Fighting for Pincher stronghold. Full transcript

A convoy of enemy vehicles was moving. In my brain, I stood up, and my brain went into overdrive, as if it was working at 200 percent.

I would survive, I would survive 100 percent.

I flattened myself against the wall here.. and it did not roll to us, because Sania, he died, he crouched, and in the place where he crouched, he blocked the last hole through which anything could get to us.

There are about fifty corpses of the occupier lying near them, as well as six units of burnt enemy armored vehicles. He literally blocked it with his own body..., grenade didn’t reach us, do you understand that?

The story of an incredible feat. Eight soldiers of the Freedom National Guard battalion fought for 67 days in encirclement to halt the Russian offensive on the city of Siversk. Sixty seven continuous days in the dugout. In a small dugout, all supplies were delivered by drones and they would only leave the dugout to repel another attack, another assault, another attack. Relentless shelling, an unending struggle for survival. The entire battalion, which supports these eight heroes with all their drones and all their fire means. Dozens of corpses of the Russian occupiers, burnt armor. One of the Ukrainian heroes died a hero's death. Seven soldiers broke through the encirclement. This is the story as told by the position commander, Lieutenant of the National Guard of Ukraine, Vladyslav Stotskyi and the commander of the Freedom Battalion, Petro Kuzyk.

Petro Kuzyk: "It turned out that these two positions transitioned into a special status. A series of events led to this. The orcs had intensified their offensive, broke through the defenses of our neighboring units, and, for various reasons, they were forced to withdraw. This required us to rebuild the defense system. Essentially, an additional perimeter was added, identical to the one we had been defending, had to be secured. I made the decision to initially leave these two positions in the gray zone, but later, they turned out to be surrounded. But it was my decision and I communicated it to the fighters. The soldiers, including the officer in charge of the position, understood the significance of their mission. We explained the operational principles to them and why this task was crucial. They realized that they were covering a good part of the unit. And in fact, without these positions, a high-quality maneuver would not have been possible. Without these positions, it was really unfeasible to hold or break this active phase of the offensive.

Vladyslav Stotskyi

Yurii Butusov: Vladyslav Stotskyi, how old are you?

25 years old.

It's not a frequent occurrence when a officer - senior lieutenant – is on the front line with infantry alone. Have you ever seen anyone like that?

"Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. I don't go around asking anyone or announcing, 'Hello, I'm a senior lieutenant.' It’s only later, when we’re having coffee, that they ask me when I started my service. And I ask them, 'When did you start your service?'

When I was mobilized, I came on my own. They asked me, 'When did you begin?' And I explained that in 2019, I joined the 3047th military unit in Zhytomyr, signed a contract for service, then went back and forth, entered the academy, and completed my studies. Now I’m a senior lieutenant. They find out that I’m a senior lieutenant. Then they asked, 'What’s your rank?' I replied, 'Senior lieutenant.' And they asked, 'Why are you in the trenches?' I responded, 'Why not? Can’t an officer take part in combat operations? That’s what I trained for.' And they were surprised by this, as I think, they were surprised by this. Oh, well, if he's here, then everything will be fine.

Wow. Look, you're a senior lieutenant, deputy for personnel.

No, I'm a platoon commander.

But you were already a deputy, weren’t you?

So this position does not require you to be on the front line at all.

No, it doesn't.

And yet, you chose your first combat position. A lower position, is that correct?

Yes, a lower positon.

A lower position. So, Vladyslav chose a lower position during the war than the one he was assigned to.
Tell us, how did you manage to survive in such conditions?"

"It's not that there wasn’t enough; they delivered the bare minimum we needed. When I arrived at the position, I set some rules. 'Alright, guys, tea and coffee are canceled.' Of course, a little bit here and there, but overall, it didn't matter much. I think they understood me later. Tea and coffee— canceled. Washing—also canceled. Brush your teeth. If there’s enough water, only one person brushes. We pour just a bit into a cup, rinse the brush, and clean. I led by example, and soon everyone was doing the same. They said that we needed to create at least some kind of stock. When you’re thirsty, really thirsty, you can’t just endure it. You smoke cigarettes there. It was full of smoke. No wind flew through. It’s hell. Just an oven. A stinking oven. It stank of sweat. It stank of shit. It stank of piss. It felt like a luxury to drink water at least. We drank sparingly. Everyone drank half a sip. We cooked together. We ate together. What did we eat? At first, we steamed instant mashed potatoes. We boiled water and steamed the instant mashed potatoes. We had bread, canned food, sardines with the mashed potatoes. We had stew. We opened a can of stew. The fat was drained from the stew. In order to add water. In order to use less water. We heated the stew. Fat rose to the top. We poured it into a pot. We added water, boiled it. This is how we steamed instant mashed potatoes. We ate that with stew. Tubes of peanut butter—it was so good. We ate it with bread. The first time we got those, my God, it was amazing. But towards the end, we started thinking, 'Damn, let’s order something. Anything else.' Then they delivered us two packs of Vienna sausages. Bockwurst sausages. That was a real treat for us. Do you know how we opened package? We were like kids. We pulled out food, and everyone would cheer—'Ohhh!' Pull out a pack of cigarettes—'Ohhh!' A gas cylinder—'Ohhh!' A bottle of water—'Ohhh!' Well, you know.

