Fights for Ilovaysk
August 2014
The first attempts to take the town were made by Ukrainian government troops in early August. Though, these attempts were completely failed as their troops didn't even reach the town. As Ukrainian "Shakhtarsk" battalion commander complained, defeat was caused by the poor cooperation between units and uncoordinated actions of artillery, as they were stopped by local garisson which was only about 1 company, not breaking the defense line outside of town.
However, this success didn't save the town from the indiscriminate shelling.
Repelling regular attacks, local garrison, lead by commander Givi — local resident, who started his way in militia back during fights for Slavyansk, defending Semyonovka and Yampol as Prapor's subordinate, was doing all possible to evacuate people, however substantial part of town population got trapped under regular shelling and had to survive living in the basements of their own runied houses.
Exactly during this battle Givi and his company which in result grew into the separate battalion tactical group "Somali" became rather famous, proving his tactical skills by repelling constant attacks of government troops for almost two weeks.
The situation changed after defeat of Ukrainian troops at Krasniy Luch-Miusinsk, which ruined Ukrainian command its hopes to split DPR from LPR by taking Donetsk region into the "far ring" of encirclement. Realizing that, government troops decided to gather almost all of their reservers: remnants of airborne brigades jointly with volunteer battalions financed by governor of Dneporpetrovsk oblast and oligarch Kolomoyskiy — "Donbas" and "Dnepr-1", National Guard battalions "Kherson", "Svityaz", "Mirotvorets", in attempt to complete the "close ring" of encirclement around the city of Donetsk.
"Shakhtarsk" battalion commander explains reasons of his troops' failure
Life in besieged Ilovaysk