The "planned, cynical Russian war crime" during the battle of Ilovaisk in 2014 "will never (be allowed) to go unpunished," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the day of commemoration of fallen Ukrainian defenders on Aug. 29.
Russian forces and their proxies massacred over 360 Ukrainian soldiers as they were retreating through an agreed-upon corridor from the besieged city of Ilovaisk in Donetsk Oblast in August 2014. More than 400 Ukrainian troops were wounded, and around 300 were captured.
It was the single largest loss on Ukraine's side up until that point of the Donbas war, which was launched by Russia at the onset of its aggression against Ukraine.
"On August 14, during these very days, the Russian occupier(s) committed one of the... vilest crimes of this war—killing hundreds of our warriors near Ilovaisk," Zelensky said on social media.
"It was a planned, cynical Russian war crime that Ukraine will never forget and will never allow to go unpunished."
The battle of Ilovaisk was followed by the signing of the first Minsk Agreement between Ukraine, Russia, and OSCE in September 2014. This initial attempt to stop the fighting failed, preceding the Russian victories at the Donetsk International Airport and Debaltseve and the signing of the second Minsk Agreement in February 2015.
Hostilities in Donbas had never fully ceased and escalated again after the outbreak of the full-scale war. Ilovaisk remains under Russian occupation to this day.
Ukrainian media reported in March 2023 that Russian commander Dmitrii Lisitskii, who led a unit that carried out the massacre, was killed in battle during the all-out war.
Since 2019, Ukraine has been commemorating Aug. 29 as the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine in honor of those who fell while fighting for the country.
Anastasiia Lapatina
(Updated: )
