The head of the engineering troops of the 58th Combined Arms Army, Zalibek Umaev, was awarded the Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Russian Federation for installing engineering barriers in the Zaporozhye area of the special operation. The colonel was responsible for the section of the front that took the main blow during the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in June — November 2023. Thanks to the professionalism of the sapper, more than 200 units of Ukrainian armored vehicles, including more than 30 tanks, were blown up on Russian engineering barriers. Zalibek Umayev himself was seriously wounded in the first days of the counteroffensive, but recovered and returned to his tasks. We tell you about the feat of the Hero of Russia.
Zalibek Kasumovich is from the Republic of Dagestan (Ullubaul village, Karabudakhkent district). His father was a teacher, a school principal. My mother worked all her life as an accountant on a state farm. "In our family, a lot of attention is paid to education. There was no such thing that someone did not graduate, did not receive a higher education. My father's aunt is an honored teacher of Dagestan. My uncle is a candidate of sciences, my other uncle was the second secretary of the district. And, of course, education went through labor. We had our own farm: livestock, a vegetable garden," says the soldier.
When asked why he decided to link his life with military service, Umaev answers simply: fate. "I believe that it was destined that I would become a military man. I was destined to be in that place at that time," he says. In 1997, Zalibek graduated with honors from his native village school. Later, he entered the Dagestan State Pedagogical University, which he also graduated with a red diploma.
At the same time, Umaev received military education in Kaspiysk. Even as a boy, he was inspired by the exploits of Soviet tankmen, pilots and cosmonauts. "During my childhood and youth, Soviet films were constantly played on TV, and I watched the entire Great Patriotic War on them. I think it was in those years that I developed a love for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," says the Hero of Russia.
The direction of the main impact
A soldier has been taking part in a special operation in Ukraine since the very beginning. Umaev carried out the assigned tasks in the Zaporozhye area of his defense. An engineering unit under the command of a lieutenant colonel was responsible for a 340 km long section of the front and controlled the installation of all engineering barriers.
The AFU counteroffensive began on June 4-5, 2023 and ended in November of the same year. Umaev notes that the enemy's plans were known to the command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation long before the start of active offensive operations, including the place and time of the main Ukrainian strike.
Zalibek Umaev
Hero of Russia
Two weeks before the events, the command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation also received information about the approximate time of the start of the counteroffensive. From that moment on, Russian troops began intensive preparations for an enemy attack. All actions of the Russian troops were aimed at giving the enemy a decent rebuff. "We had to prevent the APU from either breaking in or seizing territories that had already been liberated. Everyone's efforts were directed at this. The commander of the engineering troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as the districts, have already begun to work in that direction in order to prevent the enemy from achieving any opportunities to achieve their goals," Umaev says.
The colonel personally supervised the process of creating a system of engineering and fortification barriers at all borders and areas of this section of the Zaporozhye direction. "From the moment we realized the direction of the enemy's main attack, all the commander's efforts were focused on my direction. Engineering ammunition began to arrive in very large quantities. We were able to create those densities of barriers of great depth, which the enemy began to talk about after the start of the counteroffensive, in fact, without even reaching those barriers that we put in front of the first and second defensive lines, as well as in depth," Umaev says.
The counterattack choked on the front lines of defense
Under the leadership of the chief of engineering troops of the 58th Combined Arms Army, the most powerful barrier systems were created, which experts recognized as unprecedented in history. "After the Ukrainian counteroffensive was thwarted, even the Western media began to say that engineering barriers of such density had never been made — neither during the Great Patriotic War, nor subsequently," Umaev says. As stated by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, it was the barrier system erected by the engineering troops that played a key role in disrupting the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In preparation for the counteroffensive, Russian military personnel created a system of anti-tank ditches. "This is not just one ditch in some direction, but a solid line of anti-tank ditches, which the enemy would also not have overcome under any circumstances," Umaev said. A system of non-explosive barriers was built in with separate elements, which represented inconspicuous obstacles, including many rows of barbed wire.
