Latest Trip to Bakhmut. Expecting an action story and getting a thriller
Hello, community. My name is Victor. I work for an American Software Engineering Product company and serve as a military chaplain part-time.
Everything I write is my personal opinion. I don’t claim to be 100% correct.
A few days ago, I returned from Bakhmut. It was my third trip there in the past two months and my first trip in 2023. If my previous article about Bakhmut were an action story, this one would be a thriller.
Three weeks have passed between my second and third trips to the frontline. During that time, I completed an English course, finishing on top of the group. My English level is C1, so the course itself wasn’t challenging. The complex parts were getting up early and doing a bunch of homework.
In preparation for the trip, with the assistance of Volodymyr’s bot and Vlad’s community, we collected the funds: 76 000 hryvnias (~$2000) to purchase 900 portions of ЇDLO field rations.
The manufacturer met us halfway, giving us a significant discount and covering the delivery charge. So we were able to purchase 1 200 rations instead of 900.
Trip to Bakhmut
Every trip like this demands many hours of planning, finances, and titanic effort. This one was supposed to be very simple and exciting. But something went wrong, and it turned out to be interesting but not at all simple. Some might note that it was Friday the 13th, but I don’t believe in such things, and they don’t affect me.
On the trip before my last trip, I got the idea to bring drinkable water to Bakhmut for civilians.
At least a ton (2000 lbs). Three weeks prior, I had decided for myself that this would be my last trip to civilians. In the future, I will concentrate on aiding the military and preparing for a potential repeat offensive in Kyiv.
The plan for this trip was: Kyiv — Kramatorsk — Bakhmut — Kyiv. Volodymyr was going with me. At the last moment, we were joined by Anton from Lift99 and Mart — a professor-volunteer from Estonia, who brought an L200 pickup truck.
I arranged to take the bus I gave to the chaplains in March. It required maintenance, so with Volodymyr Rozhkov, we raised funds to pay for the repairs through his bot.
However, the bus wasn’t ready for the trip, so we took my Sandero. We wanted to load a few 19-liter (5-gallon) bottles and buy the rest in Kramatorsk.
Then I got an idea. When I passed it by, I often saw a 2015 Jeep Wrangler Sahara in the hub’s parking lot. I asked Anton if he knew the owner and whether they could provide it for us instead of the bus. The owner turned out to be Stas, CEO of Magnetics. A charming person. He agreed to give us a reasonably expensive vehicle for a trip to what is currently the most dangerous place on the planet. I will tell you what happened to the Jeep later.
Friday, 13th
The unique community of my Telegram channel raised 16 000 hryvnias (~$450) required for the trip in 12 hours, and we purchased everything we needed + trench candles from Maksym Saraniuk. At 5 AM, Volodymyr, Anton, and I headed out in Kharkiv’s direction. That part of the trip passed uneventfully. We met up with Mart and drove to Kramatorsk through Izyum.
By the way, they’ve already set up a decent crossing there. You no longer need to fear falling off the pontoon bridge into the river. The road east of Izyum is still filled with remains of vehicles of the self-proclaimed world’s second-best military power. But there is not as much of it now, as they are gradually getting rid of it.
Crazy things began to happen at lunch. We couldn’t contact the person that was supposed to take us in for the night throughout the day. I thought it wasn’t a problem, and he was probably busy, especially since we agreed that we would spend the night at his place.
I decided that I would find him there once we arrived. As it turned out, he wasn’t in Kramatorsk, but other people there promised they would find the keys to his apartment and get them to me. We had mailed six crates of ЇDLO rations and 140 kilograms (300 lbs) of pet food to Donetsk Oblast’ ahead of time. After picking them up, we delivered ЇDLO rations to an anti-tank division.
After that, we met with representatives of the 24th Brigade. Anton recorded a video with them, and Mart gave them sleeping bags. It was about 8 PM when we encountered our first trouble. I got a call and was told there was nowhere to sleep because the apartment’s owner had forgotten about us and given the apartment to others.
Kramatorsk late at night is different from Kharkiv or Poltava. It was impossible to find housing for four people. We didn’t have much to choose from: a shelter or my friend Serhiy’s apartment. I decided on the apartment, and we went to Serhiy. There weren’t many places to sleep, so two of us slept in sleeping bags on a couch and two in sleeping bags on the floor. It was uncomfortable but better than sleeping outside or in the car.
