Keying the radio frequency that they were operating on, Captain Popov began to go over the tactics they were going to use. “OK, here is what we are going to do. I’m going to pop up from behind this building to our front on Nesky Street and fire off my missiles at the lead vehicles. I want you to focus on the tail end of the convoy from that cluster of buildings two blocks north of me.”
Captain Popov was feeling confident. “If the Russians thought they could invade Ukraine and get away with it, they have another thing coming,” he thought.
As they lifted their helicopters above the buildings and began to paint the armored vehicles with their targeting lasers, the Russian convoy responded. One of the anti-aircraft vehicles, an SA-19 or “Grison,” detected the helicopters’ presence and immediately moved to engage them. Despite being on tracks, it quickly maneuvered into a better position so that its two 30mm cannons could begin to fire; a barrage of rounds headed towards Popov’s wingman, Captain Sirko, who began to take evasive maneuvers. He swung his helicopter sharply left, then ducked behind another structure while the 30mm rounds peppered the face of the building, throwing chunks of cement and glass to the ground below.
Popov saw this as his opportunity and let loose all eight anti-tank missiles, making sure that at least one of them was aimed at the Grison. In quick succession, his missiles leapt from his helicopter one after another and began to race towards the armored column. The Grison’s sensors detected the incoming missiles and immediately switched targets, attempting to shoot down the incoming missiles.
At this point, Captain Sirko’s helicopter popped up from behind a different building and fired off his eight missiles as well. While Popov’s nose laser continued to guide his missiles towards the armored column, the Grison destroyed four of the incoming missiles as small fireballs appeared in the sky. They had managed to take out the missile that had been directed at them. The Grison aimed its 30mm cannons back at the helicopters. Before Popov could duck back down behind the building had been hovering above; the rounds tore through his helicopter’s armor, shredding it until the chopper exploded and fell to the ground in a fiery mess.
As Popov met a painful early demise, his wingman’s eight missiles hit the armored column and destroyed the lone Grison in a blaze of glory. Unfortunately for Sirko, just as he turned his helicopter around to head for safety, a Su-27 “Flanker” swooped in and obliterated his helicopter with a missile.
The Flanker then climbed back above the city and continued its own reconnaissance mission. As it leveled off around 10,000 feet, it found the Ukrainian armored column it was looking for. The pilot climbed again until he reached 15,000 feet, and then began an attack run, swooping down from the direction of the morning sun. He fired off a series of air-to-ground missiles while radioing to his companions that he had found the column. Within minutes, four other Su-27’s swooped in and finished off the Ukrainian battalion before they were even able to get in range to attack the Russian advance team.
The attack had not entirely been a one-sided affair. The Ukrainian column also had their own Grison with them, which engaged the Flankers; it managed to shoot two of them down and damage a third before it was destroyed.
As the Russian aircraft loitered above the city, smoke began to rise from the twelve Russian vehicles that had been destroyed by the two Ukrainian helicopters and the nearly three dozen armored Ukrainian vehicles that were obliterated at the outskirts of the city. The battle for Mariupol was over, but the fight for the Ukraine had just begun.
Major General Aleksandr Chayko was on his third cigarette of the morning as he watched the various live drone feeds on the monitor in his command center. The first Russian armored vehicles had entered the critical port city of Mariupol and it was expected that they may encounter some resistance from the Ukrainian army. The drone operator was keeping the drones about 1,000 feet above the convoy, so that the operators manning the various camera feeds could monitor what the convoys were driving into. One camera was focused on everything ahead of the convoy, while the other two cameras were looking to the right and left of the convoy, providing the operations center and the convoy commander with an excellent field of vision.
Shortly after the initial encounter at the roadblock, one of the camera operators spotted movement. Flying between several of the buildings, they spotted two Havoc helicopters moving to attack the convoy. Then, the first Ukrainian helicopter popped out from behind one of the apartment buildings and fired off his missiles at the column. In that moment, his heart sank as it became clear the Ukrainian army was not going to leave the city. They were going to stand and fight, despite knowing they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned. He had hoped to secure the city without bloodshed, but as the missiles streaked in towards his men, he knew that would not happen. The local Ukrainian commander must have decided he wanted combat, rather than cede the city to him peacefully.
To his surprise, the Russian Grison was able to shoot down four of the eight missiles. Then a second helicopter popped up and fired off eight more, but not before the Grison was able to shred the first helicopter that had fired on his men. He looked at his air force liaison officer and yelled, “Make sure your fighters take that helicopter out! And find that armored column and destroy it.”
“I tried to offer the Ukrainians a chance to live,” he thought. “They could have seen their families again, but if they want to die for their country, then I will oblige them and give them that honor.”
He continued to watch as the conflict continued, puffing angrily on his cigarette. Chayko hoped his other columns were having better luck than his group at Mariupol. He walked over to the next group of monitors, which showed another armored column from his division that was advancing on Makiivka, which led to Donetsk. The Ukrainian military had focused a large part of their military operation and forces in this region, and he expected to meet heavy resistance if the government forces planned on fighting. He was hoping they would have taken the opportunity to withdraw across the demarcation line before they moved across the border, but after Mariupol, he couldn’t take anything for granted.
He had made sure this armored force consisted of additional air defense vehicles and had close air support aircraft overhead, should they be needed. He hated losing soldiers needlessly. He swore when he took command that he would do his best to look after them and provide them with whatever support and equipment they needed. This kind of loyalty to his soldiers was not often found in many Russian generals, but it had endeared him to his men, and they would fight like angry devils for him.
Media Madness
For all the political wrangling in Washington about Russian collusion amongst the Gates Administration and the 2016 election, the mainstream media seemed oblivious to the fact that a full-scale war between NATO and Russia could be just days away. When the Pentagon announced the implementation of Operation Reforger, the press ran with the idea as a political stunt that the administration was enacting to distract from the special counsel investigation and the ongoing controversy with General Chris Joyner. Meanwhile, nearly 60,000 reservists and national guardsmen had been activated across the country and they all began to arrive at their various reporting stations to draw equipment and prepare to deploy to Europe.