Was it your only shelter?

"Yes, it was the only shelter. The only one. I'll explain it in military terms, as it is—a hole. The entrance. These are my feet in the photo—I took this picture myself.

Roma was sitting on the right. He was smearing his feet with Teimurova`s paste. There was a sort of bench. You could sit, but you couldn’t stand up. Same in the hole—you couldn’t stand. At best, you could kneel. That’s the maximum height. On the left, there were two small bunks where two people could lie down. One person would stay on duty, and one would rest on the right. I organized the service. 'Alright, guys, let’s do three-hour shifts.' I started with the 12 PM to 3 PM shift and also took the 12 AM to 3 AM shift. Each person took turns being on duty for three hours, sitting by the radio set. The other two went about their duties, rest. Plus, we were also getting covered with soil a bit there. I told them, 'Let’s only do this at night.' At night, when the bags with foodstuffs were dropped to us, we’d use them to collect and dispose of the excess soil so the hole wouldn’t flood. I also warned them to be ready in case it rained. For anything else, like going to the toilet or answering the call of nature, went out further."

Right there? Could you get out?

"No, no, never. Never. During the day and night, we stayed completely covert. It was a camouflaged position, no movement at all. At night, we went out to collect supplies. During the day, we left dugout to engage if there was an assault, some activity, or if we needed to engage a target. The position in front of us was called Pickup. They stayed covert too — no movement, no shooting, in order not to decamouflage themselves. So, we left dugout and fired a bit from the GP or the Fort-600."

Tell me what would have happened, explain the danger, why did you have to hide like that?

The activity of the enemy's drones was no less, and sometimes even greater, than that of ours. Although I can’t say that the Freedom Battalion wasn’t well-supplied— it is awesome, their supplies are top-notch. But the Russian army already has everything and more. We were terrorized by the Mavic carousel. One Mavic would hover with an explosive payload, waiting for us to come out of the hole. It just hovered above us until the battery ran low, then it would drop its explosive payload. At that moment, a second drone would already be flying in. Or if we came out, the first would drop its explosive payload, and the second would immediately replace it. We said, "Guys, we're sick and tired, let's go out and shoot him down. "So we went out with flashlights, waited, and pinpointed where it was hovering. We said: "Create some movement. Shoot to draw its attention, and we're on the other side so that he'll pay attention to you, fly to you. " And we were waiting on the other side, he created the movement, shot, something was transmitted on the walkie-talkie, the soldier shot. We saw the drone descend, looking for a target, it descended so well, we shot it down. What do you think happened next? We thought, "Great, one less drone to worry about." Then hell began. FPVs and explosive payload came non-stop. Shooting down that drone made them go mad—they bombarded us relentlessly. No shelling, no mortars—just FPVs, explosive payload drops, FPVs, explosive payload drops.

First I entered Adolf, 4 men, the same position, but it was adjacent. Two were from the NGU, two were from the AFU. The 54th Brigade, K-2 Battalion. Amazing guys, real respect to them. During the day, positions would shift regardless. There would always be some shelling or debris falling.

At night, we had to restore everything to how it looked during the day, because they would scan for any changes in the morning. One night, they tore a chain-link fence— the kind of fences that are stretched. The Cook and, maybe you know, the Historian from the 3rd Battalion, went out to fix it. I stayed on the radio set while Joystick went to pick up some provisions on ATV. We had a delivery, he rode on a...Joystick was a guy with brass balls—he was one-legged, by the way, but still stayed in the trench with us. While they fixed the net, I stayed on radio set, keeping everything under control.

I heard them coming out—literally two minutes later. I heard the drone buzzing. I thought, "They should come in now." I heard the buzzing getting louder, then bam—I heard an explosion, and then screaming. I ran outside, shouting, "What's going on?" The Historian told me, "We're both wounded." One of the AFU guys, a cook, was lying down, so I dragged him over to me. I said, "Show me where you're hurt." He replied, "Everything hurts, everything hurts." I started examining him—an initial check, tactical medicine. First, I looked for massive bleeding. I asked, "Where is it? Where? Show me something." He took off his shirt, and I saw that he was missing skin there—just exposed ribs. I could literally see his lungs moving, see them breathing. "Okay, we need to apply a dressing on this," I said. "What about elsewhere—any arteries hit, a broken leg maybe?" He said, "Check my leg." I looked at his leg and saw blood, but it wasn't gushing—just a steady flow. I applied a tourniquet and said, "Alright, let's stop the bleeding with some hemostatic gauze and bandage it." I couldn’t tamponade the chest wound, so I told him, "I'll just bandage it." I started bandaging him, then checked the other side—same damn thing. I used two bandages and two hemostatic dressings. I asked the Historian, "What about you? You said you're wounded?" He was an older guy, but he said, "Don’t worry, Spark. I’m fine—lightly wounded."

