The battle of Krasny Liman 3-6

(If you see any errors or have additional information, please let me know.)

Krasny Liman is the biggest railway hub in the region. It lays North of Slovyansk across the natural barrier of the Siversky Donets river.

Green: natural barrier of river and forests
Red: approximate control of rebels
Blue: approximate control of Ukrainian Army

As can be seen, Slovyansk is NOT surrounded. Holding Krasny Liman is not really essential for the rebels, but it helps to protect the open route they have to the east. Now that it is taken, they risk being cut of or attacked along that route.


This is how it started (as everywhere), with the seizure of the police and administration buildings by armed men on 12-04-2014:



A checkpoint was build on the road in the forests towards the city. On May 5th a car with a dashcam drove past this checkpoint:




On this screenshot we can see a restaurant and a small chapel

So the location of that checkpoint is here:



Blue is the route the car is driving.
On a larger scale the checkpoint can be seen here:

On June 3rd ATO started taking the city. In comparison to Slovyansk, it is a minor and a lot easier target. They entered the city from the south road.

A team of ANNA news spotted the column heading forwards.

Now it seems that this could be almost anywhere on the road in the forest. But since the column is driving North, the camera must be West of the road. And likely somewhere BEFORE the battle begins, which means before the first checkpoint, because they are not driving cautiously. Next, there must be trees on both sides of the road.
It can be found here:

And with a closeup:

They are somewhere along the railway track with trees between them and the road. With the road nearby they can easily move on after filming.

The column consists of at least:

10BTRs
1 humvee?
1 truck

It is possible that ANNA news made a phone call to the rebels of course: "They are coming..." Because the rebels were awaiting them:



This video does not give much clues about its location, except that there is forest on the right, with a small fence alongside the road and a little house at the end of it, with something on top. It means there is something special about this location, because you don't build this just in the middle of the forest.

Although I cannot be 100% sure, this location seems to fit the characteristics:

It is next to a railway station, which might explain the fence. There might be a small building with a thing on 

top and it is not far away from the rebel camp, so the rebels could await them here.

Even though the BTR got a direct hit, this is what was left of the camp after ATO was done there:

Still, all this is far away from Krasny Liman.

Before or while entering the city the army has been shelling certain positions. This is a video where a local man explains how a railway worker died from some lonely impact and how the people are hiding (graphic):

This screenshot:

corresponds with this map:

This video shows how somebodies house got damaged.

I haven been able to pinpoint this, but likely it is somewhere here, because that is where the smaller houses are:

Next, ATO moves into the city.
And of all the good defensive position the rebels could have taken in the city, they choose... THE HOSPITAL:

Here is the aftermath of that attack:



This is the route the cameraman is walking:

In this video we can see some movement of the Ukrainian BTRs in the city:



The location of this is on the road leading to the hospital:

In the video the BTRs are driving AWAY from the hospital. Also one BTR is positioned quite strangely towards the opposite house.
Probably the battle for the hospital is over and they are turning around and returning.

This is how the battle for Krasny Liman ended:

Krasnyi Liman #Ukraine #ATO pic.twitter.com/w8Aun7Pa4k
— lennutrajektoor (@lennutrajektoor) June 5, 2014

You can find an interactive map of Krany Liman with links to the different videos here.