Saturday, 14th
After waking up and having breakfast, we left the apartment around 7:30 AM. And that’s when we encountered our second trouble. A nail was stuck in one of the tires of the Estonian pickup truck, and the tire itself was flat. After a short discussion, we left the L200 behind and went to Bakhmut on the Sahara and Serhiy’s bus.
Trouble number 3. When we reached the well in Kramatorsk, we saw frozen water, and it was impossible to fill our bottles. Now I was upset because the water was my main goal. We left the bottles on Serhiy’s bus. He promised he would take care of it. I don’t know if he will be able to.
But we still had other businesses to attend to in Bakhmut, including meeting the anti-tank division commander and giving out pet food, trench candles, and snacks. Around 10 AM, we were already at the entrance to Bakhmut- by plane.
One thing that surprised me was that we could hear artillery working nearby and bursts from automatic weapons. Three weeks before, that wasn’t the case near this plane. Then, I began to understand that the situation was considerably worse than it was on December 23rd. At our first stop in the city, we heard a drone flying above us. We didn’t stop to see if it was russian; instead, we quickly finished our business there and moved on to the city’s center.
In the center, we gave the locals what remained of our pet food, trench candles, and snacks. I have included the Estonian’s conversation with an older woman below.
Mart: Who do you think is responsible for the artillery strikes?
Woman: Americans.
Mart: Hm. And are the Estonians responsible?
She thought about it for a few seconds and responded:
Woman: Yes. Estonia is a NATO member. Which means Estonians are also responsible.
A short, productive conversation. Some people genuinely believe that the occupiers are rescuing them. I could never understand why these people stayed to suffer in Ukraine for so long instead of leaving for russia right away.
I returned home on January 23rd and told my acquaintances that I’d been through hell. I take those words back. Now it feels similar to hell. So many loud explosion shots right behind the corner. In short, nonstop action. I saw two aerial targets being shot down simultaneously, not far from where we were. Who knows if those were drones or missiles? About a kilometer (~0.62 miles) between Bakhmut’s center and the small arms fighting area.
Bakhmut is holding friends, but no matter what people say, there will soon be intense fighting in the city and woe to the civilians who remain there for one reason or another. It reminds me of Rusya. A girl. Patriot of Ukraine. She lives near the Bakhmutka river. I don’t even know if she’s alive or evacuated…
Having dealt with our business in Bakhmut, we went to a different city to meet a company commander of an anti-tank division. I introduced them to Anton. We made arrangements for future cooperation.
Meanwhile, Serhiy and Volodymyr were waiting for us at the gas station. On our way back, we saw a missile land in an abandoned building, blowing up a passenger car. We were first on the site. Someone was less fortunate than us that day.
In Kramatorsk, we met with soldiers from the 91st Brigade, and Anton and Mart gave them the pickup truck with the flat tire. It was time for us to return home.
Return to Kyiv
Thank you for reading to this point. Above, I promised I’d tell you what happened to the Jeep Wrangler that I borrowed from Stas, CEO of Magnetics. Nothing happened to it. I stopped in Poltava for the night and was back in Kyiv on Sunday. I washed the car and returned it to the owner. I can only tell you that on my way back, I saw a drunk person in military uniform driving on the road. I called the police, but I don’t know if they caught him.
My friends needed to be in Kyiv as soon as possible, so we decided they would take the Intercity+ train from Kramatorsk, and I would drive back on Stas’ Jeep. They would go with me if they’d known what would happen next.
First, their train broke down and was connected to an internal combustion locomotive. They were running late because of that. Then, about 120 kilometers (~75 miles) from Kyiv, their train hit a person on the railway. Ultimately, they arrived in Kyiv at 1 AM instead of 9 PM. Well, things like that happen.
Interestingly, on my third visit to Bakhmut, I wasn’t scared at all. I can also add that from what I’ve seen and heard, the war will go on for a long time, with great battles and victories ahead.
If you liked this article, I have more. Some of them are very interesting, like the one about my time in captivity in 2014, the article on my first trip to Bakhmut, and another article about how I became a chaplain and what I did in February and March.
If you want to support my service, my bank details are below.
PayPal itstud87(at)gmail(dot)com
BuyMeCoffee — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gideon87
Thank you for your attention. Glory to God and Ukraine!
