Russians Call Ukraine's 79th Air Assault Brigade "Cyborgs" For Being "Unkillable"

The 79th has become one of Ukraine's most reliable units, sent to the hottest parts of the front. 

Russians nicknamed them 'the Cyborgs" because despite repeatedly being outnumbered and less well armed, they keep fighting like "unkillable machines." JL

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

Elements from different Ukrainian units which became the 79th Air Assault Brigade in 2014 battled the Russians and troops of the Donetsk Peoples Republic in the ruins of the Donetsk airport with small arms as they kept at bay the much larger and better armed Russians. The Russians gave the Ukrainians the nickname “Cyborgs” - humans who fought like “unkillable” machines. The 79th have become even more formidable.  Wherever the action is hottest on the Donetsk line you will find the 79th. The Cyborgs of the 79th are now fighting the Russians on the Pokrovsk-Kurakhove Line. 

In 2014, at the very beginning of Russia’s evil machinations to seize the Donbas, an amalgam of elements from different Ukrainian units put up a fierce fight to not only defend the Donetsk International Airport(DIA) but to also create safe ways to enable withdrawing Ukrainian units to reach safety.  But it was their long and heroic defensive stand at the DIA which garnered them a place in the pantheon of Ukrainian military history. 

From May 26, 2014 to January 22, 2015(242 days), they battled the Russians and the rebels of the ersatz Donetsk Peoples Republic to a standstill in the ruins of the airport.  With just small arms they kept at bay the much larger and better armed Russians.  It was in fact the Russians who gave the Ukrainian defenders the name “Cyborgs” … they were human yet fought like “unkillable” machines.  Among them were volunteers from what was then called the 79th Airmobile Regiment. The stalwart defense of the airport by the cyborgs also bought Ukraine much needed time to build up its defenses in places near the airport like Avdiivka and Pisky, among others.  Think about it, these defenses finally fell just this summer … 10 years after … under constant and sustained Russian assault.

Originally formed in the era of the Soviet Union as the 40th Air Assault Brigade, it reached its current formation in post Soviet re-organization, becoming the 79th Separate Tavrian Air Assault Brigade after the onset of the full invasion. Their exploits in defense of the DIA is storied in movies, documentaries, books and even a Ukrainian special postage stamp.

But the 79th did not pass into history.  In fact they have become even more formidable.  Wherever the action is hottest on the Donetsk line you’re sure to find the 79th. Right this moment the cyborgs of the 79th are taking the fight to the Russians and by all accounts have joined other Ukrainian formations(yes, the 72nd left Vuhledar but have dug in again) to slow the seemingly unstoppable post-Avdiivka Russian juggernaut on the Pokrovsk-Kurakhove Line.