Battle of Pisky (2022)
2022's Battle of Pisky is a component of the attack in Eastern Ukraine during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Date range (28 July – 24 August 2022)[1]
(3 months, 6 days)
Location Pisky, Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast
Russian and the DPR win as a result.
Territorial \schanges
Forces from Russia and the DPR take control of Pisky.
Entities at War Russia
Ukrainian commanders and officials from Donetsk
Donetsk People's Republic DPR Armed Forces units involved: Alexei Berngard Artem Zhoga Volodymyr Rehesha
Ukrainian Armed Forces, Sparta Battalion, 100th Brigade, 3rd Regiment, and 11th Regiment
Ukraine's National Guard's 503rd Naval Infantry Battalion, 15th Mountain Assault Brigade
Azov Brigade
The Donbass Batallion
Ukr.gif Georgia National Legion Ukrainian Marines and the Georgian Legion
56th Motorized Brigade[2]
losses and casualties
270 soldiers dead, 7 tanks destroyed, according to a Ukrainian claim (28 July only)
[3]
500 soldiers were lost [4]
Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022
The Battle of Pisky was a series of military engagements for control of the communities around city of Donetsk (primarily Pisky) between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the Battle for Donbas. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the battle was one component of a broader Russian plan to encircle Avdiivka.
Prior to Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu's confirmation of Pisky's captivity on September 2, 2022, Ukraine initially refuted many Russian reports of his capture.
On October 4 from the Pisky direction, Russian military forces started a significant attack on Pervomaiske and the nearby town of Vodiane.
Contents
Background, Battle, and Pisky's Fall
3 Aftermath \s4 References
History Main articles: offensive in eastern Ukraine, the battles of Avdiivka and Donbas in 2022, and the siege of Marinka
also see Donbass War (2014–2022), March 2022 Attacks on Donetsk, Maisky Market, and the atrocity in Olenivka prison
Pisky, a frontline community in Donetsk, is now regarded as a ghost town because it hasn't had a sizable civilian population since 2014. Prior to the war, the Ukrainian 56th Motorized Brigade spent years defending the settlement, with garrison members fighting from basements and trenches and utilising highway overpasses as staging grounds. The village was within a few yards from separatist territory. [2] Separatist groups who support Russia claimed that Ukrainian forces shelled Donetsk city, the capital of the Donetsk People's Republic, from their base in Pisky (DPR). [5]
Russian and separatist forces set their eyes on capturing the whole Donbas region, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, during the Eastern Ukraine operation in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Insurrections in favour of Russia in 2014 resulted in the seizure of portions of these oblasts, including their namesake capitals. Just 3 kilometres north of Pisky, at Avdiivka, the conflict erupted before Russia formally began its invasion of Ukraine. Russian military struck the Avdiivka coking facility on March 13, 2022. [6] A few kilometres south of Pisky, in Marinka, Russian and separatist forces began an offensive on March 17. Like Pisky, Marinka is seen as a defensive stronghold of the Ukrainian military on the dividing line between Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatist governments, the DPR and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). [7]
The battle of Donbas got underway on the evening of April 18 when Russian forces intensified their bombing campaign on Ukrainian positions in the oblasts of Luhansk, Donetsk, and Kharkiv.
[8] On June 13, Ukrainian forces reportedly fired artillery into a market in Donetsk, killing five people.
[9] The DPR claimed that Ukraine was responsible for shelling strikes from the Pisky and Krasnogorovka regions.
[10]
[11] In Molodizhne, a community southwest of Donetsk in the DPR area, a prison was demolished on the night of July 28–29. The same day, it was agreed to conduct a general onslaught in the direction of Pisky, Marinka, and Vuhledar after the Russians accused the Ukrainians of launching an attack using HIMARS missile systems supplied by the United States from those three locations. [12]
Battle
DPR and Russian forces began an operation to encircle Avdiivka on July 28. Krasnohorivka, Pisky, and other settlements north of Avdiivka were attacked by Russian and rebel forces, with unknown benefits. [13] The Russian forces attempted to push near Kamianka and Pisky on July 31, according to the Ukrainian General Staff, and unidentified other Russian groups achieved "limited success" in Avdiivka. In line with Ukrainian sources, the DPR's deputy information minister, Daniil Bezsonov, asserted that Russian and DPR soldiers had taken up positions on the periphery of Pisky in the southeast. [14] Only 2,500 people, or 10% of Avdiivka's prewar population, survived, according to Vitalii Barabash, the head of the city's military administration. [15]
On August 5, Ukraine stated that it had lost the Butivka coal mine to Russia and that it had been pushed outside of Avdiivka.
[16]
[17] The DPR asserted that on this day, its soldiers and Russian forces captured Pisky, a claim Ukraine denied. [18] [19] The Russian defence ministry announced on August 7 that its forces were attacking the fortress and purging it of "nationalists." [5] Russian troops appeared to have entered Pisky's centre, according to combat footage. [20] On August 12, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) released a study citing satellite images and combat footage that claimed Russian fire, including TOS-1A thermobaric artillery systems, had decimated much of Pisky during the battle. [21] [22]
According to reports, Russian and pro-Russian forces used the attritional strategy of bombarding Ukrainian defences with heavy artillery before launching infantry assaults, making the defence of the fortified settlement "costly" because the defenders lacked the ability to retaliate with counterbattery fire. "The battalion merely pushes back the attack with their bodies," a member of the 56th Motorized Brigade of Ukraine's army wrote. "Without a counter-battery fight, it turns into a senseless meat grinder, where an insane quantity of our men is ground up in a day." [2] Participating Ukrainian commander Volodymyr Rehesha later asserted on August 28 that Ukraine had lost 500 combat lives in all during the struggle for Pisky. [4]
Decline of Pisky
On August 13, the Russian defence ministry and separatist leaders once more asserted that Pisky had been entirely taken over[23][24]. Ukraine's Eastern Command, however, refuted these claims and asserted that fighting for control of the settlement was still going on. The ISW estimated that while Russian and DPR forces may not have completely taken over and cleared Pisky by this point, they had started to consolidate their positions in the region in preparation for launching additional attacks on nearby towns including Pervomaiske, Nevelske, and Optyne. [25] [26][27]
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen nation, declared on August 21 that demining operations were in progress and that Russian forces had taken control of Pisky.
[28] Geotagged video that was published online on August 24 showed DPR soldiers raising a Soviet Victory Banner close to Pisky's centre while appearing indifferent about artillery bombardment from Ukraine. The ISW regarded this as indicating that DPR troops had established full control of Pisky by this date. [29] However, Vitaliy Barabash, the chief of the Avdiivka City Military Administration, stated that as of August 29, just half of Pisky was under Russian control. [30] Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, reportedly verified Pisky's capture on September 2. [5] [31]
Aftermath
The DPR's 11th Regiment was engaged in combat on August 31 in the Pisky-Pervomaiske region, "presumably trying to push the frontline farther west of Donetsk City," according to the ISW. Continued Russian bombardment of Avdiivka. [32] According to Russian reports, the Russians took control of a steep terrain in the Pisky area and the 11th Regiment took control of a bridge on the way to the town before starting their advance westward towards Pervomaiske. [33] [34]