A Ukrainian City Offers Russia One of many Warfare’s Most Decisive Routs

A fast Russian advance into the strategic southern city of 35,000 individuals, a gateway to a Ukrainian nuclear energy station and pathway to assault Odessa from the again, would have showcased the Russian navy’s skills and severed Ukraine’s key communications traces.

As an alternative, the two-day battle of Voznesensk, particulars of that are solely now rising, turned decisively towards the Russians. Judging from the destroyed and deserted armor, Ukrainian forces, which comprised native volunteers and the skilled navy, eradicated most of a Russian battalion tactical group on March 2 and three.

The Ukrainian defenders’ efficiency towards a much-better-armed enemy in an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking area was profitable partially due to widespread common assist for the Ukrainian trigger—one purpose the Russian invasion throughout the nation has failed to realize its principal targets up to now. Ukraine on Wednesday stated it was launching a counteroffensive on a number of fronts.

“Everyone seems to be united towards the widespread enemy,” stated Voznesensk’s 32-year-old mayor, Yevheni Velichko, a former real-estate developer turned wartime commander, who, like different native officers, strikes round with a gun. “We’re defending our personal land. We’re at house.”

The Russian navy says its Ukraine offensive is creating efficiently and in keeping with plan. Moscow hasn’t launched up to date casualty figures since acknowledging on March 2 the demise of 498 troops, earlier than the Voznesensk battle.

Russian survivors of the Voznesensk battle left behind almost 30 of their 43 tanks, infantry combating automobiles, multiple-rocket launchers and vehicles, in addition to a downed Mi-24 assault helicopter, in keeping with Ukrainian officers within the metropolis. The helicopter’s remnants and a few items of burned-out Russian armor have been nonetheless scattered round Voznesensk on Tuesday.

Russian forces retreated greater than 40 miles to the southeast, the place different Ukrainian models have continued pounding them. Some dispersed in close by forests, the place native officers stated 10 troopers have been captured.

“We didn’t have a single tank towards them, simply rocket-propelled grenades, Javelin missiles and the assistance of artillery,” stated Vadym Dombrovsky, commander of the Ukrainian special-forces reconnaissance group within the space and a Voznesensk resident. “The Russians didn’t anticipate us to be so sturdy. It was a shock for them. If they’d taken Voznesensk, they’d have reduce off the entire south of Ukraine.”

Ukrainian officers estimated that some 100 Russian troops died in Voznesensk, together with these whose our bodies have been taken by retreating Russian troops or burned inside carbonized automobiles. As of Tuesday, 11 useless Russian troopers have been within the railway automotive turned morgue, with search events on the lookout for different our bodies in close by forests. Villagers buried some others.

“Typically, I want I might put these our bodies on a aircraft and drop all of them onto Moscow, so that they understand what is occurring right here,” stated Mr. Sokurenko, the funeral director, as he put Tuesday’s fifth Russian cadaver on blue-plastic sheeting inside his van marked “Cargo 200”—Soviet navy slang for killed in motion. A Ukrainian navy explosives specialist accompanied him, as a result of some our bodies had been booby trapped.

About 10 Ukrainian civilians died in Voznesensk throughout the fight and two extra after hitting a land mine afterward, native officers stated. Ukraine doesn’t disclose its navy losses. There have been fatalities, largely among the many Territorial Protection volunteer forces, native residents stated.

The Russian operation to grab Voznesensk, 20 miles from the South Ukrainian Nuclear Energy Plant, was formidable and well-equipped. It started after Russian forces fanned out of the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow severed from Ukraine and annexed in 2014, and thrust northward to grab the regional capital of Kherson on March 1. They pushed to the sting of Mykolaiv, the final main metropolis earlier than Odessa, Ukraine’s major port.

About 55 miles north of Mykolaiv, Voznesensk provided another bridge over the Southern Bug river and entry to the primary freeway linking Odessa with the remainder of Ukraine. Russian forces raced towards the city similtaneously they made a profitable push northeast to grab town of Enerhodar, the place one other main Ukrainian nuclear energy plant is situated. Voznesensk’s fall would have made defending the nuclear plant to the north of right here almost unattainable, navy officers stated.

The Battle of Voznesensk

South Ukraine

nuclear facility

Managed by or

allied to Russia

Connects

Voznesensk

and Odessa

On March 1, the Russian navy column departs Kherson headed north and northeast.

To succeed in Odessa, the column should cross the Southern Bug in Mykolaiv or Voznesensk. The river runs in a deep canyon and may solely be crossed through bridge.

The column reaches Voznesensk, the place the bridge over the Mertvovod tributary of the Southern Bug has been destroyed by native forces, stopping the northward development.

