It has been 6 years since the bloody days of August 2014 in the Donbas, when a Ukrainian combined-arms task force of several thousand regular military troops and volunteer fighters was trying to retake Ilovaisk, a railroad city of key strategic importance.
Fierce fighting with Russian-backed militants had dragged on since at least Aug. 10, and victory was close as the Ukrainians entered and partially restored control of the city.
But by the end of the month, the Ukrainian contingent in the area was surrounded by Russian regular forces who had intervened to save the militants from ultimate defeat. Tough negotiations resulted in an agreement allowing the Ukrainian forces leave their encirclement unarmed. But that organized retreat turned into an immense massacre, with Russian forces purposefully slaughtering the defenseless Ukrainian convoys.
At least 366 Ukrainian soldiers and officers never made it through the death trap of Ilovaisk, according to an official inquiry.
The Ilovaisk massacre remains Ukraine’s biggest defeat and loss of life in Russia’s war in the Donbas. It is still a painful wound that has been commemorated anually ever since 2014 in remembrance of Ukrainian defenders killed in the war.
On Aug. 28, over 160 family members of the Ilovaisk soldiers killed in the battle gathered near the Russian embassy in Kyiv to commemorate their loved ones and decry the Kremlin’s aggression.
