Press officer Irina Rybakova shows photos and talks about captured Russians, trophy equipment and resistance of locals
ATTENTION! This material contains scenes of cruelty and may be sensitive to you.
The city of Akhtyrka is located in Sumy region. The distance to the border with Russia is no more than 30 kilometers, but Russian troops could not occupy the city. Ohtyrka has a strategically important location. In the event of the capture of the city, a direct route would be opened for Russian troops to the central part of Ukraine, to Poltava and Mirgorod, as well as to the southeast towards Kharkov, which would allow blocking the area.
In the early days of the full-scale invasion, the Russian military shelled the city with internationally prohibited thermobaric vacuum bombs and heavy artillery. The residential quarters of the city were significantly damaged, and only part of the facade remained from the premises of the city council.
The military of the Armed Forces, the press officer of the 93rd brigade of Kholodny Yar and photographer Irina Rybakova in Okhtyrk fell on the third day of a full-scale Russian invasion. On February 24, the 93rd OAF Kholodny Yar gave battle to the colonists of the invaders, captured the Russian military and won the trophy technical equipment. Irina and the chaplain drove from the permanent deployment point to the battalion, which smashed the Russian columns.
“We stopped at the parking lot near the office buildings — there was a battalion command and observation post in the basements. We got out of the car and here it's like a babahne! I have never heard such a sound, it was a huge earthquake. I instinctively fell on the asphalt,” recalls the photographer. It turned out to be the third consecutive Russian aviation bomb (FAB) dropped from the aircraft by the enemy on the 91st Engineer Regiment. The first got into the barracks and made a through hole in the building, the second fell next to the road, forming a lake with a diameter of 30 meters. The third bomb fell on the military sanatorium, where they began to transfer the wounded from the first bomb. Half the building collapsed there. It was at a distance of no more than a kilometer from the command post.
The passageway of the office center has become a “decision-making center”. Here was the headquarters of the battalion: commanders gave orders, scouts reported on the location of enemy troops, new groups of soldiers arrived here, and also brought weapons. Anti-tank calculations were exhibited on the roads — installations of the “Corsair” with missiles.
Irina Rybakova, together with the battalion psychologist, made an attempt to get closer to the barracks of the regiment. There was constant detonation of ammunition and gunfire was heard. They ran into a nearby residential neighborhood. The building of the local kindergarten was shelled with hail, the day before, people died in its courtyard - there were already dry stains of blood on the asphalt. Dozens of civilians were hiding in the basement, there was even a baby. “At first people suspected that we were “exiled Cossacks.” I was in official uniform with all the chevrons, showing a military ID. Then people themselves began to ask us what the situation was, what to do next, what happened to the barracks — many of them had family members,” says Irina Rybakova.
From the kindergarten building, Irina and her friend went up to the street and walked between Khrushchev houses towards the engineering regiment. From the basements, people looked and asked about the situation, asking, for example, if they could climb to their apartment to the toilet. “There were constant machine gun queues from somewhere. It came down to the Fallout game, where you don't know the situation, you don't have food and allies,” Rybakova adds.
In one of the courtyards, men dressed in military clothing began to shout at Irina and her friend. They brought machine guns, grenade launchers at them and forced to lay down their arms and raise their hands. It was a territorial defense that caught the “DRG” on Akhtyrka. “A friend who is a personnel officer was asked, pointing to the “fly”: “Do you want to know what it is?” The statutory form of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with all chevrons, stripes embroidered with black threads with the last name and all the documents, did not guarantee that you would not be accidentally shot near a five-story building,” Irina Rybakova explains the absurdity of the situation.
On that day, he and the battalion psychologist never reached the barracks. The sounds of machine gun queues from the “DRG catchers” became more and more insistent. At first they decided to go slowly and confidently, however, after another machine gun queue, they fell to the ground, jumped up and very quickly, bending down, ran towards their basement.
In the evening, Irina and the scouts went to the battle site near the “Marshal” gas station. There was still a truck smoking, in which the corpse of a Russian was lying - nowhere were the bones visible. Next, a burned BMP and another truck with bullet holes on the glass and doors were located. At the crossroads were Ukrainian servicemen from company control, scouts, TRO and a local resident who helped them. Someone dug trenches, someone alternated in a post with a bushel. MT-12 guns, white-painted trophy trucks, trophy mines and 120th mortars were placed on the road. Everyone was tired, but in a very good mood. People willingly took photographs to capture this historic moment and their involvement. “Our fighter — a young short soldier with the nickname “Vampire” — excitedly talked about past events. He recalled how the column moved, how he and the boys were not sure that with grenade launchers and machine guns they could stop the Russians on the armor, how they took positions and fired, and how he discharged one store from a Russian officer who got out of the car. “The soldier led us to show the corpses of Russian soldiers, who at that time had already been dragged off the road,” says Irina Rybakova. The body of the beetroot in the Russian pixel was sprinkled with hay. Near the stop, they made mine barriers from trophy anti-tank mines in case the enemy breaks through this road again.
When Irina Rybakova drove back, the barracks of the engineering regiment continued to smoke, and shells detonated. A day later, she managed to get in and remove the disassembly of the rubble. According to Irina, more than a hundred people died there.
Iryna Rybakova —Pressofitter of the 93rd Brigade of the Cold Yar Ground Troops of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces. Probably one of the most famous and successful press officers, photographer, journalist. She was born in Kiev. Journalist by education, since 2004 she has worked in Ukrainian print and online media, as well as a communications manager in the anti-corruption organization Transparency Int. She first entered the war in February 2015 as part of the volunteer battalion “Carpathian Sich” in Pisky in Donetsk region. Since then, she decided to document the fighting in Ukraine. In 2017, she was called to the 93rd Brigade. Recorded combat actions in which the unit participated, during the period of the PLO and during the full-scale invasion. She filmed the liberation of Akhtyrka, Trostyanets, Kharkiv region, the course of hostilities in Soledar and Bakhmut. Published in foreign agencies (Reuters, Associated Press).
Recall that the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has started a series of materials dedicated to key events of the Russian war against Ukraine, where we will publish memories and photos of Ukrainian documentary photographers.
The project is implemented thanks to support of ZMIN.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Foutei
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