After two days of combating, a lot of the column is destroyed. Survivors escape east towards Bashtanka.

South Ukraine

nuclear facility

Managed

by or allied

to Russia

Connects

Voznesensk

and Odessa

On March 1, the Russian navy column departs Kherson headed north and northeast.

To succeed in Odessa, the column should cross the Southern Bug in Mykolaiv or Voznesensk. The river runs in a deep canyon and may solely be crossed through bridge.

The column reaches Voznesensk, the place the bridge over the Mertvovod tributary of the Southern Bug has been destroyed by native forces, stopping the northward development.

After two days of combating, a lot of the column is destroyed. Survivors escape east towards Bashtanka.

South Ukraine

nuclear facility

Managed

by or allied

to Russia

Connects

Voznesensk

and Odessa

On March 1, the Russian navy column departs Kherson headed north and northeast.

To succeed in Odessa, the column should cross the Southern Bug in Mykolaiv or Voznesensk. The river runs in a deep canyon and may solely be crossed through bridge.

The column reaches Voznesensk, the place the bridge over the Mertvovod tributary of the Southern Bug has been destroyed by native forces, stopping the northward development.

After two days of combating, a lot of the column is destroyed. Survivors escape east towards Bashtanka.

Mayor Velichko labored with native businessmen to dig up the shores of the Mertvovod river that cuts via city so armored personnel automobiles couldn’t ford it. He obtained different businessmen who owned a quarry and a development firm to dam off most streets to channel the Russian column into areas that might be simpler to hit with artillery.

Forward of the Russian advance, navy engineers blew up the bridge over the Mertvovod and a railroad bridge in town’s edge. Ready for the Russians in and round Voznesensk have been Ukrainian common military troops and members of the Territorial Protection drive, which Ukraine established in January, recruiting and arming volunteers to assist defend native communities. Native witnesses, officers and Ukrainian fight individuals recounted what occurred subsequent.

Missile strikes

The Russian assault started with missile strikes and shelling that hit central Voznesensk, destroying the municipal swimming pool and damaging high-rises. Helicopters dropped Russian air-assault troops in a forested ridge southwest of Voznesensk, as an armored column drove from the southeast. Mr. Velichko stated a neighborhood collaborator with the Russians, a girl driving a Hyundai SUV, confirmed the Russian column a manner via again roads.

Ukrainian officers estimate that some 400 Russian troops took half within the assault. The quantity would have been larger if these forces—largely from the 126th naval infantry brigade primarily based in Perevalnoye, Crimea, in keeping with seized paperwork—hadn’t come underneath heavy shelling alongside the best way.

Natalia Horchuk, a 25-year-old mom of three, stated Russian troopers appeared in her backyard within the village of Rakove within the Voznesensk municipality early March 2. They instructed her and neighbors to go away for his or her security, and parked 4 tanks and infantry combating automobiles between the homes. “Do you’ve anyplace to go?” she recalled them asking. “This place will probably be hit.”

“We will conceal within the cellar,” she replied.

“The cellar gained’t show you how to,” they instructed her. Hiding valuables, she and her household fled, as did most neighbors.

Outdoors Rakove, Volodymyr Kichuk, a guard at a walnut plantation, woke to search out 5 Russian airborne troops in his hut. They took his telephone and compelled him to lie on the bottom, stated his spouse, Hanna. “As soon as they realized there was nothing to steal, they instructed him: You may stand up after we depart,” she stated. By day’s finish, the couple have been gone from the village.

Russian troopers took over villagers’ houses in Rakove and created a sniper place on a roof. They seemed for sacks to fill with soil for fortifications, burned hay to create a smoke display screen and demanded meals.

An area girl who agreed to cook dinner for the Russians is now underneath investigation, stated Mr. Dombrovsky. “A traitor—she did it for cash,” he stated. “I don’t suppose the village will forgive her and let her dwell right here.”

Downhill from Rakove, Russian forces arrange base at a gasoline station at Voznesensk’s entrance. A Russian BTR infantry combating automobile drove as much as the blown-up bridge over the Mertvovod, opening hearth on the Territorial Protection base to the left. 5 tanks, supported by a BTR, drove to a wheat subject overlooking Voznesensk.

A bunch of Territorial Protection volunteers armed with Kalashnikovs was hiding in a constructing at that subject’s edge. They didn’t have a lot of an opportunity towards the BTR’s large-caliber machine gun, stated Mykola Rudenko, one of many metropolis’s Territorial Protection officers; some have been killed, others escaped. Russian troops in two Ural vehicles have been making ready to assemble and arrange 120-mm mortars on the wheat subject, however they obtained solely so far as unloading the ammunition earlier than Ukrainian shelling started.

