Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Commentary by Russian military blogger Military Informant.
[ColonelCassad] We were contacted by the participants in the assault on Kharkov from the 2nd Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade (2nd ObrSpN) to convey the true picture of what was happening during the battles for the city on February 27th.
According to the original plan, the forces of the 2nd ObrSpN, the 25th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade (25th Motorized Rifle Brigade) and part of the FSVNG (Rosguard) were supposed to take part in the assault on Kharkov. It sounds solid, however, as it turns out later, neither the motorized riflemen nor the Russian Guardsmen made it into the city itself.
According to one version, their columns came under fire on the approach to Kharkov and stood up, according to another, they did not even advance into the city. One way or another, but the special forces soldiers continued to act according to the plan and began to enter the Kharkov streets alone, with the forces of only two companies from different detachments of the brigade.
The fighters were given a preliminary order not to open fire on civilians. But already in the city itself, the special forces faced a different reality: armed and unarmed local residents, often without any insignia and uniforms, tried in every possible way to block the columns, disarm the fighters and block traffic routes with the help of tires.
The special forces in their "Tigers" desperately meandered along the unfamiliar streets between the barricades, periodically coming under fire from the roofs of neighboring houses by the newly formed Ukrainian defense forces.
The whole situation painfully began to resemble Blackhawk Down, only without the black hawks themselves, covering the special forces from the air, but with snow on the streets and well-aimed fire from Ukrainian National Guard snipers, who supported the indiscriminate shooting of local residents from the therodefense with machine guns handed out right there on the spot .
Russian special forces clash with the Ukrainian army on the streets of Kharkov. Ukrainians fire at a convoy with machine guns, Russian fighters respond with fire from 12.7-mm Kord from their "Tigers" and RPG shots.
At one point, a group of four "Tigers" passes along Sidor Kovpak Street, then along Shevchenko, and jumps out in the area of the now infamous School No. 134, where they finally get up due to breakdowns.
The enemy starts shelling such a tasty target and the special forces are forced to leave the armored vehicles on the road. Having lost their transport, the slaughterhouses decide to organize defense within the walls of the school, as they receive information about the approach of the main forces to the rescue.
In the meantime, the Ukrainians, having seized abandoned walkie-talkies, began to listen to the negotiations and even try to get in touch using the callsigns sounding on the air. After this incident, a decision is made to switch to complete radio silence and begin to withdraw from the city. SWAT disappears from the air.
Most of the fighting groups successfully make their way back from Kharkov. One of the units under fire left their equipment in the area of the Pavlovo Pole residential area in the north of the city and was already retreating on foot.
However, the group that went the farthest in the area of school No. 134 was the least fortunate. The Ukrainians are shouting about the Russian soldiers who have entrenched themselves in the school, and almost all enemy units that are nearby are quickly pulled up to its walls: armored vehicles of the 92nd Mechanized Brigade, Kord police special forces, the national guard, nationalists from Freikorps and other scattered territorial defense units.
A fierce gunfight ensues. At first, the Ukrainians shout for the Russians to surrender - our fighters return fire. The enemy fails to take the entrenched special forces with a swoop, and, having suffered losses, the Ukrainians drive the BTR-4E to the school, which our soldiers quickly burn from the RPG-30 and finish off with a burst from the removed Kord.
After that, by the evening, the Ukrainians wait for the T-64BV to approach and begin to fold the building with tank fire. The company commander, another officer and a sergeant decide to make a breakthrough in order to bring help to the blocked unit under radio silence. Two other officers remain with the staff at the school.
Alas, the attempt was doomed to failure. The company commander is mortally wounded before he even reaches the fence. Two other commandos try to help him and return, but it's too late. Meanwhile, the fighters remaining at the school are fighting an unequal battle with the enemy, continuing to repulse attacks even when almost all floors in the building were already on fire.
Only under the cover of night and smoky smoke from their last refuge, the surviving fighters make a second, this time successful attempt to exit Kharkov in the direction of their forces.
In a situation of complete confusion, several special forces soldiers were captured by the enemy in the school area. According to a pre-agreed legend, they told the Ukrainians that they were soldiers of the 25th motorized rifle brigade and gave fictitious names. To date, all captured fighters have been returned home as a result of past exchanges.
Thus ended the unsuccessful attempt to storm Kharkov on February 27, 2022.
Our soldiers still do not have an answer why they were sent to such an operation alone, why they were supplied with incorrect intelligence, why they did not establish interaction with other units. However, all fighters are proud of their brigade.
The enemy had a total numerical superiority, positions in urban areas and had good command of the area. But due to the coherence of the groups, the nature and training of the fighters, the special forces were able to get out of the critical situation with minimal losses. The special forces inflicted painful losses on the Ukrainian formations both during the attempt to storm the school and during the withdrawal from the city.
Eternal glory and eternal memory to the soldiers of the 2nd ObrSpN who died during the storming of Kharkov.
Military Informant (c).
Following commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
https://telegra.ph/Tigry-v-snegu-Pechalnaya-istoriya-shturma-Harkova-27-fevralya-silami-2-j-OBrSpN-VS-RF-10-02 - zinc (there is a video on the link described episodes).
Regarding the reasons for what happened, there are versions on both sides that the root cause was some kind of unsuccessful agreement with the city authorities and the head of the Kharkov SBU, who is now under investigation in Ukraine "for treason."
There are still many blank spots in this story, which, however, does not negate the heroism of the special forces soldiers who got into trouble, but managed to escape from the encirclement on the territory of Kharkov.
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