Captain Andriy Malakhov and his men advanced into the forests south of the town of Balakliya. They knew that, just ahead, was the enemy’s first line of defense in the Kharkiv area, a network of trenches and fortifications that they had heard the Russians refer to as “Moscow” or “Moscow,” in intercepted walkie-talkie conversations. Captain Malakhov and the 30 soldiers following him also realized that they were outnumbered by the 100 or so Russian soldiers guarding the line, who also had dug-in tanks and artillery. But in the early hours of September 7, he and his battalion – a special operations unit known as Wild Steppe that reports directly to General Valery Zaluzhny, the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine – attacked anyway. The goal was not to crush the enemy. It was a diversion – and it worked. As Russian troops defending Balakliya moved south to reinforce Moscow, the main Ukrainian offensive, which had begun its advance a day earlier, hit the thinned Russian lines north of the city. “They thought we were the main threat, but it was just our battalion,” Capt. Malakhov told The Globe and Mail in an interview at a Kharkiv hospital, where he is recovering from battle wounds. Captain Malakhov is recovering in a hospital near Balakliya, Ukraine. Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail With the Ukrainian military barring the media from newly liberated areas, Captain Malakhov’s eyewitness account is one of the first to emerge in a counter-offensive that has seen Ukraine recapture more than 3,000 square kilometers of territory, reshaping the war here lasts six months. By late September 7, Balaklia – a town of 20,000 that had been under Russian control since March – was back in Ukrainian hands. And the Wild Steppe Battalion had crossed the strategically important Siverskiy Donets River, firing on Russian troops as they made a chaotic retreat. The fall of Balakliya hastened a wider collapse of the Russian front line, allowing Ukrainian troops to capture the strategic railway junction of Kupyansk, as well as the city of Izyum, which was the center of Russian military operations in the region. By Monday, Ukrainian troops were in control of almost the entire Kharkiv region. Russia, meanwhile, retaliated for the second day in a row by striking civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv and other cities. Much of Kharkiv was blacked out on Monday – power was briefly restored after a rocket attack on the city’s power grid on Sunday – and Mayor Ihor Terehov wrote on his Telegram channel that Russian forces had also targeted water supplies in the second largest city in Ukraine, which had a pre-war population of 1.4 million. Captain Malakhov attributed the bait and switch tactic to General Zaluzhny, whom he has known for years. He said the top general appeared to have convinced President Volodymyr Zelensky that a counterattack had a better chance of success in Kharkiv’s forests and swamps – where special operations units can have a huge impact – than on the open plains of Kherson, where its artillery advantage Russia would be hard to overcome. Captain Malakhov’s troops found abandoned Russian military vehicles, ammunition and even uniforms as they advanced through Kharkiv, an eastern region along the Russian border. Some carried the Z, a common graffiti symbol in support of the Russian invasion. Courtesy of Captain Andriy Malakhov MURAT YUKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS The Kharkov counterattack, which appears to have caught Russian forces almost completely off guard, had been underway for more than a month. The Wild Steppe Battalion was fighting in the Kherson region until early August, when they were redeployed to Kharkiv on the direct orders of General Zaluzny. On August 6, they began laying the groundwork for what was to come with an attack on the village of Bayrak, just south of Balaklia. They failed to capture Bayrak, but left behind several secret saboteurs who waited until the September offensive began to blow up a bridge in the village and destroy a key Russian supply line. After the fight at Bayrak – in which, said Capt. Malakhov, both sides suffered significant losses – the Ukrainians waited and reinforced their presence in the area while Russia continued to move forces south from Kharkiv to reinforce the Kherson front. Finally last Wednesday morning the real counterattack began. Initially, Russian troops – members of the 150th Rifle Division, as well as marines from the 1st Baltic Sea Fleet – fiercely defended the Moscow line. Then, probably realizing they were outnumbered, they suddenly retreated. When the Wild Steppe fighters – all veterans of the eight-year war in the Donbass region that preceded Russia’s all-out invasion this year – arrived in Moscow, it was deserted. The Russians had withdrawn in order, taking dead and wounded with them. This was not the case when the Ukrainians crossed the second line of trench, which the Russians had named “Petros”, from St. Petersburg. “When we started moving properly, they started leaving their bodies behind,” said Capt. Malakhov, calling one of his men into the hospital room to show The Globe photos of dead Russian soldiers he had taken with his iPhone. Badges of Russian marines found by the Wild Steppe Battalion in the village of Novohusarivka. Courtesy of Captain Andriy Malakhov The troops found a pile of coffins in the Russian positions. Courtesy of Captain Andriy Malakhov As the Russians realized their precarious position, they began to flee in different directions. Some stayed with their units, fighting as they retreated southeast toward the adjacent Luhansk region. Others ditched their gear, took off their uniforms and donned civilian clothes in an attempt to avoid capture, Captain Malakhov said. His iPhone has photos of armored vehicles, ammunition and uniforms left behind by fleeing Russian forces, as well as a video of his men taking down the red banner of the Soviet-era 150th Rifle Division from the village of Nova Husarivka. Later they raised the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine, a moment that brought joy to Captain Malakhov and his men. Some of the Russians who escaped entered the nearby Siverskiy Donets and tried to swim to safety. The Wild Steppe fighters crossed the river in inflatable boats and chased them to a nearby Young Pioneers camp – a holdover from the days when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union – that the Russians used as a base. A fierce fight ensued, during which Captain Malakhov was hit three times by machine-gun fire. Two bullets tore through his left leg, another hit his hip. He fell, unable to continue, but his unit pushed forward and is still part of the ongoing counteroffensive, which on Monday continued to liberate towns and villages in the Kharkiv region. Despite his injury, Captain Malakhov, a 46-year-old father of two, said he was proud to lead his men from the front. “If you’re asking about motivation, [Russian] commanders never go to the front line. … If I lead the charge, my men will follow me,” he said, visibly upset a day after surgery to remove a bullet from his hip. Lieutenant Taras Berezovets, a press officer for another Ukrainian special operations unit involved in the offensive, confirmed that the wild steppe fighters had liberated three villages – and that Captain Malakhov, whose nom de guerre is ‘Tuman’ or ‘Fog “, he had led the attack himself. “He led the attacks at least twice,” Lt. Berezovets said. “He was the first to jump into the trenches – and was wounded the next day after taking control of the fortified position of Moscow. … Tuman will get a nomination for the Hero of Ukraine.” The fact that a top commander had to wait five days for an operation – “I had to wait until they found a table to operate on” – speaks to the number of Ukrainian troops injured in the counterattack to liberate the Kharkiv region. However, Captain Malakhov said morale remains high, which is a key difference between his men and the Russians who abandoned their posts. “Their children were afraid. Our children have nothing to fear. When we have someone wounded or killed in action, we continue our attack. This is our land. Our people are ready to die for this.” Our Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