Phoning in coordinates

As darkness fell March 2, Mr. Rudenko, who owns an organization transporting gravel and sand, took cowl in a grove on the wheat subject’s edge underneath pouring rain. The Russian tanks there would hearth into Voznesensk and instantly drive a couple of hundred yards away to flee return hearth, he stated.

Mr. Rudenko was on the telephone with a Ukrainian artillery unit. Sending coordinates through the Viber social-messaging app, he directed artillery hearth on the Russians. So did different native Territorial Protection volunteers across the metropolis. “Everybody helped,” he stated. “Everybody shared the knowledge.”

Ukrainian shelling blew craters within the subject, and a few Russian automobiles sustained direct hits. Different Ukrainian common troops and Territorial Protection forces moved towards Russian positions on foot, hitting automobiles with U.S.-supplied Javelin missiles. As Russian armor caught hearth—together with three of the 5 tanks within the wheat subject—troopers deserted functioning automobiles and escaped on foot or sped off within the BTRs that also had gasoline. They left crates of ammunition.

Mr. Rudenko picked up a Russian conscript days later, he stated, who served as an assistant artillery specialist at a Grad multiple-rocket launcher that attacked Voznesensk from a forest. The 18-year-old conscript, initially from japanese Ukraine and a Crimea resident since 2014, suffered a concussion after a Ukrainian shell hit close to him. He woke the subsequent morning, left his weapon and wandered right into a village, Mr. Rudenko stated. There, a girl took him into her house and referred to as the village head, who knowledgeable Territorial Protection. “He’s nonetheless in shock about what occurred to him,” Mr. Rudenko stated.

Mr. Dombrovsky, the reconnaissance-unit commander, stated he captured a number of troopers of their early 20s and a 31-year-old senior lieutenant from the Russian navy intelligence. The lieutenant, he stated, had compelled a non-public to swap uniforms however was found due to the age discrepancy—and since Ukrainian forces discovered Russian personnel recordsdata within the column’s command automobile.

“The Russians had orders to come back in, seize, and await additional directions,” Mr. Dombrovsky stated. “However they’d no orders for what to do if they’re defeated. That, they didn’t plan for.”

Russian troops had detained a neighborhood man on March 2 after they discovered him to have binoculars, villagers stated. “That they had put him in a cellar and instructed him they may execute him within the morning, for correcting artillery hearth,” Mr. Dombrovsky stated, including that the detainee wasn’t a spotter. “However within the morning they didn’t have time to execute him. They have been too busy fleeing.”

The Russians retreat

Because the Russian forces retreated on March 3, they shelled the downhill a part of Rakove. A direct hit pierced the roof of the native clinic, the place Mr. Dombrovsky’s mom, Raisa, labored as a nurse. “We’ve simply constructed a brand new roof,” she sighed, exhibiting the gaping gap. “Nevertheless it doesn’t matter. The principle factor is that we’ve kicked them out, and survived.”

When villagers returned to Rakove on March 4, they discovered their houses ransacked. “Blankets, cutlery, all gone. Lard, milk, cheese, additionally gone,” stated Ms. Horchuk. “They didn’t take the potatoes as a result of they didn’t have time to cook dinner.”

This week, village houses nonetheless bore traces of Russian troopers. Cabinets and closets have been nonetheless flung open from looting, and Russian navy rations and half-eaten jars of pickles and preserves littered flooring.

The Ukrainian military’s eightieth brigade was towing away the final remaining Russian BTRs with “Z” painted on their sides, the identification markers that in Russia have change into the image of the invasion. About 15 Russian tanks and different automobiles have been in working or salvageable situation, stated Mr. Dombrovsky. “We’re able to hit the Russians with their very own weapons,” he stated. Others, largely burned-out wrecks, have been faraway from streets as a result of they scared civilians and contained ordnance, the mayor stated.

Electrical energy, disrupted throughout fight, has returned in Voznesensk, as have web, gasoline and water providers. ATMs have been restocked with money, supermarkets with meals.

The one explosions are from bomb squads often disposing ordnance. Mr. Velichko, the mayor, fielded citizen telephone calls Tuesday, telling one he would handle a presumably rabid canine and assuring one other that her utilities wouldn’t be reduce in wartime even when she was late in paying. He argued with a military commander as a result of Ukrainian troopers had siphoned gasoline from the gasoline station.

Spartak Hukasian, head of the Voznesensk district council, stated town—now not close to entrance traces—was beginning to get used to comparatively peaceable life once more. “He who laughs final laughs greatest,” he stated. “We haven’t had an opportunity to giggle till now.”

Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com