By Aleksandr Kots
[KP] - We do everything quickly - we drive up, jump out of the car, roll into the bunker, - the guide instructs.
Outside the window, the Gostomel sign whistles. We are swiftly rushing along the “landscape” familiar to Donbass. Trees mutilated by shells, mangled buildings of the airfield, hangars turned outward with metal, asphalt broken by mortars ... Cars brake sharply at the bomb shelter, and we quickly go down.
Yes, the Soviet Union knew how to prepare for a nuclear war. A solid bunker with a whole system of rooms is located under the airfield of the Antonov center. Whatever the Ukrainian artillerymen have been trying to break through this underground citadel all month, it is useless. The real epic heroes of a special military operation have been living here for the last month - paratroopers who landed here, deep behind enemy lines, near the capital itself, on the first day of the conflict.
- On the 24th, we loaded into helicopters , MANPADS, heavy machine guns were working on us, - one of the officers recalls. “But there were combat helicopters in front of us, so the landing went well.
After the capture of the airfield, shelling from mortars immediately began, and by nightfall infantry units went on the offensive. Plus their aviation - helicopters, planes. The shelling didn't stop. But everything was well planned for us, all attacks were repelled. Yes, there were small losses, but they had much more of them.
Two days later, our columns approached, a grouping was created here, the enemy was pushed back. There is no environment, we regularly receive letters from home, parcels, personnel leave to rest in Belarus.
- Well, this is not the first time you have been “married”, are there any features of the enemy here?
- Here, in addition to regular formations, irregular ones operate against us. After capturing prisoners and inspecting the dead, we found out that there are foreign private military companies here, well motivated, paid, trained and operating from settlements. They put mortars in the yards, MLRS and work from the peaceful sector. We try to do with minimal damage and provide assistance to the civilian population.
Alexander does not speak, but I know that the main body was supposed to come up on the ground a few hours after they landed. But they met fierce resistance from the national battalions and the defense units. As a result, the paratroopers at the airfield spent two days in a real fire hell, holding their positions.
It was an unprecedented operation. We have not carried out such tactical landings, perhaps, since 1943, when a detachment of volunteer sailors of 275 people under the command of Major Caesar Kunikov landed on the fortified coast of Novorossiysk occupied by the Nazis. He knocked out the German from the opornik, entrenched himself on the bridgehead and repulsed 18 attacks on the first night. And when the ammunition began to run low, he captured the enemy’s artillery battery and fought off the enemy for a week until the main forces approached.
Russian naval light infantry fought for seven months in early 1943 at Novorossiysk. Never made their objective, less than 10 miles away.
Military work is in full swing at the command post. A picture from several drones was displayed on large screens, which in real time give out the location of enemy guns, at that moment hitting the airfield and the forward positions of paratroopers fighting in the city of Irpin. The topographer immediately takes the coordinates and transfers them to the attached long-range artillery. In a matter of seconds, the shells first plowed through the howitzer battery, then covered a couple of self-propelled artillery mounts. The drone is sent to look for new "prey". No one celebrates or rejoices - a combat routine.
The commander of one of the groups leads us to his location: "Here we wash ourselves, here we sleep, and this is our bathhouse, we made a steam room, today, by the way, is a bath day."
Steam comes out from under a tent with a powerful potbelly stove installed in one of the rooms. Wherever I meet Russian paratroopers, they always have a bathhouse. And if it is supposed to take a steam bath today, then they will do it with heroic calmness, regardless of the plans of enemy artillery.
We get out of the "bunker" during a lull and go on a "tour" in short dashes. "Shoot every meter" - this is not a metaphor. I was shown a Ukrainian map, on which the airfield is divided into numbered squares, all coordinates are known in advance, the Ukrainians were actually being prepared for war.
Around - piles of burnt equipment - both ours and Ukrainian, on the take-off - a Ka-52 helicopter, which made an emergency landing during the landing. In the far hangar, the remains of the largest aircraft in the world, the An-225 Mriya, are visible. It was the only instance capable of taking to the skies.
"In the early days, there was a powerful shelling here, we managed to save a lot of equipment, but part of it was behind this hangar and the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit there, hit the Mriya and the fuel depot behind it," the paratrooper explained.
Destroyed the largest aircraft in the world - AN-225 "Mriya"
In Ukraine, at the Gostomel airport, the largest aircraft in the world, the AN-225 Mriya, was destroyed. Military correspondent "KP" Alexander Kots came to say goodbye to this miracle of Soviet engineering
Former Antonov pilots said that shortly before the conflict, Germany offered to move the plane to itself, but Kyiv refused. Today, groups of enthusiasts in Ukraine advocate the establishment of an international consortium that would recreate the documentation project. However, if she was at this Antonov airfield, then she was unlikely to have survived the shelling - Ukrainian artillerymen probably destroyed her along with the Dream (Mriya - Ukrainian).
So that we don’t get the feeling that the Russian troops on Gostomel are only doing what they heroically hide in the bunker, the guys take us to positions around the perimeter. I would never have thought that BMD (airborne combat vehicle - Auth.) Can develop such speed.
On the runway we flew at least 80 kilometers per hour, looking at the rising black columns of smoke near the city of Irpen. "Armor" throws us off somewhere on the outskirts near the trenches and is carried away to the shelter. The inhabitants of the positions meet with surprising cheerfulness - for people who live in the trenches for a month.
- This is a fortified firing point. Here is the position of the "Korda" (heavy machine gun), here is a place for shelter and rest of personnel, - the soldier shows a dugout dug at a depth and laughs, - it's quite comfortable.
- How do you feel about the enemy?
- Prepared, you can not underestimate him. Artillerymen hit accurately. But our mood is excellent, all are contract soldiers, not the first time in business. All grown men.
- Where are you from?
- From Ulyanovsk. Say hello to children, wife, mom, dad. I love, kiss, your me.
From above it methodically boomed - "these are our Grads on them." Then there was a rustle in the air - "this is the self-propelled guns for us." And no fuss, the cold-blooded calmness of the Gostomel heroes.
Who do not yet know that they have inscribed themselves in the history of the real Russian army, along with Bayazet and the Brest Fortress or the sixth and ninth companies, if you like. Gostomel is our new place of power, a place of Russian military glory.
Defense of Bazayet
Defense of the Brest Fortress
Sixth and Ninth Companies in Afghanistan (PDF)
Aleksandr Kots is prior service Russian airborne. He is a writer for Komsolmol Pravda