He sat down on the bed and waited, saying, "Help Artur." I went over to Artur, and he said, "Check my head, it's hurting." He had shrapnel in his head. His leg was also pierced, damn it, his leg was pierced. I applied a bandage and turned back to the Historian. The Historian, as I saw, he was already weakening, and then I noticed his entire pant leg was soaked in blood. I said, "Mr.Historian, you're okay, but your leg is bleeding—take off your pants and take a look." He took them off, and his leg was really badly punctured too. I said, "Let's apply tourniquet, why are you just lying there not helping yourself?" I applied the tourniquet to him, and that was it, onto the evacuation. Then Joystick came in, and the guy was really one-legged. He took the three wounded on his ATV, came back, and we were left alone at the position. While he was gone, I stayed there alone on the radio set with and an assault rifle, on high alert. I thought, "Damn it, f@ckers must have seen that they just injured two with a grenade. You just never know." So I sat there, waiting for him. He came back, and I heard the drones again—they started terrorizing us. Whoo! They dropped the first explosive payload at our entrance. It hit the fence we had, tore right through it. Then came the second explosive payload —poof, but instead of an explosion, there was just a "pshhhhh." I thought, "It's probably gas, chemical weapon, get the gas masks!" I put on my gas mask, took a photo of myself, and sent it to my wife, saying, "Nastia, I think they're poisoning us with chemicals."

Is it a Soviet one?

Yes, a Soviet gas mask. When we were studying at the academy, we asked the colonel why we weren't allowed to wear beards. He said, 'So, when there's a chemical hazard, you put on a gas mask, and with a beard, it won't seal properly—it’ll seep through.' I remembered that, so I pressed the mask down tightly on my face, as fast as I could. I was sitting there, thinking, ‘It seems fine, it seems fine,’ and then they dropped this grenade, so I took a picture of it—an RG-VO, just like this."

Was it one that didn't work, and you took a picture of it?

"Yes, one didn’t go off, but the other one did. And then I started having trouble breathing, smoke was coming into the dugout—it was hard to breathe. I moved up as high as possible because the smoke was settling low. But it kept getting worse, burning, burning, really burning in my chest. I yelled, 'Joystick, we have to get out of here!' I was shouting through the gas mask. He replied, 'Roger, let's move.' I exhaled completely, started running out of the dugout, and there's arms room, we ran to the arms room but it was full of smoke too. At that point, I couldn’t—maybe it was panic, maybe it was the gas—but I couldn’t inhale, couldn’t exhale, and I started to have a vomiting reflex. We hadn’t eaten anything, just drank water, and I started vomiting water. As I threw up, I could finally take a breath. I'd vomit water, then exhale air. I have a picture of it, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to die from this chemical weapon.’"

We got reinforcements. One was Kenia, from the National Guard, and then Yura from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he didn’t have a call sign. So, at night, we were digging, recovering. There were night drones flying around, so we kept our movements minimal, just doing a bit of quiet digging with shovels, cleaning the trenches. It wasn’t like we could lie down and sleep—some were on guard duty, others were working, others were on watch with the thermal imaging camera. Then, a seriously heavy infantry assault started in the morning. One group was moving across the field, another group along the Miami, and another group managed to outflank us, unnoticed by the drones. He said that f**ks were already entering Troy, f**ks were already consolidated there, they entered, started digging, so we were ordered to fire them. Skirmishing began. We shot at them, they heard that we were starting to shoot, they started shooting at us, we could not identify the target, so there was no direct contact, we just fire at each other. Then I said to Komysh, "F@ck, I will attack them with RPG". He said that here was a thermobaric round." I loaded it up, @ck. He said that I hit right in their bunker. There was bunker, round landed right near it, there was a powerful blow. He said, "Give me everything you have, rounds, give it to me". I relayed over walkie-talkie, guys were bringing it, and we're fighting, so I said, 'Guys, bring everything you have, except for the tandem charges, because these tandem charges are heavy. ' The guys brought over everything they could, and Komysh—he’s a short guy— we started loading the RPG. There’s damaged sandbag, and you can balance on one foot on it to get close enough to do it, something I’ve never seen before. He hoisted the RPG onto his shoulder, dropped his rifle, and jumped on the bag with one foot, and he made shot while being at the highest point relative to the position. He made four shots, every shot was perfect. I said, "Hey, Komysh, you’re сool today!" There's shooting, single combat and then a group of f**ks entered, we got another call, "Adolf, engage, you have f**ks in the trenches." They entered us from Troy, so we started firing them. Then I said, "F**k, Komysh, who’s going in?" So, only we came. We did not involve the rest of the guys—they would rather stay on radio set, loading ammunition equipment. One was assigned to charged ammunition equipment, another one we deployed on the observation post. I said, ""Look, we're heading to the rear, keeping an eye on it to make sure that bastard doesn’t attack us from behind." We went in, clearing the trenches. I said, "Look, there are three holes where they can sit, now, if they have gone into the kitchen, there are three holes where they can really sit." Roger, roger, so we went in, clearing the trenches, tuk-tuk-tuk, you know, I felt like a stormtrooper. Tuk-tuk-tuk. Then he said, "I’m out of ammo." So, I pull him behind me and start providing cover fire. We worked so well together, I didn't think I could do that. Tuk-tuk-tuk. We got to the kitchen area, and I said, "This is the last hole where he could be hiding." I said, "Let’s throw grenades in there." He said, "Damn it, a gas cylinder." I said, "Who cares?" And we toss the grenades in.

The f**ker, in short, screamed there. I'm telling you this with a smile now, but then there was no smile at all, at 7.55 the assault started because I took a picture for a woman for good luck.

End of the fighting was at 19:22. From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., it was pure stress—nonstop shootouts. Honestly, it was hell. By nightfall, we'd been hammered by FPVs all day. The explosions were so close, I could see the blast waves, see the fire from the detonations.

How many FPVs hit your dugout in total? Can you even count them?

It's impossible to count.It was every 10 minutes—all day.

Did they land directly on your dugout?

We had an exit there, which we blocked with sandbags to create a narrow passage and support the ceiling. There was a narrow passage, there was a turn, and there was a 3-4 meter passage to the turn. At first, they hit that 3-4-meter section, and then we had direct hits. I could see it—a direct flight, unable to turn. It was obvious the signal was lost. FPV detonated in the bags, bags were scattering. Since we were pressed against the wall, dirt flew all over us. It’s a bit painful, it really hits the ears hard, especially in the bunker—it puts a lot of pressure on them. I watched those explosions and told the guys, "If they destroy this section, or if it gets a signal and makes the turn, it’s going to fly straight under our feet." I said, "Guys, we need to get out of here, now."

The next day, we loaded up RPGs and the AGS tripod. We left behind the Browning, our rifles, and, aside from grenades, we had no other weapons. I told the guys, "Let's head to the hole where I carried Komysh. There's a dugout there. Our 2 NGU wounded soldiers used to serve the there, but after the FPR hit them, we stopped posting anyone there. The dugout is partially collapsed, but we can sit it out there. Four of us—two in one hole and two in the other. We're just going to sit there, we won't fire a shot, even if there would be an assault, if they would come, we won't expose ourselves in any way, we would wait for 24 hours, and in the morning we would come out. They said roger, roger, we moved in, waited for 24 hours. The NGU drone dropped us some food, and we picked it up. Sania Ohanesian and I stayed in one hole, while the other two old men were in a second dugout nearby, where the trench diverged. Here we are in one hole, and they are in the other dugout. It was the quietest 24 hours we’d experienced in a very long time. When the time came to leave, I contacted my command and asked " Am I stay alone?", "Do I go out with them, bring them weapons?" My command told me negative. I thought, okay, a negative. Was I going to Pincher? Because I was leading people there, that's where I had to go. They told me to stand-by. I quickly came to a conclusion—command likely wanted us to hold Adolf because the AFU were handing it over to the NGU. While the others packed up, my brain went into overdrive, as if it was working at 200 percent I told myself, "I will survive. 100%. Now, what do I need to do?" I needed energy, I went to blindage, I grabbed fully charged power banks, grenades, and as much ammunition as I could carry. I had my Kalashnikov, a Kalashnikov LMG, tripwires, picked up the string to set the tripwires. I noticed there was a generator nearby, so I grabbed a bottle of gasoline, planning to use the generator to charge gear at night. There was an eco-flow there too—if bastards did not come in and take it, then in the morning I would go in twilight and take it myself. Everything was planned. I rationed my food to last several days, knowing more could be dropped later. I would drink water and then determine how much water I need—keeping watch at night and sleeping during the day. If fucker came through the trench, I’d set up two tripwires. I knew how to place them. If triggered, the explosion would wake me during the day, and I’d be ready to fight. That’s how I prepared myself for staying alive—alone.

Imagine, you were preparing for a defense stronghold alone!

Later, I wrote everything down and sent it to Star for Toma. I’m not sure if he passed it on to headquarters, but he replied, "Stand by." Then, a bit later, he messaged me: "Are you crazy? No. You shouldn't do that." That was it—he told me to withdraw to Pincher. His message came around five in the morning, long after the AFU soldiers had already left. By then, I had spent the entire night digging out a defensive position for myself. I worked to create a small, secure hole where I could lie down and have cover. My goal was to avoid direct line-of-sight fire. If fucker entered the trench and opened fire, I needed a position with angles to hide behind—one where a bullet couldn’t reach me. I kept expanding the space. By the time I was done, I must have hauled out at least 20 bags of soil.

Did you defend the position alone? Did you stay at the position all the time?

It was while the AFU were preparing to withdraw, it was the last night. I spent that final night focused on fortifying my position. I want to survive. In my head, it felt like a voice shouting at me: "You will survive. 100%. You need to do this, that, and the other."

