Ukrainian President honors memory of Heroes of Kruty
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky took part in a ceremony honoring the memory of the Heroes of Kruty, the press service of the head of state reports.
"The head of state laid flowers at the memorial cross to the Heroes of Kruty at the Askold grave in Kyiv. The memory of the victims was honored with a minute of silence. The national anthem of Ukraine was played. The soldiers of the honor guard company saluted from their personal weapons and marched solemnly at the memorial cross," the message says.
It is noted that the ceremony was also attended by head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny and cadets of higher military educational institutions.
The battle of Kruty took place on January 29, 1918 near the railway station of the same name between Bakhmach and Nizhyn. The Ukrainian forces numbered about a thousand people and consisted of foremen and cadets of the 1st Kyiv Military School named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 115-130 students of the first hundred Student Hut and volunteers from the Free Cossacks. The Bolshevik forces in Kruty area comprised about 6,000 soldiers and Baltic sailors, and up to 3,000 people took direct part in the battle.
The battle near Kruty ended with an organized retreat of Ukrainian units by train.
The losses of Ukrainians, according to various sources, ranged from 80 to 100 dead. According to the researchers, the total losses of the enemy could reach 1,500 killed and wounded.
During the battle, the Bolsheviks captured seven wounded students, another 27 students fell into the hands of the enemy, retreating in the dark. They were tortured and then executed. The bodies of the dead were buried by a local priest at the cemetery of the village of Pechi.
In 1918, by the decision of the Central Rada, the bodies of the student soldiers who fell in battle near Kruty were solemnly reburied at the Askold grave in Kyiv.