From: imbibe@mindspring.com   
      
   A Village Retaken, and a Confidence Boost for Ukraine’s Troops   
   By Carlotta Gall, July 21, 2022, NY Times   
      
   The enemy captives were all members of a marine infantry brigade from the   
   Russian naval base at Simferopol in Crimea, said Lt. Mikheichenko, who saw and   
   talked to the prisoners.   
      
   “They were well-spoken, educated and well-equipped,” he said. “But they   
   were all tired and lacked motivation.”   
      
   They had been fighting since February, he said, first in the city of Kherson,   
   which Russian forces captured early in the war. Then the unit was thrown into   
   the battle for the port city of Mariupol and fought a weekslong campaign   
   against Ukrainian troops    
   for control of the Azovstal steel plant. Then, without a break, the marines   
   were sent to frontline positions at Pavlivka.   
      
   Among some of the possessions, uniforms and weapons captured by the Ukrainians   
   was a diary belonging to one of the Russians killed in the battle. A sergeant   
   from the city of Kemerovo in Siberia, he had written a loving farewell letter   
   to his wife. “   
   Maybe they felt something was coming,” Lt. Mikheichenko said.   
      
   The lieutenant provided photographs of some of the diary entries to The New   
   York Times. The sergeant also wrote about an unsuccessful assault by the   
   Russians on Mariupol and the fearful experience of coming under shell fire   
   from Ukrainian forces. The    
   next day he wrote: “They said there would be another assault. I don’t   
   really want to go, but what to do?”   
      
   He also wrote about Russian soldiers looting. “Guys went to apartments and   
   brought out big bags. Marauding in all its glory,” he wrote. “Some took   
   only what they needed and some took everything, from an old TV set to a big   
   plasma TV, computers and    
   expensive alcohol.”   
      
   Delivering a defeat to the Russians was of particular importance to the 53rd   
   Brigade. At the beginning of the war in February, the brigade was defending   
   the town of Volnovakha, which guards a strategic highway into Mariupol. But in   
   mid-March they were    
   forced to cede the town and retreat some 20 miles, even losing Pavlivka.   
      
   They fell back to the town of Vuhledar, a largely deserted conglomeration of   
   battered high-rise apartment blocks where a few beleaguered residents hug the   
   doorways and cook on wood fires in the courtyards. Without electricity or   
   running water, they said    
   they relied on the army for supplies and protection from thieves.   
      
   A retired miner named Volodymyr, 65, sat on a bench in the courtyard on the   
   north side of a building, which residents have learned is better protected   
   from Russian artillery. “I did not think to leave,” he said. “My wife is   
   buried here and I will    
   rest with her.”   
      
   Despite the destruction, Pavlivka had provided a needed boost, Kryha said.   
   “We rolled back, rolled back, rolled back,” he said. “Then we stood up   
   and stopped. We gained strength and resources. People have gained more   
   experience. Now they realized    
   that they really can fight.”   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/todayspaper/ukraine-russia-war.html   
      
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