On August 17, I went to Pincher, took my raincoat, body armor, helmet on top, a backpack, maximum power banks in my backpack, took 2 bottles of water, power banks. I was told to leave the RP—it wasn’t practical. If I needed to sprint the 300 meters to our lines, a stretch of gray zone, between Adolf, our position, and Pincher was just a small distance. But no one is watched our soldiers in that area, and it’s possible there are bastards there because there are destroyed positions. I was thinking, okay, I need my backpack, plus food—I took as much as I could because they dropped it off that same night. I grabbed some water, took my phone, and told Toma, "I’ll take the internet equipment—the router, the antenna, and the cable."

He said, "Roger." I got to Pincher and thought, Okay, 300 meters—I’m ready for this. I’ve been preparing for war. I run, I work out—you know, to stay in shape. I think, What’s 300 meters? I can handle that. So I started running. After 50 meters, though, I feel it—I can’t keep running. Fine, I’ll walk, but I can hear the drones buzzing everywhere: chuk-chuk-chuk. I know the path to Pincher. I shout into the walkie-talkie: "Pincher, Pincher, Santa Claus here!" because I’m carrying a bag full of supplies. I say, "Santa Claus has arrived!" and I go in and drop off the bag.The first time, I was the one who guided people to Pickup, from Adolf to Pincher. I told them, "Guys, remember last time when I came and promised to bring you some snacks, maybe a Snickers or two? Well, here you go!" I brought bags, a couple of Snickers bars to snack on, bottles of water, and that was it. They were so happy to see me. I greeted everyone, shook hands with all of them.

We figured it out and set up the antenna. The antenna was disguised—a square one, connected with two single-core TV cables. These cables ran down and connected to a Wi-Fi router, the kind that uses SIM cards. A Vodafone SIM card was inserted. I disguised the antenna at night, it turned out to be a faggot lying near Pincher. So I propped a board against him to hold the antenna. I taped the antenna to the other end of the board, and it worked perfectly. It was well-camouflaged since everything around was destroyed, and the setup blended in with the green T-shirt draped over it, making it nearly invisible. I said, "Take a picture with the drone and show me," you couldn’t really make it out. I ran the wires, set up the Internet, and told the guys, "We’ll use the Internet only at night and keep it off during the day." Roger, roger, roger. At night, we could finally connect with our families. For them, it was pure joy to make a call. The guys had been without any contact with their loved ones for 50 days.

I told them about Adolf, what the positions were, what we were doing there. They said, roger, roger, we have assaults here too.

Near the Adolf position, where you were defending, they tried to capture the bodies of Russian stormtroopers who were running up to us, and in close combat they were destroyed by the fighters. The bodies of Russian assault troops that tried to capture the position were destroyed by soldiers in close combat. It was just incredible. Let’s imagine this: 37 days, from July 10 to August 17, of continuous shelling right at your hideout. You don’t leave, except during battles. During the battle, you don’t move or do anything. At night you leave. All day you stay inside. And even without communication, as I understand, because you were out of touch. After 37 days, you move to another position and continue the mission. It's just incredible, and the infantry there, dear friends, is very important to realize at what cost, with what efforts, with what small number of fighters such important areas are held. Because behind this thin line of defense is the city of Siversk, and thanks to such extraordinary efforts, our soldiers are holding these positions and defending Siversk. Tell us, dear friend, please, how the fighting went on at Pincher's position.

What influenced me that I had worse conditions at Pincher, a smaller hole, we had a dugout there. Here, the dugout was collapsed, the hole was smaller. On the second or third day, they said that in front of the Pickup there were two fuckers. They said "Pincher, engage and kill them. "

It was much easier because there was almost no shelling. I can hear the planes coming in, the bombing. I hear explosions there. But specifically at our position, at our platoon strongpoint Pincher, Kencher, Kutovyi. There are no arrivals, nothing. But there are infantry, reconnaissance.

From us to the Pickup, about 200 meters. They were in front of us, and the fucker was right next to Pincher, and a little bit 200 meters away was the Pickup, and then the ravines start, and to our right is a field, a two-kilometer-wide field, with no trees, nothing—just open land, and it's mined. I took the Ford, just fired a shot, went inside. Toma told me, "You kill one fucker," well, anyway, it wasn’t a problem. There were mostly just assaults like that— we went out, fired from GPs, attack with FPV drones. That assault, or whatever it was, wasn’t really an assault, it felt like nonsense. Sania Khomiak came out, and it turns out you can hear everything clearly from the hole when you’re closest to the exit. He came out, and we used to go to the toilet there. He went out, did his business, and knelt down—because standing wasn’t possible, you could only crouch there. He bent over. I was staying on the radio set, and I got distracted because I didn’t hear the usual rattling of human waste in the bottle. He came back and said, "Guys, be quiet." I asked, "Sanya, what’s up?" He said, 'I hear vehicles.' I asked, 'Where from?' 'To the right,' he said. I call out, 'Toma, we’re hearing vehicles on the right.' He responded, 'Roger, roger, we see them—looks like passengers heading your way on a motorcycle. Combat readiness.' 'Roger,' I replied. And then I started hearing the motorcycle myself. I could hear it passing by us... and then it stopped. Sania said, 'It stalled.' I said, 'Roger.' He added, 'Directly at your six o’clock position, right behind you. Step out and engage.'

