“It was an ordinary night, but a very unusual morning: we immediately accepted the fight,” - border guard Artem about the beginning of the Russian invasion
On the night of February 24, the officer observed a section of the border at “Velyka Pysarivka” (Sumy region), which was the first to take the fight during the vicious Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Artem says that at 4:30 the checkpoint “Velyka Pysarivka” began to be “covered” with small arms and grenade launchers. At the same time, a large column of enemy equipment began to move from Russia: the BRDMs, UAZ and other combat vehicles without appropriate distinguishing marks and inscriptions. The border guards immediately accepted the fight. He was complicated.
“Due to the dark time of day, we did not understand how many enemies, and for what purpose they were shelling our positions. However, when it became known that border units were under fire throughout the border, we realized that there was a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian armed forces. The enemy dominated both armored vehicles and personnel,” the officer recalls.
The forces that were at the checkpoint at the time were insufficient to hold back the enemy's offensive. The border guards had to withdraw to link up with other forces of the unit in order to occupy the defenses in the designated area and, most importantly, to maintain personnel.
A few days later, on March 1, the forward group of border guards together with units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine returned to the line of the state border of Ukraine at the area of responsibility of the unit “Velyka Pysarivka”. The help of the local population was quite powerful. People told us where the enemy was, whether there were regular troops on our territory, where enemy equipment was pinned down, etc.
“Before the decision to knock out the enemy in this direction, tremendous work and a number of successful operations were carried out by the soldiers of 93 brigade “Cold Yar”. When we and the soldiers of the Armed Forces entered Bolshoy Pisarivka, the enemy had already retreated to the territory of the Russian Federation, but during the withdrawal he constantly subjected the village to shelling,” says Artem.
He emphasizes that in the context of hostilities, the coherence between all services and forces is very important. Previously, the units that are currently part of the Defense Forces were assigned different tasks. For border guards, the main thing was to protect the state border of Ukraine, that is, to check the state border lines, to carry out border control at checkpoints. The units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are assigned their tasks, and, accordingly, they have other weapons, armored vehicles and weapons.
“At the moment, we maintain a defined section of the state border. There are no characteristic actions of the enemy regarding the attack on the village of Velyka Pysarivka, but the enemy constantly carries out shelling in this direction. On our site, the enemy uses barrel and jet artillery, mortars. Recently, there are also shock copters for dropping explosive devices. Also, to launch missiles, the Russians use helicopters from their territory. They do not violate the airspace of Ukraine, because they are afraid of being hit and shot down on our territory,” the border guard continues.
According to Artem, the Russians went to war on Ukraine because they understand: our state began to move forward, is developing, has its own traditions, culture. The northern neighbors cannot adequately perceive this: in their barbaric view, all these developments must be destroyed.
However, the border guard, like all his brethren, knows: victory is sure to happen! We will force the enemy to leave our land and revive Ukraine, rebuild, rebuild, strengthen and survive happily in our native wealthy State.
Press service of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine
