Talk:Southern Cauldron

Evacuation of wounded?
One of the arguments against the high KIA numbers has been that there should have been at least double the number of wounded in action, yet they seems to be missing. In Cauldron 1.0 some 6,000 men were originally trapped in. Some 1,500 are known to have come out alive. (At least 500 of these fled to Russia.) This would mean a loss of 4500 men. Using a normal KIA to WIA ratio of 1/2 the number of killed should be 1,500 with some 3,000 wounded. How did these wounded get out of the Cauldron? Were they airlifted by helicopters or airplanes. This seems unlikely, as during the last weeks even supplying food by airdrops proved to be impossible. One answer may come from this video of the interrogation of a conscript in the 72nd Brigade:
 * Interrogation of a Ukrainian POW conscript – ENG SUBS
 * Q: ''How did you attend the wounded? What did you do to them?
 * A: ''I don't know. The wounded were transported to the 1st Battalion.
 * Q: ''Based where?
 * A: ''I don't know. Somewhere in the rear lines behind us. Maybe near Pantschenkovo Setlement. Maybe not. I only know one night, in the middle of the night one dead and two wounded were loaded on trucks and driven away.
 * Q: ''You mentioned before this recording that wounded soldiers were buried alive. Where did this occur?
 * A: ''That was near Krasny Terrikon. They hired an old man, a local, who used an excavator to diq a dump. Afterwards the wounded were dropped in there.
 * Q: ''And they were buried, right?
 * A: ''Yes. The dump was filled up and a tank circled over it afterwards. Maybe to make sure that they were buried deep. The real losses of the 72nd Brigade were never announced. They spoke about 100 men, but in reality the whole brigade was exterminated. Besides those who surrendered.

-- Petri Krohn (talk) 01:46, 20 August 2014 (UTC)