Battlefield Ukraine: Book One of the Red Storm Series Read online

  Now he was doing what he could to help support the separatist movement and undermine the central government. Being the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region meant his district was a buffer zone between the separatists and the central government zones of control. Now that he had turned on the central government, he began to provide the central government with as little support and cooperation as possible. His region began to stop sending taxes to Kiev, and then a week ago, he essentially cut off all communications with the central government.

  Taras leaned forward to address the group, “Before we break up our meeting and head our separate ways to prepare, I would like to provide a suggestion. In Iraq, the Americans owned the night, they owned the skies, and they won every direct engagement. However, this did not stop the insurgents from attacking the Americans or inflicting a terrible cost on them. We must do the same. If the Americans are now actively backing the central government, then we need to find a new strategy.”

  Taras continued, “I agree that turning the cities into fortresses will help, but what we also need to do is make the roads nearly impossible for them to use. We need to have teams constantly placing Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and carrying out hit-and-run RPG attacks. If we can make the roads treacherous to use, we will limit their ability to move freely within our regions. We will grind them into the dirt until they eventually leave,” he said confidently, as if he had just laid out the most comprehensive battle plan they had ever heard.

  Smiles could be seen on the faces of the men around them. They had already planned on doing exactly this, but they were happy to finally have Taras come to the same conclusion.

  After another hour of discussions, the group broke up and the leaders dispersed to begin getting their various groups ready to meet the government forces.

  It Begins

  Pryluky Air Base

  92 Miles East of Kiev

  Several birds were chirping in the nearby tree as a summer breeze moved the leaves in a hypnotic way. Technical Sergeant Jason Parker (“JP” to his friends and colleagues) turned away from his view of the nearby trees to put his cigarette out with his boot. Then he began to walk back to the drone trailer where he had spent most of his day. They had finally gotten things up and running about a week ago, just as the Ukrainian military operations started. It had been a very busy and frustrating week for many of the drone operators. On several occasions, they had spotted a cluster of enemy soldiers preparing to launch an ambush against the government forces. He had spotted individuals placing IEDs along the roads, but he was unable to directly engage the targets. Under the “normal” conditions he had become accustomed to in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, they would have engaged them with their hellfire missiles, but these were not normal conditions and they were not authorized to carry out direct kinetic strikes.

  1st Lieutenant Michelle Shay looked up as the door to their drone trailer opened, and saw that Jason had returned from his smoke break. “JP, we have another convoy getting ready to move. Can you do a quick scan of that village over there before they approach it?” she said drawing circles with her curser over the village in question. “Intelligence says that’s one of the separatist strongholds.” She was hoping this mission would go better than the last few had. The patrol they provided over-watch for on their last shift yesterday had been hit by several IEDs. Several people had been killed, and all they could do was watch.

  JP sat down and got to work. As he began to analyze the various approaches to the village, he spotted several people crouched behind a small wall in front of a house that overlooked the main road. He zoomed in to get a better idea of what they were doing. “Lieutenant, take a look at this. It looks like one of those individuals there has an RPG. I’ll bet they have an IED planted somewhere down there as well.”

  She squinted for a moment as she focused on the image. She saw it too. One of the individuals definitely had an RPG; it looked like they were setting up an ambush. She grabbed her radio to warn the command element, located a few buildings away. “Arch Angel, this is Angel One. We have a couple of individuals lying in ambush of convoy 017. We are sending you the images and coordinates. Please advise the convoy that they are heading towards a trap.”

  “Angel One, acknowledged. We will relay your intelligence,” came the reply.

  They quickly contacted the MRAP that had the American advisors in it. “Echo Five, this is Arch Angel One. We have probably ambush at grid…sending images of Tangos.”

  Sergeant First Class (SFC) Trey Perkins looked at the image of the attackers. He could see two men, and one clearly had an RPG. “I don’t like this at all,” he thought. “Where are the IEDs?”

  Sergeant Perkins signaled to the Ukrainian convoy commander for the group of vehicles to stop. Once they did, he showed the images and video to the Ukrainian Captain. “How should we proceed?” he asked.

  SFC Perkins had deployed several times to Afghanistan and Iraq. Speaking from his previous experience, he advised, “I think we should approach the position with caution. We need to have everyone look for possible IEDs. Once we get in range of the .50 cals, have your gunner engage that insurgent hiding behind this wall.” He pointed to the location as he spoke. “Once that hostile is taken out, we should dismount your troops and have them fan out as we approach the village with the gun trucks.”

  The convoy moved cautiously towards the village. As they reached the range of their heavy machine gun, one of the soldiers fired a short burst from the weapon, exploding the wall and killing the two attackers. The sixty soldiers traveling in the convoy dismounted from their vehicles and began to approach the village from several different angles. As the vehicles continued to move into the village, all hell broke loose. Despite the drones providing over-watch, they did not spot the series of IEDs that had been placed in the drainage system along the side of the road.

