| Savur-Mohyla Memorial | |
|---|---|
 Ukraine | |
 Savur-Mohyla Memorial, 2008 | |
| For Red Army soldiers fallen during World War II | |
| Unveiled | 1963 |
| Location | near |
| Designed by | Anatoly Ignashchenko |
Savur-Mohyla (Ukrainian: Савур-могила), often transliterated using the Russian spelling Saur-Mogila (Russian: Саур-Могила), is a strategic height in the Donets ridge near the city of Snizhne, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
The 277.9 m (912 ft) tall hill is better known for a big monument complex that was built in 1963 by Ukrainian architect Anatoly Ignashchenko to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Savur Mohyla during World War II.
It was originally a tumulus (kurgan) – mohyla means "tumulus" in Ukrainian and according to one interpretation the word savur comes from Turkic sauyr, meaning "steppe mound shaped like a horse bottom".[citation needed] Rosamund Bartlett writes, "Many popular legends had been spun about this particular kurgan, which had acted as a kind of frontier between the Russians and the Turks and Tatars in the mediaeval period; Saur appears in them either as an evil Turkish khan or a Cossack hero."[1]
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Main article: Donbas strategic offensive (August 1943) |
During World War II, Savur-Mohyla was the focal point of intense fighting, when Soviet troops managed to retake control of the height from German forces in August 1943. In 1963, a memorial complex was unveiled at the top of the hill to honour fallen soldiers,[2] comprising an obelisk with a steel-and-concrete statue of a Soviet soldier, four steel-and-concrete sculptures built along the slope leading up to the obelisk (each memorializing infantrymen, tankmen, artillerymen and airmen involved in the battle), and walls inscrcribed with the names of fallen soldiers in the battle.
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Main articles: War in Donbas (2014–2022) and Battle in Shakhtarsk Raion |
In 2014, during the first months of the military conflict between Ukrainian troops and Ukrainian Russian backed "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR) militants in the Donbas, the Savur-Mohyla height was captured by Donetsk People's Republic fighters. On 23 July 2014, DPR forces shot down two Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-25 (NATO reporting name "Frogfoot") ground-attack aircraft flying at 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) over Savur-Mohyla, using an advanced anti-aircraft system.[3][4]
On 28 July 2014, after intense fighting, the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed that they recaptured control of Savur-Mohyla from Russian troops.[5] Following its capture by the Ukrainian 25th Airborne Brigade on 9 August 2014,[6] the Russian militants recaptured the hill on 26 August 2014.[7][8] During the fighting, the hill changed sides between the Ukraine and Russia about 8 times.
On 21 August 2014, the memorial's obelisk collapsed after enduring weeks of heavy shelling.[7][9]
On 4 September 2022, Russian militants announced completion of restoration works on the complex with official reopening to occur on 8 September.