Zalibek Umaev
Hero of Russia
For almost six months, the counteroffensives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, advancing in two corps in the Zaporozhye direction, could not achieve any significant results. In fact, all the battles took place on the front line. Having wedged in, the enemy passed through a section of the front about 6 km long and 3-4 km deep. "That's all the Ukrainians could do. We have already ridiculed them: Rabocino is a strategic settlement consisting of two small longitudinal streets and one transverse street — that's what the APU was able to reach with two corps trained by foreign countries. And the corps also consisted of several mechanized brigades," Umaev says.
During the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian army threw into battle all the best samples of foreign-made armored vehicles available to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "You saw how these Leopard tanks, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles were burning — all this was in our direction. The barriers continued to work, and in 4.5 months since the beginning of the counteroffensive, 215 armored objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine remained on the battlefield in this patch from Verbovoye to Rabotino. These are artillery, helicopters, and anti-tank systems. All this combined helped to complete the task," says Umaev.
"The general lived in the first trench"
During his military operations and preparations for the counteroffensive of the Ukrainians, Umaev personally engaged in the installation of engineering barriers in the most difficult areas of his direction. The colonel is convinced that the commander is obliged to set a personal example to his subordinates by his actions.
"From the very beginning of the war, I took mines and walked ahead of my subordinates. Because if you can't do the task yourself, then you can set this task incorrectly," says the sapper.
The serviceman said that during the preparation for the repulse of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the mobilized showed their best side.
Zalibek Umaev
Hero of Russia
The head of the engineering troops of the 58th Combined Arms Army noted that at the initial stage of its unmanned aerial vehicles were used mostly for reconnaissance. However, with the advent of attack drones such as FPV drones, the whole tactics of combat has changed. Both sides have acquired ultra-precise weapons: being somewhere deep in the front, the combat operator can see the target and hit it. According to the chief of the engineering troops of the 58th Combined Arms Army, the widespread use of kamikaze drones has also affected the work of sappers. "If earlier you could install barriers at any time of the day, now all tasks are carried out with an eye to the appearance of FPV equipment. Even in preparation for the counteroffensive, we worked mostly at night or very early, when there is no contrast, there is no night anymore, but morning has not yet come — this is the interval from 3 to 5 in the morning. At this time, the night drone can no longer work, and it's too early for the day drone to work," Umaev said.
The colonel stressed that currently in the area of ITS own, any rash nomination and attempt to complete the task can lead to losses of both personnel and equipment.
He even commanded from the hospital
On the fourth day of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the colonel was seriously injured. There was a battle going on at one of the sites, the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly. There was a threat of an enemy breakthrough. The army commander set Umaev the task of personally moving to the site and checking the barriers, as well as installing new ones. "I was given the task to check and close the issue of what, even if one of our motorized rifle companies is pushed through, to prevent the enemy from passing on. If the Ukrainians had succeeded, the enemy would have entered the paved road. I have performed such tasks thousands of times. I got dressed, took two subordinates, one of them a driver, and we drove off. I have completed the task," he says.
The case took place on the northern outskirts of Rabocino. Umaev installed prefabricated barriers along the road — mine barriers. The enemy could not have gone further than them. The colonel and his subordinates were already on their way back, but were attacked by the enemy. "I can't say exactly how I was hurt. Either it was remote mining or an FPV drone. I flew over my leg, I was injured, I was in a borderline state for two days. I came to myself in the hospital, two days later I woke up in St. Petersburg," Umaev says.
The recovery process was difficult and took four months. In December, Umaev was awarded the Hero's Star at the National Medical Research Center for High Medical Technologies — the Central Military Clinical Hospital named after him. Vishnevsky. The colonel continued to lead the staff directly from the hospital. Two weeks after his injury, Umaev was brought a work phone, and he took over the controls again. "Now I continue to perform tasks and serve. I'm not going to stop. The injury will not stop me in any way," he said.
Umaev is the ninth Hero of Russia from Dagestan. He admits that in his native land, the news of his being awarded the Gold Star medal caused a "nuclear bomb effect." Literally overnight, the whole republic learned about what had happened, and everyone congratulated Umaev — from the head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, to complete strangers. The Hero of Russia has not yet managed to visit Dagestan and see his relatives — the tasks do not allow him to take a vacation. "I tell my family: nothing has changed, and bring it to the rest, I don't fly in the clouds, I walk on the ground. I will go home in the summer," says the Hero of Russia.
Ekaterina Adamova