  A total of four 152mm artillery rounds had been placed in the storm drains along the side of the road. As the Strykers and MRAP vehicles moved into the kill box, the separatists sprang the trap, remotely detonating the IEDs. The shockwave from the blasts threw several of the vehicles on their side, severely injuring the occupants inside. Shrapnel flew through the air, hitting the men who had been patrolling on foot next to the vehicles.

  While the soldiers were still in a state of shock and trying to assess who all had been hit, the separatists opened fire. Many of the Ukrainian soldiers ducked for cover, while others began to provide medical attention to the wounded. Dozens of attackers suddenly emerged from buildings not far from the main road and opened fire on the remaining government forces with RPGs and heavy weapons. Their ultimate goal was to wipe out the government troops and steal whatever equipment they could before they dashed out of there.

  The two American LNOs were a bit shaken from the explosion that rocked their MRAP, but otherwise unhurt. As soon as the shooting started, the two Special Forces soldiers grabbed their weapons and assisted the Ukrainians in repulsing the attack. The two Special Forces soldiers killed several of the separatists, rallying their Ukrainian partners until one attacker came around the corner of a building a block away and fired an RPG at the vehicle they were using for cover. The explosion killed them both instantly.

  The ambush lasted nearly an hour, until additional government reinforcements arrived to help evacuate the wounded and secure the village. Many on both sides had lost their lives or been injured, however, the real tragedy of the day was the innocent civilians who had been caught in the cross-fire. In all, 18 townspeople had been killed and another 14 were wounded.

  *******

  US Embassy, Defense Attaché Office

  Brigadier General George Luka was not a happy camper as he sat in his office reviewing the latest after-action report from one of the US advisor teams. Yesterday’s attack had resulted in two MRAPs and two Stryker vehicles being completely destroyed, and the ambush killed nearly two dozen Ukrainian soldiers. Though he was upset about the loss of those men and women, Luka was
probably more disturbed by the loss of the American Special Forces Captain and Sergeant First Class who had been killed in the ambush. In all, the US had already lost 13 advisors since the beginning of the military operations nine days ago.

  From the very beginning, the Ukrainian forces had hit heavy resistance once they crossed the demarcation zone. In the first week, they encountered stiff fighting in the city of Dnipro while securing the critical bridges crossing the Dnieper River. However, once the Ukrainians secured the city and the bridges, they established Dnipro as their forward operating base for the rest of the operation.

  It was not until government forces started to approach the outskirts of Donetsk that the fighting intensified to the point of forcing a stalemate. The rebel forces began to make heavy use of conventional and rocket artillery to hammer the government forces. This forced the Ukrainians to introduce attack helicopters and ground attack aircraft.

  Unfortunately, the Russians had supplied the rebels with several 2K22 Tunguska anti-aircraft self-propelled vehicles (also called SA-19 "Grisons"). These were the Russians’ newest anti-aircraft vehicles, which had a mix of 30mm guns and surface-to-air missiles. The introduction of the SA-19 was a rude surprise to the Ukrainians, who quickly lost four Mi-24 “Hind” helicopters and five Sukhoi Su-25 “Frogfoot” ground attack aircraft. The stalemate and loss of critical aircraft and helicopters was causing some concern among the NATO advisors, especially since they were less than two weeks into the operation.

  As General Luka was reading over the latest reports, he heard a knock on his door and looked up to see Chief of Station, John Williams. He waved him in and indicated for him to take a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk. Then he asked, “What are your thoughts on yesterday’s attack?”

  Luka looked at the COS, hoping he had better news than what this latest report indicated. “It looks like the Ukrainians got stomped…again,” he grumbled, disappointed in the ability of their proxy to be able to execute a battle plan and root out these attackers. The CIA and DOD had spent a lot of money and man hours training their counterparts. They had hoped things would have gone better up to this point.

  “I do not think the Prime Minister can continue to sustain these losses without some sort of victory,” John said, stating the obvious. The civilian populace was growing concerned with the number of soldiers and civilians being killed, and so was the international community.

  “I spoke with some folks from SOCEUR. They told me if the enemy air defense weapons could be neutralized, air support could start to make a difference and would turn the tide,” General Luka explained, hinting that he would like to use the Special Forces assets in Ukraine a bit more aggressively and liberally than just as advisors.

  John thought about this for a minute. The challenge in using SF units in direct action was that if they get caught or killed, it would be a political win for the enemy. “If I could, perhaps we can use some SAD units…plausible deniability and all. We know where the vehicles are at, it’s just a matter of getting close enough to destroy them.”

  General Luka did not like using CIA direct action teams for what was obviously a SF mission, but he also knew he was under strict orders to not widen the conflict beyond the use of providing military advisors. The fact that several military advisors had already been killed, some in direct combat, was becoming a problem. “I’m not comfortable with having your teams carrying out this type of mission on your own. What if we could get the Ukrainian Special Forces unit to accompany your men? This way, your guys are still in a ‘advisor’ role,” the general offered.

  “Hmm…I think we could work with that,” John replied.

