Vengeance

10 NOVOSHAKHTINSK, RUSSIA

Under the cover of darkness, a column of mechanized vehicles sped down Highway E50 toward the Russia — Ukraine border. In the passenger seat of a GAZ Tigr all-terrain infantry vehicle, Major General Alexei Sokolov, commanding Russia’s 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division, peered at the wooded landscape ahead through night vision goggles. Behind him, stretched out on the highway, was a regiment of T-90 main battle tanks and fifteen thousand infantry troops divided into two more regiments: one aboard BTR-90 armored personnel carriers and a second aboard BMP-3 infantry combat vehicles, sometimes referred to as light tanks. As Sokolov’s division approached its destination, he wondered whether its unusual repositioning was simply political posturing, or the precursor to an imminent invasion.

The 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division was one of the most famous and decorated formations in the Russian military, having seen extensive combat during World War II and also played prominent roles in two of the major political crises in recent Soviet and Russian history. In 1991, during the hard-line coup attempt against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, one of the division’s tank units surrounding the Russian parliament building had switched sides, opposing the coup. It was atop one of the division’s tanks that Boris Yeltsin had delivered his rousing speech, condemning the traitorous attempt to depose Gorbachev.

Two years later during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, the division again played a decisive role. The Russian military had initially remained neutral, and with the country on the brink of civil war, the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division had thrown its support to Yeltsin once more, its tanks opening fire on Moscow’s House of Soviets building.

Continuing its journey down Highway E50, Sokolov’s division reached its prescribed destination northwest of Novoshakhtinsk, only a few kilometers from Ukraine’s border, where he ordered his unit to halt. The sound of his tank and infantry fighting vehicles’ engines faded, leaving his unit stretched out along a desolate road cutting through the silence of the serene forest. In another two hours, after sunrise, the presence of Sokolov’s unit poised on the highway and aimed toward Ukraine would be visible to a plethora of photo-reconnaissance satellites, not to mention the occasional infrared version passing overhead, able to detect the heat from the tank and personnel carrier engines.

Sokolov resolved himself to the next phase of the modus operandi that seemed to permeate all Army operations — hurry up and wait. Less than a day ago, his unit had been ordered to hastily mobilize and reposition. As Sokolov resolved himself to patiently await new orders in a rather unusual location — in the middle of a highway in plain sight — the forest on both sides of the road ahead came to life with the deep rumble of diesel engines.

A moment later, tanks and armored personnel carriers emerged from the trees, assembling into formation along the highway. On the digital tactical display inside Sokolov’s vehicle, new units appeared. The 4th and 47th Guards Tank Divisions were joining the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division, completing the amalgamation of the formidable 1st Guards Tank Army.

Sokolov’s unit had been ordered to hastily mobilize, not for the standard hurry-up-and-wait scenario, but because it was the last major component of the 1st Guards Tank Army moved into place. Now that Sokolov’s unit had arrived, the 1st Guards Tank Army was ready to commence its strike into Ukrainian territory.