Hero of Ukraine Yevhen Mezhevikin: The authors of the operation to unblock Mariupol planned everything hoping for a mayhap

Colonel and Hero of Ukraine Yevhen Mezhevikin informed that the authors of the operation to unblock Mariupol planned everything hoping for a mayhap.

Evhen Mezhevikin told about this in an interview with Babel.

According to him, everyone wanted to unblock the defenders of Mariupol, but did not understand how to do it because of the difficult situation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There were few people willing, but an initiative group that was ready to try was gathered.

"One reinforced company was supposed to move from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol. Kistyak was supposed to be from Azov. We and the fighters [Mezhevikinʼs group] were supposed to reinforce them. Another group was to meet us from Mariupol. Later, it turned out that the authors of the operation had planned everything "for nothing". When did I realize that? When we were told at the meeting before the exit that the task was to take out the defenders of Mariupol, but to the question "Why should they be taken out?" they replied that there would be no trucks. It seemed that they themselves did not believe that we would get anywhere. I think they counted on luck: if it worked out, they would have received orders; if it didnʼt work out, they wouldnʼt have been scolded so much, because society demanded that the fighters be released from the encirclement," Yevhen Mezhevikin noted.

Part of the units had to create a corridor through which they would pass deep into the enemyʼs defenses, destroy reserves, artillery and the command post. And after that continue driving to Mariupol. In turn, the defenders of the city were to break through from the center to the outskirts of Mariupol and leave together with the military that came for them. If an exit was impossible, the military would remain in Mariupol and reinforce the defenders of the city.

As a result, the unit with which Mezhevikin was supposed to perform the task left there (returned to the starting point), so his unit was also ordered to return to the place from which they left.

"We started to go. In order not to describe everything that happened there, I will say this: we were ahead, the infantry behind us did not have time. The units that were supposed to break through the corridor were unable to break through the Russian defenses, a battle ensued, and ours suffered losses. Therefore, we were given the task to help break through the corridor and destroy the enemy in the village where the battle was going on. In this unit, who needed help, there was a military man who recognized me — we fought in Pisky in 2014. He asked to cover the unit while he took away the wounded and killed. While we were helping, our tank ran into a mine. Fortunately, everyone except the car remained intact. I switched to another tank. All the wounded and killed were evacuated, but it turned out that the entire unit with which we were going to break through had left. We decided to wait, we thought someone would come back to us. Then the artillery began to heavily cover us — we had to maneuver. We were still waiting for ours to come to perform the task, but they returned to the starting point. We waited some more and in the evening we received an order to return to the place from where we left," declared Mezhevikin.

• Mariupol was shelled from the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, the city was blockaded on March 1, and the shelling stopped only on May 20, when the last defenders left the territory of the Azovstal plant. During almost three months of fighting, the occupiers destroyed approximately 95% of the buildings. It is difficult to calculate the number of victims.