  Prisoners of War

  US Embassy – Chancellery

  Kiev, Ukraine

  Ambassador Rice felt like the situation in Ukraine was starting to spiral out of control as he read the latest intelligence summaries provided to him by US European Command and the State Department’s own intelligence group. After a rough first couple of weeks of this new military operation, the CIA decided that they wanted to get more involved in helping the Ukrainians eliminate some of the separatist air defense vehicles. “The Agency” had been monitoring the enemy air defense units since the start of the Ukrainian operation, so once they received the go-ahead to work directly with Ukrainian Special Forces to take them out, they executed a mission with one of their Special Operations Group teams.

  The covert operation took place the night before. It had not gone well. Two CIA SOG units, in cooperation with a Ukrainian Special Forces, attempted to destroy four of the separatist SA-17 “Buk” air defense vehicles and three of the SA-19 Grisons. The first team succeeded in destroying two of the vehicles without losing a single SOG member. The second SOG team, however, was not so lucky. They were ambushed by what the CIA believed was a well-coordinated and pre-planned trap. Two of the four CIA men were killed, and the other two had been captured. The entire Ukrainian Special Forces team had been killed in the ambush.

  Now, two Americans were being held captive by the separatist group, who was demanding the withdrawal of American military advisors from Ukraine. The Russians also took to the airwaves, announcing, “If NATO and the Americans are no longer going to remain neutral, then neither are we.”

  After finishing reading the report, Ambassador Rice looked up at General Luka and John Williams, his Chief of Station. “Well, you gentlemen pushed for a military operation several months ago. So, what are your recommendations now that two Americans have been captured?” The left side of his lip snarled up in disgust.

  General Luka sighed, but he remained determined that it was the right decision to move forward with a military option. “Ambassador, there are always going to be miscues and setbacks in any military operation. The Ukrainians have strengthened their hold and position on the separatist territory since the start of this operation. They have also seriously degraded their ability to continue to hold onto the cities. Despite the losses, they are accomplishing the stated goals. At this current rate of engagement, the separatists are nearly broken as a fighting force. They have sustained heavy casualty rates and equipment losses, far more than the Ukrainian army has. We need to continue to stay the course.”

  John Williams added, “Putting the military objectives aside, we have people being held captive right now and we need to get them back. Our surveillance has identified the safehouse they are holding our guys in.”

  “What? How?” asked Ambassador Rice, incredulous.

  “They keep moving our men every couple of hours, but we placed an isotope tracker in all of our personnel operating in Ukraine, in case they were ever kidnapped. We can track them fairly easily,” explained John.

  Duncan’s eyebrows revealed his surprise.

  Stopping only to take a drink from his water bottle, Williams continued, “Before coming over here, we intercepted two messages. One communique was between the Russian paramilitary units and the separatists, ordering them to bring the Americans to a specific compound immediately. This was about two hours ago. The second communique we intercepted was between Russian military headquarters in Moscow and a Spetsnaz unit operating near the Ukrainian/Russian border. They are going to escort the Americans across the Russian border in two days to be brought back to Moscow for further questioning.” The CIA man clenched his fists at the thought of his men being held in a gulag.

  Looking at General Luka, and then back to the Ambassador, John continued, “I’ve spoken with Major General Lansing from JSOC, and we have a Delta team that just arrived in country that can execute their recovery.”

  General Luka nodded in agreement. “We need to move fast on this then, Ambassador. We need to get our guys back before they are moved across the border. Once that happens, I have no idea what will happen to them.”

  Ambassador Rice looked at them incredulously. “You realize they are being guarded by Russian Spetsnaz, right? How do you propose getting them back?”

  John explained, “We get them back by sendin
g a Delta team in to kill everyone there and recover our people. We don’t just leave them to rot or be tortured by the Russians.” There was a hint of sarcasm to his tone; he was surprised that the Ambassador would be so daft as to not know how this was going to turn out.

  “You understand that you will be facing actual Russian soldiers. This could spiral things out of control quickly is all I am saying. We need to proceed with caution,” Rice responded, hoping to get these two hot heads to realize how quickly things could become worse.

  General Luka saw the Ambassador was not comfortable with this option, and in his head, he suddenly pictured the Ambassador going above their heads and fouling up the entire mission as he tried to “negotiate” for their release. “Ambassador Rice, I know you are nervous about the situation getting carried away, and that is a valid concern. However, we cannot allow two of our men to remain captive. They know too much and are too valuable for us to leave them. It also sets a bad precedent that if we are not willing to come for them, we might not come for others. That is not something we can allow to happen.”

  The Ambassador sighed.

  Luka continued, “We are coordinating this with SOCEUR and JSOC. We have additional assets being moved into the area as we speak. Everything is already underway. We are bringing you into the loop now, but the decision has already been made by the National Security Advisor, SOCEUR, and JSOC to get our people back. We’ve lost fifteen guys…we are going to show these separatists what happens when they test the might of the American military. I assure you, this will not turn out like past operations with the Ukrainians. This will be an American operation all the way through.”