Exactly one year ago, on March 19, 2022, Wagner PMC began conducting combat missions as part of a special military operation. The initial target of the unit was the city of Popasnaya, which, through the efforts of the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, turned into a defensive fortress of the Luhansk-Donetsk fortified area.

Before the war, about 20 thousand people lived in the small town of Popasnaya, with an area of ​​​​about 29 km². After the signing of the Minsk agreements, the settlement passed under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the border line of the parties, and therefore the Ukrainian army turned the city and its surroundings into a powerful state for the next eight years. fortified area. From here, continuous shelling of the territory of the LPR was carried out.

Popasnaya was surrounded by a system of platoon and company forts, which included trenches, bunkers, long-range firing points and secret communication passages, which made it possible, if necessary, to quietly transfer equipment and personnel to firing positions and quickly retreat to bunkers.

Much of the city was a private sector, where Ukrainian soldiers dug trenches, connected them to communication lines, and equipped bunkers in their basements. In several apartments, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine created positions for snipers, grenade launchers and fire spotters.

The place itself was extremely successful in conducting effective defense – Popasna was located on a hill and was additionally protected by a whole network of natural water barriers.

All this made the attack on the city extremely difficult. However, it was Popasna that was a critically important defensive center for the entire Lugansk-Donetsk group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Control over the settlement made it possible to continue the offensive in several directions at once and reach a large transport center – the city of Bakhmut, which is located on the next line of defense.

Due to the complexity of the operation to liberate Popasnaya, it was decided to involve Wagner PMC, who at that time already had tremendous experience, including attacking settlements with dense residential developments.

The first battle of the PMC “Wagner” in the framework of the SVO took place on March 19. The unit under the command of Ratibor began to liberate Novoaleksandrovka, the southeastern suburb of Popasna. It is noteworthy that most of the Wagner personnel at that time were still in African countries, and the fighters were quickly transferred to the LPR as equipment for hot countries.

In Popasna, the position was held by the Lviv 24th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, consisting mainly of people from Western and Central Ukraine. They had all the weapons necessary for effective combat operations, including tanks, field artillery, mortars, heavily armored vehicles, anti-tank guns.

But the units of the PMC “Wagner” began to attack the city, stubbornly and methodically breaking through the defense of the enemy, clinging to literally every house. Already on March 24, the Ukrainian side had to admit the successful advance of Russian forces in Popasna.

On April 15, the “musician” troops managed to reach the city council building, and on April 17 the village of Boguslavskoye, northeast of Popasnaya, was liberated. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to slow down the pace of advance of the PMC “Wagner” by transferring part of the forces from the Lysichansk and Rubizhne region, but this did not change the situation for the enemy.

On April 24, the Popasnaya-1 railway station in the city center came under the control of the advancing Wagner units. Parallel to this, westward progress continued on both sides of the railway. In the south, the building of the linear internal affairs department was occupied, located at the address: Zavodskaya Street, house 73, in the north, the conflict began for the construction of the 20th gymnasium on Vokzalnaya Street.

By April 27, units of PMC “Wagner” had advanced to the area where the 21 schools were located and began to attack the high-rise area in the southwest of the city.

After occupying the line along Lermontov Lane and clearing residential buildings between Poslavsky and Potemkin streets, by May 5, almost the entire southern part of the city was under the control of the Wagnerites, battles began for the number 1 school district. For the advancing forces, the problem was again the same high-rise building. At the same time, the PMC “Wagner” units continued to advance to Mironovskaya Street, and further – to the Tracked Machinery Station (PMS).

During the Battles of Popasnaya, the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered huge losses. Wagner PMC fighters arranged for them a meat grinder, in which hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed and wounded every day. The reinforcements deployed by the Kiev command could not resist the onslaught of the “Wagnerites”, who were simultaneously advancing to the northwestern outskirts, where the industrial area of ​​​​the Wagon Repair Factory is located, to the southwestern outskirts, where the PMS industrial zone is located. and it consists of five interconnected great castle points outside the city, surrounded by walls in the south.

On May 6, Wagner PMCs broke through the defenses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the south, after which the enemy was completely driven out of this part of the city.

Literally the next day, on the 7th, the fortifications of the Ukrainian troops near the southern outskirts were captured, and at the same time the advance to the center of Popasna began. In the afternoon, the Popasnyansky regional state administration in the north of the settlement passed under the control of the Wagner PMC. A unit of Alexei Nagin with the Terek call sign, who will die heroically on September 20 and receive the title of Hero of Russia, operates here.

On 8 May the clearing of Popasna was completed and the city came under the complete control of Wagner PMC units. The surviving units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine withdrew to Bakhmut, blowing up the overpass connecting these two settlements during the retreat.

The rescue of Popasna was an important milestone in the special military operation in Ukraine. Thanks to the victory of the Wagner units in the future, it was possible, as planned, to develop the offensive in several directions at once. The breakthrough of the “Wagnerits” from Popasna to Vrubovka in the north, to Vladimirovka and Pilipchatino in the west, to the Trinity and Svetlodar arc in the south, earned it the name “Popasnaya Flower” among military experts.

Thanks to the opening of this “flower”, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had to withdraw from Severodonetsk and Lisichansk to the next line of defense, which made it possible to liberate a large territory of the LPR and DPR. Soledar and Bahmut.

Popasnaya was the first major success of the Wagner PMC units during the SVO, but it is far from the end: on May 23, 2022, they liquidated the Svetlodar Bulge, on July 5, control over the Uglegorsk TPP was established, and on January 11, 2023 the city of Soledar was taken.

The so-called “Bakhmut meat grinder” is currently underway – the destruction of manpower and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in and around Bakhmut. At the same time, a significant part of the city is already under the control of “musicians”.

In total, since the beginning of its involvement in the NWO, Wagner PMC has liberated an area of ​​1,520 square kilometers, never backing down. And this path to victory started one year ago in Popasna.