"So, I grabbed my rifle and said, 'Guys, who’s coming with me?' One of them replied, 'No one.' I threw on my armor, grabbed my rifle, and stepped out. I turned around and identified him. I could see his helmet clearly through the bushes. Got a good view of his helmet. At first, I thought that switching the safety lock on my rifle down quickly would put it into burst mode, but it was single-short fire. The selector was all the way down—extreme right and bottom—and I thought it was burst mode. So, I pulled the trigger—pop! A single shot. He screamed, and I realized I’m on single-fire. No bursts. No time to switch now. I started firing—pop-pop-pop. I knew I had two grenades on me, an M67 and an F1. I grabbed the M67 and threw it—boom! Then I grabbed the F1—bam! I came back and said 'Guys, I killed him!' They replied, 'We know! Star has already told us over the walkie-talkie that you killed him.' So, we went to check him out. He had armor, a helmet, radio sets, phones, passports. Looks like he was carrying power banks. Probably picking them up from a position—maybe he got lost and ended up driving to the wrong spot.

The second situation was like this: We heard movement behind us, in the forest plantation. There’s Adolf, here is such distance; here’s Pincher, and here’s the forest plantation, Pickup is located here. And we go out straight, to the rear, with another landing coming from behind, heading to the Star. That's how we enter and exit. Why couldn’t we get out? Because those bastards had moved in from Adolf’s side, ran to the forest plantation to Star, and dug in there. Our soldiers were trying to withdraw—our dismounted logistics were trying to retreat. Then a firefight broke out. We had KIAs and WIAs. We tried to push them out, but they were entrenched in their dugouts. We captured some prisoners, and they told us, "There are people in every dugout here." So, the result is that we can't withdraw —because if we do, they'll engage us.

It's an important point. The men were holding their positions there. Let’s explain why you stayed in those positions for so long without rotation. Why you remained there for so long, using drones, unable to move, hiding, and how the enemy became confused and entered your positions. Because in fact, these positions were surrounded. And the enemy was on two flanks, from what distance? Because the enemy surrounded you from two flanks. No one could enter.

It was 300 meters to Adolf on the left and 300 meters to the Star planting.

That is, the enemy was 300 meters away on both flanks, so they were confusing the positions because they were there next to each other.

Why can't we go to the right, because there is a field on the right, they will see us, first of all, through the field, and secondly, it is mined. And it turns out that we can't - we can't go forward, left f#ckers, right f#ckers, and to the right there are mines.

But, friends, it is very important, you know. Very often, when we are told to hold on, when an order is given, few people understand what is behind it. And here is an example when the 4th Rubizh Brigade of the National Guard, the Freedom Battalion, carried out this order for the longest possible time, when, in principle, it was no longer possible to fulfill this task if you look at the map. The enemy enveloped the position from both sides—300 meters on one flank, 300 meters on the other—and kept it under fire, even with small arms. They were advancing closer, making it nearly impossible to bring anyone in or evacuate anyone out. So, in fact, it was an encirclement, and the soldiers, who understood the situation perfectly, followed the order and held their ground in the encirclement. For such a long period of time.

-Now we’re reaching the turning point. We could hear the strikes on the forest plantations behind us. We clearly heard the hits. We heard outgoing and incoming rounds behind us. We understood that our forces were providing support in our rear, targeting the forest plantation. And once again, Sania went out—to the toilet.

Sania Khomiak again

Again with a bottle, and he heard chuk chuk. And again I was on duty. He came back with such eyes. He said, "Guys, a f#cker ran by. He ran right past us. We’re watching from the hideout, you know, through this little window. I said, "Wait, how did he run past? Did you actually see him?" He said, "Yeah, he ran down the trench, towards the Pickup." I relayed it over the walkie-talkie—chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk. They responded, "Roger, roger, we’ll keep an eye on him." I asked, "What was he wearing? Did you identify him? Armor, helmet? How was he dressed?" He said, "He wasn’t wearing anything, just pants and a shirt." I said, "Fuck, let's go and kill him. I contacted Star "Guys, let’s go and clear him out." They responded, "Negative, negative. I said, "Alright, we’ll sit tight, sit tight." We were quiet, but I am speaking loudly now. And we're all whispering so that he didn't hear us. I said, "Okay, guys, he’s heading towards the Pickup. He’s sitting there. There were some intact fences there. Moreover, there were few hideouts—he could have holed up in one of them. I suggested we listen for a bit. We sat there, listening. I went there to the exit. I had the machine gun ready, I was in armor. As I sat there, I heard him cough. I said, "F***, guys, am I hearing things? Relay that I hear him coughing. Let Star throw an explosive payload there, he would run out." We relayed it to Star. "Roger, roger. We were watching. " It was getting dark by then. "We were watching with night drones. No heat signatures. We were hovering above you, 24/7. But we couldn’t see anything. "I said, "F***, throw explosive payload, listen to me." "Negative, negative," they replied. I thought, "F*** this, I’m doing it." I grabbed a grenade and crawled out. One grenade over there, another one. Silence. I thought, "F***, maybe I killed him, or maybe I’m just hearing things—auditory hallucinations." The next day, we went out. We were thirsty as hell, starving too. They brought four bottles of water for four guys. And when it’s scorching like that, it’s an oven in the hole. Four bottles of water, just 1.5 liters each. He could carry up to 14 kilos. I was thinking, "Fourteen kilos of food, that’s a lot." But no, it was just four bottles, 1.5 liters each. Every bottle weighed 1.5 kilograms. That’s six kilos. Plus, they wrapped them up and threw them from above so they wouldn’t break. The wrapping added another kilo—seven kilos total.

