Forever in the memory of the inhabitants of Pskov, and of all Russians who know their history, the feat of the Pskov paratroopers at the beginning of March 2000 will remain. Near altitude 787, near the Chechen village of Ulus-Kert, in an unequal battle with the predominant number of militants, 6 companies of 104 regiments were completely killed Airborne forces from Pskov. At that price, the Chechen rebels who intended to break out of the Argun Gorge were blocked.
A total of 84 paratroopers died. Only six ordinary soldiers remained alive. It was from their stories that it became possible to restore the course of events of that bloody drama. Here are the names of the survivors: Alexander Suponinsky, Andrey Porshnev, Evgeny Vladykin, Vadim Timoshenko, Roman Khristolyubov and Alexei Komarov.
How it was?
02/29/2000 was finally taken by Shatoy, which allowed the federal command to interpret this as a signal of the final defeat of the "Chechen resistance."
President Putin heard a report saying that "the tasks of the third stage of the North Caucasian operation have been completed." Gennady Troshev, who was then acting as commander of the OGV, noted that the full-scale military operation had come to an end, there were only a few local events to destroy the hiding "escaped militants."
At that moment, the Itum-Kali-Shatili road was cut by a tactical landing, and as a result several gangs in Chechnya fell into a strategic bag. The bandits methodically pushed along the Argun Gorge to the north of the Georgian-Russian border with the troops of the central operational grouping.
According to intelligence, the Khattab militants moved north-east towards Vedeno, where they had prepared mountain bases, warehouses and shelters. Khattab planned to seize a number of villages in the Vedeno region to secure a bridgehead for him to make a breakthrough to Dagestan.
The total length of the Argun Gorge exceeds 30 km, there was no way to really block all the paths from it.
One of the most dangerous areas where a breakthrough from the gorge could have been made was covered by fighters of the 104th regiment of the 76th Pskov airborne division.
Militant Attacks
Khattab chose a simple but effective tactic: by fighting, he probed the weakened places, having discovered which, he piled on with all his might to jump out of the gorge.
02/28/2000 militants launched a large-scale attack east of Ulus-Kert at the heights, where soldiers of the 3rd company were located under the command of Lieutenant Vasiliev. The Khattab detachments could not get through, a well-organized fire system forced them to retreat, while they retreated with significant losses.
The second battalion controlled the dominant heights in the Sharoargun gorge.
The place between the Sharo-Argun and Abazulgol rivers was rather vulnerable. To exclude the possibility of penetration of fighters of bandit formations there, Major Sergei Molodtsov, under whose command there were 6 companies, was ordered to occupy an additional height of about five kilometers from the village of Ulus-Kert.
Given the fact that the company was transferred to the unit recently, he was insured by Lieutenant Colonel M.N. Evtyukhin, who commanded the second battalion.
The soldiers had to go fully armed for about fifteen kilometers in order to organize a base camp in a given square.
Among the paratroopers who advanced darkly, was the Guard, ordinary Khristolyubov Roman.
The difficulty of the march
On the eve of the company fighters made a rather difficult transition Dombay-Arza, it was not possible for them to get a good rest. They were armed only with small arms and grenade launchers. The prefix to the radio station, with the help of which the hidden radio exchange was supposed to be provided, was left at the base.
In addition to water and food, several tents and stove stoves were taken with them, which were extremely necessary when in the mountains at that time.
Within an hour, the fighters advanced less than a kilometer away. The absence of suitable sites in this mountainous forest region prevented the transfer of paratroopers by helicopter.
According to survivors, including Roman Khristolyubov, the transition took place at the limit of human capabilities.
Some military analysts believe that the command’s decision to transfer the 6th company to Ista Kord was somewhat late, so the deadlines were deliberately impracticable.
Before sunrise, paratroopers of the 6th company, led by the battalion commander Mark Yevtyukhin, were in place - in the interfluve of the Argun tributaries in the south of Ulus-Kert.
Clash with militants
As it turned out later, the company of paratroopers, in which as a reinforcement there were a platoon and two reconnaissance groups (a total of 90 people), was in the way of a two-thousand-strong group of Khattab militants on a two-hundred-meter isthmus.
According to radio interceptions, the Khattabites were the first to find the enemy.
Two detachments of bandits moved parallel to the channels of Sharo-Argun and Abazulgol. They decided to go around the paratroopers who were resting after a difficult transition at an altitude of 776.
Scouts marched ahead in two groups of 30 militants each, followed by two detachments of combat guards of 50 men each.
Scouts of senior lieutenant Alexei Vorobyov discovered one of these reconnaissance groups, which prevented a surprise attack on paratroopers.
Near the foot of the 776th height, the scouts managed to quickly destroy the bandit vanguard, but then dozens of militants rushed to the attack, our fighters had to retreat to the main forces, taking the wounded with them.
Rota immediately entered the oncoming battle. During that time, while the scouts managed to keep the enemy, the battalion commander decided to secure at 776 altitude to prevent the militants from leaving the blocked gorge.
