Vitalii Kobryn

“That morning, we heard yells: “Tanks in the airport!” We knew they weren’t our tanks. We were encircled. We were ready for this, of course, but not that ready. We were still hoping to get some kind of backup or something. We thought, maybe the command would come up with some sort of a plan. We were already reported to be surrounded, but nothing, no help arrived.

Tanks went in from the terminal, from Post 1, from Novosvitlivka, and from Post 3. They were moving in on us in a semicircle. They set up blocking detachments in the tree lines to make sure we couldn’t escape.”