General Naiev tells how the battle for Voznesensk prevented the capture of Odesa by Russians

Lieutenant General Serhiy Nayev (photo: Joint Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine)

The former Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, shared details of the operation to stop the Russian offensive on Voznesensk in the spring of 2022.

In an interview with «Ukrainska Pravda», he explained how operational intelligence allowed the Ukrainian command to predict the enemy's route and prepare the necessary forces to stop the Russians.

When Russian troops began to approach Mykolaiv, the city's defence was led by General Dmytro Marchenko. The main task then was to predict the enemy's next steps and respond effectively.

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«When the enemy approached Mykolaiv, General Dmytro Marchenko was in charge of the defence of Mykolaiv. It was necessary to unravel the enemy's intentions and the direction of his further actions. I was a strategic level commander at the time and an intelligence officer with the call sign «Parus» approached me and said that he had found a programme on the Internet that indicated possible routes for Russian troops. According to this data, it became clear that the enemy would move through Voznesensk, and then along the line of Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, to Transnistria,» says Serhii Naiev.

According to the general, this plan also included a landing of a marine assault led by the 810th Marine Brigade. When he asked the intelligence officer if he could show the programme, the officer replied that it had disappeared.

«I asked him, can you show me the programme? He said it had disappeared. And I believed him,» the general adds.

Naiev passed the information on to Major General Andriy Kovalchuk, commander of the operational command «South».

«I called Kovalchuk, told him about my assumptions, and he agreed. I offered to move aviation and artillery to this area, and he offered to move some forces from Mykolaiv,» recalls Naiev.

The next morning, Russian troops entered Voznesensk, but Ukrainian paratroopers were waiting for them. As a result of the coordinated actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the enemy suffered serious losses - more than seven battalion tactical groups were destroyed.

«In the morning, the enemy entered Voznesensk, where a battalion of the 80th Air Assault Brigade was waiting for them. By the way, our paratroopers burned the first enemy battalion for about a day and a half, it was hard. They blew up a tank on a bridge there, and did not allow us to cross the river. The aviation and artillery were firing with all their might, and within a week we killed more than 7 battalion tactical groups,» the general said.

In addition to ground operations, Ukrainian troops used missiles «Neptune», which forced Russian ships to retreat from the coast, and also laid sea mines that prevented enemy manoeuvres in the Black Sea.

- At sea, amphibious ships were approaching the shore to conduct reconnaissance, and it was then that we first launched the «Neptune» missiles. The first launch took place over an enemy ship, and they retreated to a greater distance from our shore. In addition, sea mines were laid, which the enemy was unable to remove despite the presence of minesweepers. Two brigades in Mykolaiv and Odesa regions were using fire to prevent the enemy from removing these mines,» said Serhii Naiev.

We would like to remind you that Major General Dmytro Marchenko, who commanded the defence of Mykolaiv at the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, told us how the city managed to survive the first months of the Russian invasion. According to the general, he was ordered to blow up the Varvarivskyi Bridge eight times.

However, Dmytro Marchenko persuaded the highest command not to do it, because then the city could have been completely surrounded — at that time, Mykolaiv was blocked in three out of four directions.

Defence of Voznesensk

On 2-3 March 2022, in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the territorial defence fought off Russian invaders who had entered the city. About 700 buildings were damaged in Voznesensk as a result of the hostilities, including 56 high-rise buildings.

Earlier, NikVesti described the battle for Voznesensk in a documentary project.

The Battle of Voznesensk. Archive photo NikVesti

The journalists visited the site of the battle with the occupiers and learned about the details of the battle from the mayor of Voznesensk, Yevhen Velychko, and a member of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, Vladyslav Neveselyi.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces believe that the fall of Voznesensk in March 2022 would have jeopardised the entire south of Ukraine, opening the way for the Russians to enter Transnistria. After all, the occupiers' goal was to secure access to the right bank of the Southern Bug River, gain operational space and then either close the encirclement of Mykolaiv or close the encirclement of the entire south with access to Transnistria, Kyrylo Nehymchuk, a participant in the battle for Voznesensk, told reporters.

The soldiers of the 80th separate air assault brigade who took part in the defence of Voznesensk said that they had never seen such support from civilians as in Voznesensk. This is shown in the video «Voznesensk. 2 years» 80th Brigade.