Battle of Ilovaisk

Battle of Ilovaisk
Part of the war in Donbas

Withdrawal of Ukrainian forces on 29 August 2014
Date7 August – 2 September 2014[4][5]
(3 weeks and 5 days)
Location
Ilovaisk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine
Result

DPR and Russian victory[6][7][8]

Belligerents
 Ukraine Donetsk People's Republic
 Russia[a]
Commanders and leaders
Ukraine V. V. Heletey[9]
Ukraine R. B. Khomchak[10]
Ukraine S. I. Semenchenko (WIA)[11]
Ukraine Y. M. Bereza (WIA)[12]
Ukraine R. O. Storcheus [uk] †[12]		 A. V. Zakharchenko
A. S. Khodakovsky
M. C. Tolstykh[13]
A. S. Pavlov[14]
Russia V. V. Gerasimov[b]
Units involved

Ground Forces

National Guard

Patrol Police

Right Sector

 Ukrainian Navy

Russian Army
(denied by Russia)

Russian Airborne Troops

Donbass People's Militia

Strength
Encircled forces:
1,200–1,400[22][23]
Deblock forces:
400		 4,000–4,100 (Ukraine claim)[24]
Casualties and losses
366 killed
429 wounded
128 captured
158 missing (acc. Ukrainian military)[25][26]
420 killed
13 captured
40 missing (acc. BBC News Ukrainian)[27]
1,000+ killed (acc. Verkhovna Rada & People's Front)[24]		 150 killed (regular forces; acc. Russian opposition)[28]
200 killed (separatists; acc. Al Jazeera)[29]
200+ killed[30]
20 captured[11] (acc. Ukrainian government)
36–100 civilians killed[14][31]

The Battle of Ilovaisk[c] started on 7 August 2014, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine and pro-Ukrainian paramilitaries began a series of attempts to capture the city of Ilovaisk from pro-Russian insurgents affiliated with the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and detachments of the Russian Armed Forces.[6][32][33] Although Ukrainian forces were able to enter the city on 18 August,[34] they were encircled between 24 and 26 August by overwhelming Russian military forces that crossed the border, joining the battle.[35][36][37] After days of encirclement, Ukrainian forces rejected the DPR's proposal to open a humanitarian corridor on the condition that they abandon their armored vehicles and ammunition, and on the morning of 29 August 2014 began to leave Ilovaisk with their weapons.[38] The Russian side opened fire on the evacuating Ukrainian soldiers, many of whom died whilst trying to escape.[11][39]

The Chief of the General Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Viktor Muzhenko, claimed on 26 August 2016 that the cause of the battle's outcome was the involvement of Russian troops, along with Ukrainian commanders' incompetence in the planning of the retreat.[40]

  1. ^ Lindsey Hilsum (2 September 2014). "Evidence of Russian presence in Ukraine - video". Channel 4 News. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference GDyou was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Shaun Walker (18 August 2019). "New evidence emerges of Russian role in Ukraine conflict". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  4. ^ Judah, Tim. "Ukraine: A Catastrophic Defeat".
  5. ^ Kate Parkinson (2 September 2014). "Anti-gov't forces in control of eastern town of Ilovaisk". China Central Television News. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  6. ^ a b Tim Judah (5 September 2014). "Ukraine: A Catastrophic Defeat". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  7. ^ Kim, Lucian. The Battle of Ilovaisk: Details of a Massacre Inside Rebel-Held Eastern Ukraine. Newsweek. 4 November 2014
  8. ^ Peter Leonard (30 August 2014). "Pro-Russia rebels confident after making gains". bigstory.ap.org. Archived from the original on 2 September 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  9. ^ "Bodies of victims of Ilovaisk massacre still being found, counted weeks later". Kyiv Post. 16 October 2014. Archived from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  10. ^ Howard Amos in Moscow and Roland Oliphant in Mariupol (31 August 2014). "Vladimir Putin demands negotiations over 'statehood' for eastern Ukraine". The Daily Telegraph.
  11. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference WSJescape was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b Oksana Grytsenko (3 September 2014). "Survivors recall Ilovaisk massacre". Kyiv Post. Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  13. ^ "Pro-Russian rebels take Ukrainian town". CNN. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  14. ^ a b Lucian Kim (4 November 2014). "The Battle of Ilovaisk: Details of a Massacre Inside Rebel-Held Eastern Ukraine". Newsweek. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  15. ^ "Russian Army General Staff Chief Gerasimov, ten Russian military servicemen suspected of involvement in Ilovaisk tragedy - SBU". Kyiv Post. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  16. ^ "Миколаїв попрощався з загиблими героями". Archived from the original on 1 September 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  17. ^ Roman Svyrydov (26 August 2014). "Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs: Commander of the Kherson Battalion and its driver were lost near Ilovaysk". News.pn. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  18. ^ "Подвиг и трагедия Иловайска". Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  19. ^ Yaroslav Tynchenko. Іловайськ: цифри і факти Archived 17 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine 07.11.2014.
  20. ^ Дмитро Красов Archived 23 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Shaun Walker; Oksana Grytsenko; Leonid Ragozin (4 September 2014). "Russian soldier: 'You're better clueless because the truth is horrible'". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  22. ^ Dan Peleschuk (29 August 2015). "Ukraine is still at war, and its bloodiest battle isn't over". GlobalPost. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference TyzhdenIlovaisk4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ a b "About 1,000 soldiers killed in Ilovaisk battle - parliament commission". uatoday.tv. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  25. ^ "The missing: what have they done with our sons?". The Guardian. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  26. ^ "New data on victims near Ilovaisk: 366 Ukrainian soldiers killed". www.unian.info.
  27. ^ "Скільки українська армія втратила в Іловайську? Нові дані Генштабу" – via www.bbc.com.
  28. ^ "Nemtsov report claims hundreds of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine". Gulf News. AFP. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  29. ^ Vickery, Matthew. "Ukraine war: Mothers in search of disappeared sons". www.aljazeera.com.
  30. ^ "В боях під Іловайськом загинуло більше 200 військових РФ – ЗСУ". 28 August 2018.
  31. ^ "UN says 36 civilians died in fighting over Ilovaisk". KyivPost. 10 August 2018.
  32. ^ Батальоны "Донбасс" и "Азов" понесли потери в бою за Иловайск [Battalions "Donbass" and "Azov" suffered losses in the battle for Ilovajsk]. TSN (in Russian). 11 August 2014. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014.
  33. ^ "Thousands of Russian soldiers fought at Ilovaisk, around a hundred were killed | KyivPost". KyivPost. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  34. ^ Cite error: The named reference KPdfon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ^ Ivan Katchanovski (2016). "The Separatist War in Donbas: A Violent Break-up of Ukraine?". European Politics and Society. 17 (4): 10. doi:10.1080/23745118.2016.1154131. S2CID 155890093.
  36. ^ Maj. Michael Cohen (10 June 2016). "Ukraine's Battle at Ilovaisk". www.armyupress.army.mil. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  37. ^ Edward Hunter Christie (17 May 2022). "Military Assistance to Ukraine: Rediscovering the Virtue of Courage". www.rusi.org. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  38. ^ Cite error: The named reference ilen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  39. ^ Jamie Dettmer (24 November 2014). "Should the U.S. Arm Ukraine's Militias?". The Daily Beast. Dnipropetrovsk. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  40. ^ Kyiv honoring soldiers killed in 2014 Ilovaisk battle, UNIAN (29 August 2016)


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