The second half of the delivery was food. Plus, we were requesting grenades for the automatic grenade launcher (VOG rounds) because we were firing them. And they’re heavy. They also sent us some claymores to set up mines. We set up those claymores. So, basically, we were getting weapons and food. And it turned out that four bottles of water, plus enough to steam that instant noodles for four guys, isn’t that much. So we had to ration. And we were so damn thirsty. It was scorching hot. I said, "Let’s go look around." They had dropped some yellow bottles separately with the Mavic—just some aid. I thought, maybe while there are no drones around, we can go and see if we can find some food. So we went out, anyway. I filmed two videos. I said, "This was me and Roma going out."

We got into the hole. It’s not like walking down stairs—you have to sit down and slide in. It’s easy to get inside, but getting out is really uncomfortable. Getting out quickly and react is a problem. I got in, but I see that Roma isn’t coming in. That’s when instincts kick in—if a guy isn’t getting in, even though he knows he should, something’s wrong. I said, "Roma, you good?" He said, "Hand me the rifle." I give him the rifle. I ask, "What’s going on?" He said, "A f***er is standing there." I grabbed my rifle and crawled out after him. He’s moving through the trench, and I was on top of the breastwork. We both spotted him at the same time and started firing at him. We killed him. We went back inside. And after that, it was quiet for three days—nothing but calm. Honestly, we were dying from boredom. No movement, no gunfire, nothing. Peace and Quiet.

And let's explain that it's because the enemy is on all sides, and they can't figure out where their own are and where the other people are. And you can't attack them like that, because our soldiers are close by.

In the morning, the tank started firing. No more than five shots, firing toward the rear. Before this, the tank hadn’t fired at all. I hadn’t heard the tank. I had been on this position for 68 days, and I hadn’t heard a single shot from a tank. I think, "Guys, is that a tank?" Seems like it was. I was getting in touch on Signal, I saw Boxer was active there. "Boxer, is that the tank firing?" He said, "Roger, roger." I think, "Damn, alright, they’ve pulled back tank." The day goes by, it’s the 14th, and I remember I hadn’t slept well on the 13th or 14th, but on the 14th, I finally got some good sleep in the afternoon—slept like a log. And I dreamt I was walking through the trench, it was night, and there was an assault. I was clearing the trenches, leading the assault. I woke up and said, "F***, guys, what a weird dream, some crazy s***." I said, "My grandma always said, ‘Let the night take the dream away.’" So I said, "Let the night take the dream away." I thought, well, it’s daytime now. The day went by, night fell, and I was still not sleepy by midnight. From 12 to 3, I was on duty, and then I got some rest. From 12 to 3, everything’s fine, no activity at all. I texted Toma, "What’s the situation?" He replied, "All good, no signatures, everything’s fine." "Roger, roger." The delivery's fine, everything's fine, everything's on time. Even the delivery was dropped in early, which was a miracle—everything intact. Then at 3, Sania Khomiak relieved me. I laid down in my hole, the one on the right, the single sleeping area". I closed my eyes, bu I could not sleep. You know that feeling? You’re lying there, but you just can’t fall asleep. I was lying there, lying, lying, lying, and then I heard over the walkie-talkie: "Pickup, Pincher, combat readiness, prepare the anti-tank weapon." "Roger, roger. Vehicle approaching." Roger, roger. I checked the time—it’s 6:10. We had two AT launchers, and one RPG-18. I knew how to use the second AT launcher, but there’s also a stronger fourth model. But the second one is against unarmored vehicles. It hits hard, but for a tank, the second one does not have enough cumulative power to penetrate the armor.

And RPG-18s too. You have 3 light grenade launchers, which, in principle, can do little against a tank.

We have 4 shots per Ford and a lot of VOGs.

Well, this is all against infantry.

