April 27, 2025: Ukrainian special forces has a unit called Shaman led by an officer known by his call sign of Shaman. This unit has been active for ten years and is still carrying out attacks on the Russians. Ten years ago Shaman worked with the Cyborg group to defend the airport from the Russians. The Cyborgs earned their nickname with their stalwart defense of the Donetsk airport for eight months. The Cyborgs were a motley force consisting of Ukrainian soldiers, Territorial Defense troops, and volunteers from various paramilitary organizations. The Cyborg numbers varied between 100 and 200 throughout their battle. They were periodically supported, resupplied and reinforced by nearby Ukrainian Army units the closest of which were located two kilometers away from the airport terminal building. The support included lots of artillery fire, which was very effective thanks to the Cyborg's forward position and excellent observation posts, especially the airfield's air traffic control tower. In addition there were counterattacks with small units of armor against pro-Russian rebels attempting to encircle the airfield.

This setup has functioned reasonably well for the defenders, creating the Cyborg's legend, which in turn provided a great symbol, example and morale boost for all the Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine made serious efforts to preserve the international support it enjoyed, while the rebels, since late 2014, began ignoring any ceasefire terms. That meant more rebel artillery fire on the Cyborgs in addition to moving tanks and regular army troops directly from Russia into this battle. This allowed the rebels to launch an offensive that surrounded the airport while also hitting the Cyborgs with continuous artillery and rocket fire. This advance made resupply and reinforcement efforts extremely risky, as the Ukrainian armored vehicles risked being fired on by the tanks and antitank missiles the rebels had moved forward in violation of the ceasefire.

Noticing the rapidly deteriorating situation of the airport defenders, the Ukrainian Army attempted a desperate, poorly organized counterattack against the rebel positions. The Russian troops and their local allies expected this and the attack failed with significant Ukrainian losses. The attack might have succeeded had senior Ukrainian generals, far from Donetsk, not gotten involved with directing the operation. The main problem was that the counter attacking force was too small and the interference by senior commanders led to poor coordination and communication between the attacking units and bad tactical decisions that doomed the relief effort.

Another key element in this was the Russian communities in the east Ukrainian Donbas region that supplied the armed rebels to fight the Cyborgs. This was a key element in defeating a Cyborg counterattack. Cut off from friendly forces, and the territory they held was pretty much limited to the terminal building, which itself was not the greatest defensive position. Recently built, it had a modern, light structure, which limited the cover provided by it, forcing the defenders to rely on improvised fortifications. The only truly effective cover from artillery fire was provided by the Soviet era tunnels beneath the airfield, which also had to be defended from separatist infiltration attempts.

The Ukrainian Russian rebels used tanks to attack the terminal building. This succeeded in part because of some unexpected fog. After taking parts of the terminal, the local Russians used demolition charges to collapse parts of the terminal's first floor ceiling, peppering many defenders with a rain of debris which killed and wounded many of them. By the end of the day both sides claimed control of the airfield. But two days later Ukraine admitted that the rebels had overrun the area. The rebels claimed to have taken 44 of the defenders alive.

What the rebels won was nothing more than a ruin. There was barely a metal skeleton left where the terminal, built for the Euro 2012 games at the cost of almost a billion dollars, once stood. Other buildings were also heavily damaged by the shelling, and the runways are full of craters created by constant artillery bombardment. This kind of economic damage took years to repair, which was difficult because Ukraine had little cash to spare.

In 2022 the Shaman commandos were determined to defeat a Russian attack on Hostomel Airport outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The Russians sought to quickly seize the airport with a surprise attack and fly in reinforcements to take Kyiv. The Shaman commandos were sent to thwart the Russian plan. The Shaman counterattack succeeded and two months later a Shaman force attacked a Russian oil refinery. This was similar to the August 2024 Ukrainian attack in Russia’s Kursk province.

The Shaman force is still standing by to carry out whatever task it is given to preserve Ukrainian independence.