According to him, even before February 24, an uncharacteristically large number of enemy armored vehicles, pontoon crossings, and the raising of artillery could be seen in Luhansk Region.
Legendary fighter, hero of Ukraine Dmytro Kotsyubailo with the call sign “Da Vinci” gave an interview to the publication on the eve of his death “CensorNet”which was published after the death of a brave defender.
In particular, “Da Vinci” recalled where he was when the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation began on February 24 last year and how his first days in the great war were.
Dmytro was at the front since 2014, when he was 18 years old. On the eve of February 24, “Da Vinci” and his unit were sent to Stanytsia Luhansk and Shchastya, Luhansk region.
According to him, even before February 24, an uncharacteristic amount of enemy armored vehicles, pontoon crossings, and the raising of artillery could be seen.
“It was already an undisguised preparation for crossing the river. Something that had not happened for many years. The enemy had never brought armored vehicles so close. There were whole columns here,” Da Vinci recalled.
Kotsyubailo noted that the escalation and the first battles in this direction began on February 23.
“We began to work there. The enemy retaliated very strongly. We fired a couple of shells, and a Gradov cartridge flew in response, which in general was a rather rare phenomenon. We stayed there for three days. We had a problem with the cannon, and on the 23rd at at eleven in the evening we left for the base. While we were driving, my comrades called me with the message that a full-scale invasion would begin in the morning. But before that, it had already happened for many days – they kept saying that there would be an attack, and then there wouldn’t be. Therefore, these warnings were easily accepted.” recalled the Hero of Ukraine.
However, he warned all his brothers about a possible aggravation.
“I went to bed around three o’clock in the morning, and two hours later they woke me up: “The war has begun.” There were no new sounds at the base. Nothing changed in Avdiivka that day. But they called me and told me that the rockets had started to fire at Kyiv fall, Dnipro. Then I gave the command to everyone to leave the base, because I understood that a rocket attack could happen to it as well – everyone knew about it. After a while, it arrived in Avdiivka, and in Novogrodivka… We left the base. I called fought with the 25th brigade, which was stationed nearby. The first few days we worked with them. But the situation was more stable in Donbas. The enemy was moving towards Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson,” Kotsyubailo said.
In his opinion, the Kremlin initially had a large-scale plan: through Kherson to reach Zaporozhye and the Dnipro, from Sumy to Poltava, and through Kharkiv to close the large number of troops that were in Donbas.
Photo: Dmytro Kotsyubailo
We will remind that yesterday, March 7, the legendary fighter, hero of Ukraine Dmytro Kotsyubailo with the call sign “Da Vinci” died in the battles near Bakhmut.
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