The Battalion's Rear Was Already Empty; If We Hadn't Retreated, No One Would Have Survived, Manvel Khachatryan Details

In the last war, our unit, joining the ranks of volunteer reservists, participated in the defense of Hadrut and Fizuli, where our unit engaged in combat operations, and the enemy failed to achieve even a one centimeter breakthrough. This was stated by Manvel Khachatryan, the commander of the Vardanank detachment, in an interview with ArmDaily.am.

"Then, with the well-known retreat orders, we left. We had no fatalities, but we had 13 wounded," he said.

When asked whether he found the retreat order comprehensible, he responded, "If we hadn't exited, the unit would not have made it out; no one would have survived, because the battalion's rear was already empty. We left four days after the front line retreat, and if we had delayed even one hour, perhaps not a single person would have made it out alive."

Khachatryan recounts that the most difficult day was October 29, when the entire battalion suffered losses. "21-22 people were killed as a result of enemy shelling, and at one point, we had 9 wounded at once; that was the hardest moment when we couldn’t retrieve our dead or wounded under the blasts of the shelling. Before that, everything had been a game for us; when you say 'difficulty' or 'hardship'—it wasn’t, because the guys were experienced and understood what they were there for and why they took up arms."

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