Victory Chronicles-DAY 834

On June 6, a special unit of the Ukrainian Military Intelligence successfully destroyed a Russian raid tugboat off the coast of Crimea. The Ukrainian Defence Intelligence carried out a naval attack, destroying the Russian vessel known as Project 498 Saturn or Proteus. 

The attack took place after the Ukrainian forces successfully broke through the defensive barriers set up by the occupying forces in the Black Sea region. The operation was conducted near Lake Panske. The Ukrainian Defence Intelligence shared this information, stating that another vessel of the Russian invaders had been destroyed. 

The details of the attack and the extent of the damage inflicted on the Russian tugboat were not provided in the summary.

The Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in Ukraine, which was destroyed by Russian forces in June 2023, could be restored in six to seven years, according to Igor Syrota, the head of Ukrainian state energy company Ukrhydroenergo. 

Once the territory is liberated, the process of draining the explosion site, conducting surveys, and dismantling the destroyed buildings and parts of the power station will begin before restoration efforts can take place. The destruction of the power plant and adjacent dam led to a significant humanitarian and environmental disaster in southern Ukraine. In July 2023, the Ukrainian government approved a resolution for a reconstruction project for the Kakhovka HPP, which will be carried out in two phases.

Canadian instructors from the UNIFIER training mission in the UK are teaching Ukrainian service members tactical medicine as part of Operation INTERFLEX. The training is focused on providing first aid and dealing with injuries and traumas in combat conditions, following the M.A.R.C.H. protocol. Ukrainian recruits practice medical care procedures for various types of injuries, as well as evacuating the wounded in different ways and distances. They also practice scenarios that may arise during combat operations, aiming to act effectively in stressful situations. One of the training’s highlights is providing medical care to people with explosive amputations, which has a psychological impact on fighters. The Ukrainian service members also assisted British war veterans during the training.

Last night, the Russian army launched a continuous attack on Kherson, Ukraine. As a result, multiple fires broke out at different locations, including residential buildings, outbuildings, cars, and a defunct construction hypermarket. The authorities deployed all available resources to mitigate the impact of the enemy shelling. Kherson firefighters worked tirelessly throughout the night to extinguish the fires. However, the attack persisted, with the enemy continuing to shell residential areas of the city. The situation remained critical as emergency personnel strived to address the growing number of fires caused by the ongoing military assault. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine shared this information on its official Facebook page.

Western-provided artillery ammunition has reportedly started arriving to Ukrainian forces on the frontline, although not at a scale that would allow Ukrainian forces to fully challenge the Russian military’s current artillery shell advantage. 

Ukrainian fighters operating near Vovchansk (northeast of Kharkiv City) told the Telegraph in an article published on June 5 that Western-provided ammunition started to reach their frontline sector. However, Russian forces in the area still maintain a munitions advantage.

One Ukrainian fighter told the Telegraph that Russian forces still maintain a five-to-one artillery advantage. A Ukrainian fighter operating in an unspecified area of the frontline told the Estonian outlet ERR that Western-provided ammunition began to “trickle” to the frontline but has not arrived at scale.

The Ukrainian fighter stated that Russian forces continue to have a “significant advantage” in munitions. ISW continues to assess that Russian forces are attempting to make tactically and operationally significant gains before US military assistance arrives to Ukrainian forces at the frontline at scale and that the initial arrival of Western-provided weaponry will take some time to have tactical to operational effect on the frontline.

20-year-old Azov fighter Andriy Prokopchuk, with the call sign Aladdin, died on August 26, 2023, in a Dnipro military hospital. The defender received a severe shrapnel wound to the chest in a battle with the enemy on the territory of Serebryanske forestry near Kreminna, Luhansk Oblast.

Andriy was born in Donetsk Oblast. After graduating from high school, he moved to Mariupol. He wrote poems for his collection, drew, and loved reading. He was fond of psychology, medicine, philosophy, and quantum physics and loved to run. He dreamed of becoming an actor.

The guy encountered the full-scale war in Mariupol. After several months of occupation, he could leave for the city of Brody in the Lviv Oblast. He entered the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, where he studied history and archeology.

However, in February 2023, Andriy decided to go to the front. He joined the ranks of the 12th Special Forces Brigade of the Azov National Guard, was trained, and became a combat medic. He took part in battles in Zaporizhzhia and Eastern directions.

“Andriy was the best person I have ever met. He was an extremely sincere, loyal, kind and bright person, and anyone who has ever talked to him in his life will confirm this. Despite all the horror he had gone through, he never let his light go out and charged the people around him with it. People around him seemed to be drawn to him. He always put helping others first and was ready to help at any time. He loved life very much and wanted to live very much. “People forget those who die very quickly,” he told me, but he was wrong. Do not let him be forgotten. Remember him,” said Andriy’s fiancée, Victoria Yaremyshyn.

Posthumously, senior fighter Prokopchuk Andriy Volodymyrovych was awarded the Order “For Courage” of the III degree. The Hero was buried in the village of Oleksandrivka in Zakarpattia. The warrior is survived by his parents, brother, sister, fiancée, a foster family who took him in after the occupation, friends, and fighters-in-arms.

*Andriy’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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