By Coordination Center for Aid to Novorossiya (KTsPN)
Nov. 4: Today is an important date for us: Six years ago, on the night of November 3–4, 2014, the Volunteer Communist Detachment (DKO), created by the Russian communist movement, advanced to Novorossiya from St. Petersburg. On the same day, in Moscow, the soldiers of the detachment were presented with the Battle Banner.
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| DKO volunteers with a battle banner, Moscow, November 4, 2014. The first group consisted of 20 people, but the majority did not want to show their faces. |
The combat route of the DKO ran through Izvarino to Alchevsk, then the detachment moved to the front near Debaltseve. The Komissarov colony was captured in the village of Baronoskaya, which became an important stronghold of the militia.
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| DKO fighters in Alchevsk, November 2014. |
Then, during the Debaltseve operation, the Vergulevskaya mine was occupied. DKO fighters served in positions near Sanzharovka and Borzhikovka railway station. During the offensive on Debaltseve, DKO was the first to break into the village on March 8, 2015, and took the Debaltseve-Sortirovochnaya station in battle, then participated in the clean-up of Novogrigorovka.
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| DKO at the base in the Komissarov colony, December 2014. |
After the completion of the Debaltseve operation, the DKO was transferred to the Bakhmut Highway, to the famous 31st checkpoint. The soldiers of the detachment later occupied the 44th checkpoint on the Golubovsky farm.
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| DKO soldiers at the Vergulevskaya mine, January 28, 2015. |
The DKO existed as an independent combat unit within the Ghost Brigade until it was reorganized into a territorial defense battalion.
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| DKO post at the railway crossing, Debaltsevo, February 2015. |
In the battles for Novorossiya, 9 soldiers and commanders of the DKO were killed in combat.
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| DKO fighter raises the red banner over Novogrigorovka. |
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| DKO on the Bakhmut Highway, May 2015. |
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| DKO at 44th checkpoint. |
Translated by Greg Butterfield
Red Star News + Translations 