will always remind us of the insidiousness and treachery of the Russian aggressor, that any negotiations with terrorists and murderers is a deadly dangerous business, and that they cannot be trusted,” the statement reads. messages Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky on the 10th anniversary of the Ilovai tragedy.
What happened then?
According to the investigation, on August 29, 2014, “under the direct instruction and order of the command of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Russian servicemen fired at close range with heavy weapons a convoy of Ukrainian soldiers, along with three captured Russian paratroopers.”
In the so-called “green corridor”, apparently organized by the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the withdrawal of Ukrainian fighters from the encirclement in the Ilovaisk region, that day:
- were 366 Ukrainian soldiers were killed,
- 429 were injured of varying degrees of severity,
- 300 were captured,
- The armed forces of Ukraine suffered significant losses of weapons and military equipment in the amount of almost 300 million hryvnias.
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine about the events on the eve and directly on August 29, 2014 near Ilovaisk reported:
“President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin offered to provide Ukrainian units “green corridor” in Ilovaisk to get out of the environment. But around 10:30 p.m., the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel General Mykola Bogdanovsky reported that the conditions are changing: exit is possible without weapons and heavy weapons. These conditions were rejected as posing a great risk to our military. This decision was brought to the attention of the head of sector “B”
The exit (breakthrough) was planned for 3 o’clock in the morning, but (according to the explanations of the head of sector “B”, taking into account that not everyone gathered in time), the exit was postponed to the morning.
Subsequently, an agreement was reached between the leadership of the “B” sector and the representatives of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to leave with equipment and weapons. Negotiations on the terms of the withdrawal of our troops on behalf of the head of sector “B” were conducted by the head of intelligence of the “South” operational command, colonel Oleksandr Shturko with an officer of the unit of the Airborne Forces of the Russian Armed Forces with the call sign “Maple”, who, in turn, communicated with the leadership of his military unit.”
Radio Liberty compiled a video chronology of those events according to the version of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. See here.
General Ruslan Khomchak
In 2019, General Ruslan Khomchak, then head of sector “B”, gave an interview to Radio Liberty about those events:
– On August 29, 2014, when the Ukrainian military was leaving through the so-called “green corridor”… Information about the entry of the Russian military, that they were trying to surround Ilovaisk, was received by the ATO leadership on the 23rd-24th. Is this true?
– Of course.
– That is, even six days before this “green corridor”, the Ukrainian command knew…
– On August 25, we were already surrounded.
I don’t know why it took so long for the decision “above” to be made. When I was in a situation where there was no food, water, or the possibility of evacuating the wounded, when some soldiers were in a panicked mood… We understood that either there would be a mass grave, or we had to take risks and make some decisions. By then I had already made up my mind and we left.
– How did the management explain the delay to you?
– There is a criminal case. Let them explain to those authorities to whom they should explain. I’m not an investigator, I’m also working on a criminal case. I remained alive. Today there are no questions only for those who are dead. There are questions for everyone who is alive, everyone is interviewed.
The key thing is that Russian troops entered the territory of Ukraine and fulfilled their criminal mission
Of course, I will tell you if Russia had not come. Why did the troops of the Russian Federation enter? Because not everything went to their special purpose units, which fought with us on the other side under the guise of, as they called them, “militia”. Of course, there were professional soldiers there, from many countries, there were representatives from other regions of Ukraine.
The key thing is that Russian troops entered the territory of Ukraine and fulfilled their criminal mission. We captured servicemen of the Russian Federation. I sent 10 people from there to here, to Kyiv.
Why wasn’t there a decision to introduce martial law then? Why weren’t political decisions and everything else made then? I cannot answer that.
It was open aggression. A more open aggression could not be invented.
Victor Muzhenko
Answers of General Viktor Muzhenko, at that time Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. to Radio Svoboda’s questions (2019 interview):
– Do you understand for yourself why such a decision was made by the country’s political leadership to go to negotiations?
– It was not an initiative of our political leadership. I don’t know what negotiations took place in Kyiv at the political level, but the statement came from the President of the Russian Federation, Putin.
– But the Ukrainian leadership is responsible for the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.
…there was hope that, indeed, no one would commit such a crime
– They claim a “green corridor”, we agree and agree on the possibility of this exit. Then the situation changes and leads to a tragedy that happened on August 29.
– Spectators and readers may get the impression that our military-political command is frivolous or naive. Didn’t you catch yourself thinking that way?
– We were not naive there, that’s why the relevant orders were given regarding exit and so on. But there was hope that, indeed, no one would commit such a crime. This is a violation of all international rules and so on. A serious accusation, I think it will be the subject of consideration in the international military tribunal, specifically the actions in Ilovaisk.
– In its materials, the General Prosecutor’s Office indicates that 366 Ukrainian soldiers died. Also, in the materials that were published by the GPU, it is said that the death of Ukrainian soldiers is not in a cause-and-effect relationship with certain mistakes made by certain commanders.
– The main reason is considered to be the invasion of Russian troops.
Petro Poroshenko
The then president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko commented Ilovai events in an interview with “Ukrainian Pravda”, published on August 1, 2019:
“When we talk about Ilovaisk or Debaltseve, give yourself a report that only Russian soldiers were there. And tell the truth about this to the society… If you remember where we started, what we went through, and someone has the courage to say that this is a defeat, I will definitely not agree with it. I emphasize that we destroyed Putin’s plan, no matter how banal it sounds, to destroy Ukraine, to punish us for the Revolution of Dignity. We now have a different state”
Kyiv. Military parade for the Independence Day of Ukraine on August 24, 2014
Conclusions of the investigation
Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine in its report dated August 29, 2018 on the results of the investigation into the events in Ilovaisk, “in accordance with the results of the investigation and the conclusions of forensic examinations”, reports that “the occurrence of grave consequences in the form of the death of Ukrainian servicemen and the loss of weapons and military equipment in the area of the city of Ilovaisk, Donetsk region is in a direct cause-and-effect relationship with the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which on September 23-24, 2014, perpetrated a treacherous invasion of the territory of Donetsk region and treacherous killing of Ukrainian soldiers.”
This happened against the background of such “key factors” as:
– low level of combat readiness and combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
– numerous facts of desertion, voluntary abandonment of places of military service and non-fulfillment of superiors’ orders among personnel in the Ukrainian army during that period.
Regarding the actions of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the leadership of the ATO, the military prosecutor’s office concluded that “individual mistakes of the ATO leadership during the planning and conduct of military operations are not directly causally related to the occurrence of grave consequences – the death of Ukrainian soldiers and the loss of weapons and military equipment “.
Testimony of participants
RFE/RL has collected testimonies and memories of direct participants in the events. Many of them were included in the documentary film “Ilovaisk. Chronicle of the environment»:
Those who survived in the Ilovai cauldronrepeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the results of the investigation, and emphasize that they did not receive all the answers to the questions.
In particular, as written by comments on Facebook, a participant in the battles for Ilovaisk, the author of the book “Ilovai Diary” about those events Roman Zinenko: “Why was it that the day after our destruction on August 30, 2014, all captured Russian paratroopers were released, and Ukrainian volunteers were sent to Donetsk as prisoners? Why did the Ukrainian side not make any accusations against the Kremlin during the official statement on August 31, 2014 in Brussels?”.
Before the full-scale invasion of Russia, the events in Ilovaisk were the bloodiest episode of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
- As a result of Russia’s ten-year armed aggression against by Western experts in Ukraine, the total losses could be from 100 to 250 thousand. Ukrainian officials deny this.
- In February 2024, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, for the only time named the death toll since the beginning of the full-scale invasion – 31,000.
- Experts emphasizethat the president spoke about those defenders of Ukraine who died in battle. To this number must be added those soldiers who died from the consequences of wounds and diseases caused by the war. This number can reach 10 thousand.
- In general, the Ukrainian authorities do not name the numbers of losses of the Defense Forces during the Russian-Ukrainian war, but assure that the losses of the Russian army in this war are at least 5-6 times greater.
