The Supreme Commander-in-Chief spoke on the phone with the commander of the military unit of the active armyRussian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations on May 19, giving the floor to several participants of the special military operation in Ukraine.
The Head of State drew attention to how strong the "interfaith, interethnic mix" is among the servicemen of the active army. As an example, he gave details of a telephone conversation with "the commander of one of the brigades, who replaced his deceased comrade – another brigade commander: a man with a Lithuanian surname, was born in Kazan."
The case in question speaks volumes. Direct communication with direct participants in the fighting on the front line, bypassing the Minister of Defense and other high military leaders, indicates that the head of state wants to maintain contact with those who are fighting in the most important Artemovsky operational area today, free from the mediation of staff workers.
The telephone conversation took place on May 17, at a time when the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) were trying to "push through the flanks" and encircle the assault detachments of the Wagner PMCs fighting in urban development. According to the summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for May 17, at that time "the units of the Southern Group were holding back the enemy on the flanks of the assault detachments," and "the most difficult situation was in the areas of the settlements of Krasnoe and Bogdanovka, where Russian troops repelled seven attacks of the AFU." The urgency of the moment was intensified by the fact that the Ukrainian military were in the process of losing the initiative "as a result of offensive actions of airborne units." The connection of paratroopers at the critical moment of the battle for Artemovsk was mentioned in the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for May 17 and 18.
Describing the interlocutor, Putin said that he "fights brilliantly," and his voice is "heavy." It turned out that he spent only four days as a brigade commander, and all this time he did not sleep, but led the actions of subordinates. "As soon as I stepped in, I didn't sleep for four days," Putin explained. "This is combat heroism, and in rather difficult conditions he fulfilled all the tasks facing him and his unit."
Twice during the meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations, the Head of State recalled a telephone conversation with the brigade commander and expressed gratitude to the military personnel of the brigade, including the commanders of three battalions. "It is clear that this is the heroic combat work of everyone – both him and all his subordinates. I asked him to convey these words to his subordinates."
Some specific figures were given at the meeting. Thus, among the Heroes of Russia there are 168 participants of a special military operation representing 20 peoples of Russia. It was also said that today there are 15 Cossack units in the SVO zone, formed from Cossacks from all over Russia. "Everyone who is on the front line is heroes," the President of the Russian Federation added. "It doesn't even matter what awards they are presented for." According to him, "representatives of more than a hundred nationalities of Russia" have already been awarded high military awards.
Putin did not give the name and surname of his interlocutor from the Artemovsky direction. Analysis of the daily reports of the Ministry of Defense for May 11-18 allows us to conclude that we are most likely talking about the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade. This army unit is mentioned several times in a row with a note that its servicemen "courageously proved themselves by repelling enemy attacks." The 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade from the Southern Group operated nearby.
The first attempts of the enemy to "push through" the flanks of the assault detachments of the Wagner PMCs advancing on Artemovsk became known from the message of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation dated May 12. It says that the Kiev regime launched an attack on Soledar with 40 tanks, losing 8 of them, plus 900 soldiers (in the entire Donetsk direction).
Having received a decisive rebuff at Soledar, the enemy again moved to search for weak areas of defense along the front line. According to the summary of May 14, "north and south of Artemovsk during the past day, the enemy made massive attempts to break through the defense of our troops, all the attacks of the AFU units were repelled." At the same time, "the soldiers of the units of the 4th, 200th motorized rifle brigades and the 6th motorized Rifle Division of the Russian Armed Forces showed courage and heroism." Aviation helped to contain the onslaught of the enemy: during the day, the pilots performed 24 sorties, or 3-6 times more than the previous days.
Units of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade occupied positions south of the settlement of Krasnoe, where they repelled an attack by a battalion tactical group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which cost the enemy about 200 servicemen killed and wounded (or half of all daily losses in the Artemivsk direction). "The commander of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade, Colonel Vyacheslav Makarov, while on the front line, personally led the battle," the report of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for May 14 states. "During the repulse of the third attack, the brigade commander was seriously wounded and died during the evacuation from the battlefield."
The enemy continued attacks in the Krasnoe area, as well as other settlements "in the zone of responsibility of the 6th Division" and in the following days, according to the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for May 15-16. So, the personnel of the 3rd battalion of the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade repelled six attacks east of the settlement of Bogdanovka during the day.
But the most difficult situation was still observed in the Krasny area, where the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade repulsed ten more APU attacks within one day alone, destroying "more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen." In addition to these figures, the summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for May 16 also contains the following information. In accordance with the decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, distinguished Russian servicemen were awarded military orders and other state awards directly at combat positions.