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The photo exhibition "Front Diary" - "chronicle" of volunteer battalions of territorial defense of Kirovograd region is opened

On August 23, 2021, the Museum of Arts hosted a photo exhibition "Front Diary" dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence.

60 photo photos of 2014-2015 cover the "chronicle" of volunteer battalions of territorial defense, which were formed in the Kirovohrad region in the spring of 2014.

On March 19, 2014, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine decided to establish operational headquarters at the regional state administrations of the border regions of Ukraine. In March 2014, seven territorial defense battalions were established in the Left Bank of Ukraine, and on March 30, 2014, Acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov instructed the heads of regional administrations to start creating territorial defense battalions in each region of Ukraine. On April 30, 2014, an official decision was made to assign the functions of creating territorial defense battalions in each region of Ukraine to the regional military commissariats.

In accordance with the orders of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration began to create territorial defense battalions. Three battalions of territorial defense of Kirovohrad region were created: 17th battalion of territorial defense "Kirovograd" (2014-2015), battalion commander - Colonel Shcherbina Alexander Alexandrovich, 34th battalion of territorial defense "Kirovograd-2" (2014-2015), commander Battalion Colonel Dmitry Krasilnikov, which numbered 450 soldiers, and the 42nd Territorial Defense Battalion "Resistance Movement" (2014), Battalion Commander Captain 1st Rank Olefirenko Yuri Borisovich (1965-2015), which numbered 700 soldiers.

In November 2014, the 17th, 34th and 42nd TPO battalions were reformatted into motorized infantry battalions of the 57th motorized infantry brigade.

On April 23, 2014, members of the public, officials, and servicemen gathered at the KODA, where the 17th Kirovohrad Territorial Defense Battalion was formed from Kirovohrad residents mobilized to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Until May 10, 2014, the battalion's "combat coordination" took place. The main tasks are the fight against sabotage groups, ensuring the passage of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the Kirovohrad region, protection of 21 strategic objects of the region.

Military specialists selected candidates, most of whom had previously served in airborne troops, special forces and other combat units. The battalion personnel received small arms. After being reformatted into a motorized infantry battalion, the unit received heavy infantry weapons and armored vehicles. After training and combat coordination, 17th territorial defence battalion was sent to strengthen the Priazovsky frontier of defense with deployment in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhya region. 

A separate company (80 soldiers) was formed of volunteers of the 17th battalion, who left Melitopol on August 14, 2014 and arrived to the anti-terrorist operation zone on August 15, and on 16th dispersed to the positions. During the anti-terrorist operation, soldiers and officers from Kirovohrad region performed tasks to protect the constitutional order of Ukraine in settlements of Melitopol, Fashchivka, Shchastya, Stanytsia Luhanska, Krasnotalivka, Bilovodsk, and Debaltseve. In February 2015, Kirovohrad battalion defended the city of Toretsk (Dzerzhinsk) from the Horlivka direction. On October 18, 2015, after the rotation, the soldiers of the 17th Territorial Defense Battalion returned home to rest.

The 34th Batkivshchyna Territorial Defense Battalion (the battalion's initial name was Kirovohrad-2) was established in May 2014 in the Kirovohrad Region. Half of the battalion's personnel are from Kirovohrad; the rest - from the eastern regions of Ukraine, Crimea, Odessa and Lviv regions. At the time of its founding, the 34th Battalion consisted of 450 soldiers, most of whom were professional soldiers of different age. Members of this military formation have combat experience and have participated in peacekeeping missions around the world. Before being sent to the anti-terrorist operation zone, the battalion underwent two months of training, as close as possible to real military operations. Only after that did the battalion arrive at the front line of a military operation in eastern Ukraine.

During the hostilities in the anti-terrorist operation zone, the personnel of the 34th BTRO liberated 6 settlements, including Toretsk (Dzerzhinsk), took part in the battles near Debaltseve, liquidated two leaders of the Luhansk People's Republic and blocked half of the approaches to Horlivka at ten checkpoints. western directions).

By Order No. 2 of June 17, 2014, 42 BTRs were formed. The 42nd Separate Motorized Infantry Battalion “Resistance Movement” (42 SMIB) is currently formed of volunteers from Kirovohrad, Poltava, , Odessa, Zaporizhia, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Lutsk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

The battalion took an active part in the battles, in particular near Ilovaisk, Uglegirsk and Debaltseve.

Most of the soldiers were professional soldiers of all ages and had combat experience in peacekeeping missions around the world. 

From June 4 to June 13, 2014, the personnel was in the 50th training center in Kropyvnytskyi (Kirovohrad). On the territory of the training center, servicemen mastered the skills of owning a firearm, providing first aid, orienteering, conducted classes on physical training and studying the provisions of the statutes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Units of the fire support company were sent to shoot at the Desna training center and at the Kryvyi Rih firing range.

On August 14, 2014, 42BTrO personnel were redeployed to the Kanatovo field camp to harden and prepare for combat operations in the field.

In early August 2014, the 42nd BTR was sent to Kramatorsk to guard the airfield. Part of the unit was sent to Savur-Mohyla.

On August 27, 2014, a detachment of the 42nd Battalion numbering 90 people was transferred by helicopters from Kramatorsk to the Dokuchaevsk district, where they were reinforced with two BMP units. The detachment was to meet with the company-tactical group of the 92nd mechanized brigade near the village of Koloski, and an attempt was to be made to unblock the Ukrainian forces surrounded by Ilovaisk. The combined detachment of the battalion never met with the 92nd Brigade - on the night of August 27-28 it came under artillery fire, after which on the morning of August 28 it was defeated by paratroopers of the Russian Armed Forces. Yevhen Melnychuk, Volodymyr Tatomyr and Maksym Kharchenko were killed, and most of the detachment's fighters were taken prisoner.

On January 25-26, 2015, the battalion's fighters fought hard, defending the height of 30.5 "Valera" near Sanzharivka in the battle of Debaltseve.

In June 2015, more than 100 battalion fighters returned to the rotation from the fighting.

The exhibition "Front Diary" includes 60 photographs, which were selected from more than 1,000 photographs provided. This is the first such exhibition project, which covers the events of 2014-2015 with photos provided directly by the defenders of Ukraine from the volunteer battalions of our region. The works were published by MPP "Entourage A".

We thank the veterans of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), servicemen, volunteers who sent photos for the exhibition "Front Diary".

 

Olena Stepanok - Head of the Scientific and Educational work Department of the Art Museum