Ukrainian Troops Caught In Endless ‘Mini-Pockets’ Around Kharkov – PoW
In military slang, a pocket is a situation in which enemy forces encircle and isolate troops from their comrades, cutting off their supplies and reinforcements. Ukrainian Army detachments have been caught in numerous “mini-pockets” around Kharkov during the Russian offensive this spring, former Ukrainian soldier and current PoW Kirill Docenko has said.
“Everyone knew what was going on. We saw your [Russian] equipment, saw your troops. However, there was no counter-battery fire on our behalf, no support from heavy military equipment. We just sat and waited until the moment when your army approached our positions. The battle broke out and that’s it,” Docenko explained.
He added that Ukrainian troops ignored orders to establish perimeter defenses and started to retreat, being caught in the “mini-pockets” by the Russian army.
“Those who could – retreated, fled. All gathered at one point. Platoon strong points, company strong points – all done in order to establish at least some kind of defense using large numbers of servicemen. However, this all was done wrong, that you are just being encircled, end of story. And you will not break out. No one will approach you, you won’t flee,” the PoW said.
Docenko was wounded and his peers used a pit as a shelter against shelling. They reported the situation and their officers ordered them to hold positions despite all odds. There was shooting nearby and they heard pleas for help on the radio frequency from other Ukrainian soldiers who were encircled in the very same manner.
Earlier, Sputnik published an interview with another Ukrainian soldier who chose life over death and surrendered to the Russian Armed Forces. He admitted that the Ukrainian top brass does not care about the lives of their people, instead sending troops to a guaranteed death – and thanked Russian soldiers for their respectful treatment.