The commanders of the gangs Idris and Abu-Valid at the radio station suggested that the battalion commander let them through, which was resolutely refused.
Nature of the battle
As survivors, including the Kirov resident Roman Khristolyubov, testify, bandits at our positions brought down just a flurry of mortar and grenade launcher fire.
The highest intensity of the battle was reached by midnight. The superiority of the attackers was very significant, but the paratroopers stood firm. In some places, opponents engaged in hand-to-hand combat.
Among the first snipers S. Molodov was killed by a sniper by a bullet in the neck.
From command, assistance was only in supporting artillery. It was dangerous to use aviation, so as not to catch their own. In total, by the morning of March 1, more than a thousand shells were fired at Ista Korda.
From the flanks of the bandits they defended the riverbeds, which did not allow to perform the necessary maneuvers to provide real assistance to the paratroopers.
The enemy was ambushed along the coast, not allowing them to approach the Argun tributaries.
The first attempts to cross the river ended in failure. Only by the morning of March 2, the paratroopers from the 1st company managed to penetrate to a height of 776.
The long-awaited help
Some “respite” in the battle came at three in the morning and lasted a couple of hours. The Mujahideen did not attack, although mortar and sniper fire did not stop.
The regiment, Sergey Melentyev, after listening to the report of the battalion commander Yevtyukhin, gave the order to continue to restrain the enemy’s attack and expect help.
When it became clear that the ammunition in the company was not enough to repel the attacks of the militants, the radio battalion commander asked for help from Major A. Dostovalov, who was his deputy and was at a distance of about one and a half kilometers. Under his command there were one and a half dozen fighters.
They managed through a continuous flurry of fire to break through to the dying comrades, holding back gang attacks for two hours.
This served as a powerful emotional charge for the soldiers of the 6th company, who believed that they would not be abandoned.
The platoon could last about two hours of battle. By five o'clock, Khattab had been attacked by suicide bombers - the “white angels”. Two battalions surrounded the entire height of them. Part of the platoon was cut off and shot in the back.
The fighters of the company itself had to collect ammunition from the wounded and killed comrades.
Battle end
The forces of the opponents were clearly unequal, on the part of the paratroopers, soldiers and officers constantly died.
Machine gunner Roman Khristolyubov, along with Private Alexei Komarov, tried to take away from under the shelling the reconnaissance platoon commander Alexei Vorobyov. He received bullets in the stomach and chest, his legs were broken, but he continued to shoot at the enemy. He managed to destroy the field commander Idris, who heads the Khattab intelligence. Vorobyov ordered both paratroopers to make a breakthrough to their own, and he covered their departure with fire from the machine gun.
As Roman Khristolyubov recalls, closer to the morning of March 1, the snow around was completely red with blood.
Fight by this time passed into focal hand-to-hand fights.
In the last attack, the gunmen were met with only a few machine guns. According to some reports, the battalion commander Mark Yevtyukhin, when he realized that the company only had to live a few minutes, was given command to the bleeding captain Romanov to cause "fire on himself."
The Romanovs transferred their coordinates to the battery. At six-ten, as indicated in the documents of the Russian Ministry of Defense, communication with Yevtyukhin was interrupted. He shot the gunmen until the ammunition ran out. A sniper bullet hit him in the head.
After battle
The fighters of the first company, occupying a height of 705.6 on March 2, saw a terrifying picture: the forest stood as if trimmed, shells and mines broke all the trees, the ground around was littered with the corpses of hundreds of militants, the remains of our guys, who were less than a hundred, lay on the supporting company point.
Soon, Udugov posted eight photos of Russian soldiers who fell in that battle. The photographs show that many bodies were cut into pieces. With those who still showed signs of life, the bandits brutally dealt with, the survivors Alexander Suponinsky, Andrei Porshnev, Roman Khristolyubov and others spoke about it miraculously.
Art. Sergeant Suponinsky said that when the battalion commander Yevtyukhin and his deputy Dostalov were killed, only Kozhemyakin was left alive from the officers, with both legs broken. He served cartridges firing near Suponinsky and Porshnev. When the bandits crept almost up close, the wounded commander ordered the soldiers to jump into a deep ravine. Together with Private Porshnev, Suponinsky was under automatic shelling of fifty bandits for half an hour. Then the wounded soldiers managed to crawl away, where the militants could not find them.
The wounded soldier Yevgeny Vladykin ran out of ammunition, the bandits who discovered him were unsuccessfully trying to get information from him. Twice smashing his head with a machine gun butt, they threw him, believing him dead.
Wounded Private Vadim Timoshenko hid in the rubble of trees and managed to escape.
Honored Awards
For participation in this battle, Alexander Suponinsky received the Hero of Russia.
The stars of the Heroes of Russia posthumously awarded the dead paratroopers in the amount of 21 people.
The survivors Andrei Porshnev, Aleksey Komarov, Evgeny Vladykin, Vadim Timoshenko and Roman Khristolyubov also received awards. All of them are gentlemen of the Order of Courage.
