April On 7 April, Ukrainian symbols were removed from the Artemivsk City Council building. On 12 April, the authorities of the
Donetsk People's Republic in
Artemivsk were declared separatists by the Ukrainian government. The pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk Oblast anticipated a repetition of the annexation of Crimea, although this did not come. On 19 April, the forces of the 3rd Special Purpose Regiment reinforced the garrison of the small arms storage arsenal in the village of
Paraskoviivka. Oleksandr Trepak, together with several reconnaissance groups, went to the
Artemivsk area. Together with Special Purpose Units of the Military Law Enforcement Service,
Kirovohrad (now Kropvynytskyi) residents guarded the Center for Armored Weapons Provision, located in Artemvisk (1282nd Center for providing armored weapons and equipment – Unit A2730) and the base for storing small arms in the village of Paraskoviivka (Unit A-4176).
May On 25 May, separatists succeeded in disrupting the holding of the
2014 Ukrainian presidential election in the city.
June On 7 June, Volodymyr Chobotka, the commander of the armored forces base, was wounded and taken prisoner in the city. Pekar's group of 6 people left in a white civilian van to get him after the alarm was raised. A group of militants drove off to meet them in a similar-looking civilian car. The deputy commander of the group of the 3rd regiment with the call sign, Merzavchik, was the first to orientate himself – the militants' car was shot by machine guns. In a few seconds, three militants were killed, one was wounded and one was captured. Among the militants killed was Veles, the "commandant of the city of
Artemivsk". Pekar's group took away the weapons and documents of the militants. A reconnaissance group of 8 special forces soldiers began an operation to search for and evacuate an seriously wounded officer. For this, it was necessary to seize a separatist checkpoint at the entrance to the city and hold it for around 3 hours to allow another group to evacuate a wounded man by helicopter. During the battle, the commander of the unit, Oleksandr Trepak, received a gunshot wound to the leg, but he refused to evacuate and for two days led the repulse of the militants' attacks on the Central Artillery Armament Base. On 20 June, a second assault by separatists took place on a military unit located in the city. Special forces repelled an attack on Ukrainian warehouses from
Horlivka with the help of
grenade launchers. The next offensive took place with the support of
mortar fire, the
T-64 tank and infantry went on the offensive, but this attempt was also unsuccessful. Ukrainian soldiers suppressed the mortar, cut off the infantry and hit the enemy's combat vehicle. The battles for military warehouses in
Artemivsk became one of the first cases of the use of
T-64 tanks by pro-Russian militants. During this time, the defenders of the base first learned about the presence of T-64 tanks in the armed forces during the night, from 20 to 21 June, when a tank fired at the ATP building adjacent to the military part. After this incident, the
Ukrainian military decided to step up and "reanimated" one T-64 and one
BMP-2 from those in storage (a total of 260 T-64,
T-80 and
T-72 tanks, 270 armored personnel carriers, 227
BMPs, 129
BRM-1K). The day after the attack on the checkpoint No. 1 Ribgosp, on 27 June 2014, pro-Russian militants carried out a large-scale third attack on the base. At night, they fired on military units stationed in the city using
grenade launchers and small arms. Among the equipment they used was a
T-64BV tank. Defenders of the base fired at it
RPG-18 and
RPG-22, but failed to beat it and the tank was able to leave the scene of the battle alone. At the same time, the military unit A-4176 was stormed, where as a result of the battle, the T-64BV of pro-Russian militants was lined up and captured. It was one of three tanks in the arms of
Russian Separatists spotted by the media at the time. On 30 June, pro-Russian separatists launched a fourth attack on a military unit located in the city.
July In early July, pro-Russian militants retreated from the city and on 5 July 2014, Artemivsk was returned to Ukrainian control. == Losses ==