The story of the National Guard under the pseudonym “Olot” about the defense of Bakhmut (VIDEO)
The fighter of the 3rd operational brigade “Spartan” under the pseudonym “Oplot” joined the ranks of the National Guard in 2016, when he began training at the National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine. From the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the soldier stands to defend the Motherland from Russian invaders.
“I planned to become a military man, build a military career, and the events that took place in the east of our country during the time of the ATO/WTO pushed me to do so. My training lasted five and a half years, after graduating from the school in 2021 I was assigned to military unit 3017, so I ended up in the brigade,” says the national guard.
The beginning of a full-scale invasion “Oplot” met on a business trip in western Ukraine and already on February 24, 2022, the last train from Vinnitsa left back to the east of the country.
“I arrived in Kharkov in the evening of February 25. From the very beginning, my battalion was already defending the northern outskirts of the city, and I personally accepted volunteers who came to our military unit and wanted to defend their country,” recalls “Oplot”.
Then there were exhausting battles for the defense of Kharkov, after the successful Kharkov counteroffensive, the task of defense of Bakhmut continued.
“Before we went to the city of Bakhmut, we gathered a battalion tactical group that held positions at the checkpoint “Mayorske”, which is also located in Donetsk region and after that, at the end of December, we were told that we should go to the city of Bakhmut and help keep the defense there,” - remembers the fighter.
The National Guard shares that the fighting was very hard and exhausting, the enemy tried every minute to break through the defense of the Ukrainian military despite its own losses.
“At that time, I held the position of company commander and my unit was given the task of taking up defense near Bakhmut, in the village of Opytne. In this direction, the enemy very often carried out assault actions, that is, tried to advance in order to surround the city. For my company it was, of a kind, new fighting action, for for most of the previous combat tasks we had performed in the fields or landings, we could say that we specialized in trench warfare. This experience has become new for us, since there have already been urban battles, where there are small distances and limited visibility at observation points.”
The guards had to master the battles in the city very quickly and adapt to the new realities, because the enemy had an advantage in the height from which he could constantly work with his artillery and tanks, which did not remain silent for a minute.
“They could work at us with direct fire, even without adjustment by drones, but we were helped by the fact that they were concrete structures that could withstand a very heavy artillery onslaught. If we smashed one part of the building, then we moved to another building and held the enemy there for a while under constant fire,” adds the guard.
“The defense of Bakhmut as a whole was strategically important for us, because while we held the city itself, our brethren, who were on its northern outskirts, carried out offensive actions in order to “cut off” the flanks and align the front line.
All in all, fighting in Bakhmut and defending it was a great achievement for the Opelota unit. The guards gained extensive experience in urban battles and when they retreated to other positions, they already knew and understood how to restrain the enemy in any conditions, be it a city, a landing, a field — it does not matter, the enemy will be destroyed on every meter of Ukrainian land.
National Guard of Ukraine
