The small Ukrainian town that managed to stop Russia’s military plans

It was one of the most decisive battles of the war so far: a fierce two-day fight for control of the agricultural town of Voznesensk and its strategic bridge.

Victory would have allowed Russian forces to push further west along the Black Sea coast toward the huge port of Odessa and a major nuclear power plant.

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Instead, the Ukrainian troops, supported by an army of local volunteers, dealt a crushing blow to the Russian plans.

First by blowing up the bridge and then by driving the invading army back up to 100 km to the east.

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“It’s hard to explain how we did it. It was thanks to the fighting spirit of our local people and the Ukrainian army,” Voznesensk Mayor Yevheni Velichko, 32, said in front of the town hall, his bulletproof vest still on.

But almost three weeks after that battle, the mayor warned that another attack by Russian forces was imminent and that the defenders of the town they lacked the weapons to stop them a second time.

The strategically important Voznesensk bridge was blown up to prevent the Russians from using it.

“We need more”

“This is a strategic place. We are not only defending the city, but all the territory behind it. And we don’t have the heavy weapons that our enemy has,” he said.

As on so many fronts in Ukraine, the British-supplied anti-tank missiles they proved crucial in turning the tide of Russian armor at Voznesensk, where the streets were filled with up to 30 tanks, armored vehicles and even a helicopter.

“Only thanks to these weapons were we able to defeat our enemy here. And we thank our partners for their support. But we need more”, Velichko said.

“Enemy convoys will continue to arrive,” he added.

map of ukraine

The strategic importance of Voznesensk became clear soon after Russian forces failed to capture an even larger bridgelocated even further south, which crosses the second largest river in Ukraine, the Buh.

An effort of all the people

Today, Voznesensk is not a ghost town, in which sirens constantly sound due to regular air raids.

But thousands have left in recent weeks, by train or along rutted country roads that wind through vast, rolling fields of wheat.

Many of those who chose to stay still seem eager to talk about his remarkable victory.

Voznesensk Mayor Yevheni Velichko spoke to the BBC

“It was a colossal effort from the whole town,” said Alexander, a local shopkeeper who filmed himself on the front line with an AK47, shouting “Come on, my little friends!”

While another volunteer fired a rocket propelled grenade towards the Russian positions.

“We used hunting rifles, people shot bricks and jars. The old women carried heavy sandbags“.

“The Russians didn’t know where to look or where would the next attack come from. I’ve never seen the community come together like this,” she said standing next to the twisted remains of the bridge that Ukrainian forces destroyed within hours of the first Russian attack.

Map of Voznesensk

The tangled swirl of Russian tank tracks still marks Svetlana Nikolaevna’s gardenin the town of Rakove, on the southern edge of Voznesensk, where some of the heaviest fighting took place.

Bloody bandages and Russian ration packs litter the rows of hedges.

The 59-year-old woman pointed to her husband’s tool shed and explained that the Russians had held two Ukrainian soldiers captured and only saved from execution thanks to an increase in fighting.

“Look at the bloodstains on my door,” he said, inviting visitors into his dilapidated house.

As she and her family took refuge in a nearby basement, the Russians turned his entire house into a makeshift field hospital.

“I went back to get some clothes on the second day. There were wounded lying everywhere. At least ten of them, I think. I’ve cleaned up most of the blood,” she said.

Svetlana Nikolaevna tells that the Russians left in a hurry

They fled in a hurry

“They left in a hurry, one night. They left everything behind (boots, socks, bulletproof vests, helmets) and just they carried their dead and wounded and fled“.

It was the turn of the local funeral director, Mykhailo Sokurenko, search the fields for more russian bodies and then load them onto a train car.

“I don’t consider them human beings [después de lo que hicieron aquí]. But it would be a mistake to leave them in the field, scaring people even after their death,” he said.

“These Russians are sick in the head, so we will have to remain on guard. But victory will come and we will expel the Russians from all our lands.”

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Source: Elcomercio