Andrii “Tuman,” whose call sign means “fog,” commands his unit around the clock from a modest, nondescript house in a heavily destroyed hamlet in eastern Ukraine to fend off Russian strikes.
Russian soldiers, weaponry, and aggressive tactics in the Luhansk region replicate what Ukrainian forces have reported in Bakhmut.
The grinding conflict along the eastern and southern Ukraine border costs both sides, as Tuman medics reported substantial casualties in recent weeks.
When soldiers race through the village on armored personnel vehicles, Tuman orders out artillery attacks from his bunker, which has blacked-out windows.
“From the beginning of February, they (the Russians) have undertaken something like 40 to 50 attempted attacks,” the 45-year-old told Reuters in between relaying information over his radio.
“We have repulsed them all,” continued the commander, who describes himself as Ichkerian, using the traditional name for Russia’s southern province of Chechnya, where he fought in two wars. He denies Moscow’s rule over the area.
Tuman, a stocky man with a wispy beard, worries that Russian forces’ pincer maneuver in Bakhmut to surround Ukrainian troops holding there may be replicated on a greater scale in his sector of the front.
He added the Russians had just changed their offensive path, reportedly to take the road to Lyman, a Ukrainian-held town west of Kreminna, establishing a pincer.
The attempted encirclement looks Soledar, exposing a far greater region than Bakhmut. Russia might accelerate west after months of stagnation.
“If they come to Lyman, then beyond, there is Kramatorsk and Sloviansk,” he warned.
“This is no less serious than Bakhmut since it will represent a ‘pincer’ danger.”
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