Against infantry. I say, "Roger, we can already hear it rolling in, hear the sound of the tank approaching." Over the walkie-talkie, they say, "Pincher, get ready, 9 o’clock position. That’s where Adolf is, you’ve got a tank 10 meters out." I crawled out of the hideout, they handed me the AT launcher. I pulled the pin, aimed, and I saw the tank—really, it’s just 10 meters away. I could see the reactive armor, everything. On top of it, there’s an anti-cumulative grid with chains hanging down to the ground, to stop FPV drones from hitting it. I think, "F***, where do I hit it?" I looked, and thought, "F***, the side won’t work, I won’t do any damage." I figured I would aim under the turret. I fired, and it went off—but flew right over it. I said, "Give me another AT!" They handed me a second one. I thought, "Alright, I got it, I’ll aim a bit lower this time." There’s a bit of a mound, so I stood on my toes to see clearly. I fired, but it didn’t go off. I say, "Guys, give me the RPG!" There’s a whole mess going on—they’re trying to open the RPG, but it’s fuck, there is need to set it up.... They said, "F***, nobody knows how to use it." I shouted, "Just give me something, anything!" They handed me the Ford, and I knew I had four rounds for it—one already loaded. I jumped out, fire—and it flew over the tank. I loaded another one, fire—the tank started moving, and it flew over again. I thought, "F***, am I stupid person or what?" I loaded all four rounds, and they all overshoot. I was thinking, "F***, am I an idiot? I can’t even pull myself together." I said, "Give me the GP!" They handed me the rifle, GP, but the GP jammed—it won’t fire. The tank rolled in, and I turned my head to the right and saw two more coming.

I contacted on Signal and gave information the tank that passed us, my AT launcher didn't work, and I missed the second one. He said roger, roger. "I said, guys, f@ck, I didn’t hit a single target with the VOG. But if I had hit with VOG, it would’ve turned the barrel and blown it up. Well, our shelter wasn’t special. We had an earth embankment. If it had hit, they would’ve identified us, those two behind us, they would’ve finished us off, for sure. I said, well, maybe that would’ve been fine too. I said, alright, now we have drones. I know how Freedom works. I said, guys, Freedom is gonna tear them up with FPV drones. We just need to wait."

Petro Kuzyk:

An enemy convoy was moving. Leading the column were two tanks, fully reinforced with what they call "mangals" (barbecue-style cages) and fitted with mine rollers—like those used for laying asphalt, designed to sweep minefields. Behind them followed five armored vehicles with infantry, ready to dismount. Their objective was clear: to clear a path all the way to our infantry positions, make a landing into our trenches. From what we've observed, and what we’ve seen from neighboring positions, their tactic is the same—they send their infantry into our trenches while we’re occupied with trench warfare. Meanwhile, a second wave of infantry arrives on the cleared road. In essence, they outnumbered. This tactic is old and predictable, and we’ve adapted our response. We began targeting the tanks. We managed to stop the first tank—mines, FPV drones, and an anti-tank system all worked in combination. The crew had no chance. The second tank hit mines, and the crew bailed out and started retreating. It was obvious that the orcs had orders to keep advancing, as the armored vehicles began maneuvering around the disabled tanks and continued moving in our direction. And then they started destroying the armored vehicles. Right in front of the position where the guys were firing. The infantry dismounted of the damaged armored vehicles, and they tried to drop explosive payload, tried to hit them right away. Accordingly, they scattered, and most of them ran towards our positions.

Roman Omelianenko, senior soldier of the 4th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, " Freedom" battalion

 I came out right away. It turned out that I was the very first near the entrance, I got out and saw the enemy coming from the left and right along the trench. I opened fire with my automatic rifle. Left to right. Sasha was the second one out. Khomiak Sania. He gave me grenades. I started throwing grenades at them. The machine jammed, they gave me another one. I started firing. Then I asked Sania Khomiak, Sania come out and help me. Sasha came out and we started to fight together. The two of us started throwing grenades, shooting and everything. I don't know how long the fight lasted, 5 minutes, I don't know.

Vladyslav Stotskyi:

I couldn't see, but I could hear. I only saw their legs. I heard one of the bastards yelling, " You fuck me off already, f***!" followed by a submachine gun burst: "Tatatatata." I realized it wasn’t our gunfire—it was directed at our guys.

At that moment, I saw Roma trying to get into the dugout, but the entrance was too small. He couldn’t fit in. I grabbed him by the legs and pulled him inside. As I was pulling him in, Sasha crouched down, completely blocking the entrance with his body. Roma said, "Sania is killed." I asked, "Are you injured?" He replied, "Yes, I'm injured." I told him to come here. He moved into the blindage. I grabbed my rifle. I understood that I couldn't leave because I had no idea where the bastard was. I wouldn't have time to identify him. I thought I had to fight chaotically, shooting everywhere to make sure they could hear that I was firing. We had pre-loaded magazine cases. I took my rifle and started firing in all directions. I could hear one of them moving nearby, so I aimed toward that sound and kept firing non-stop. When my ammo ran out, I reloaded and continued: "Tatatata." The gun jammed. I kicked it with my foot and kept firing. It jammed again. I tossed the rifle to Puppet, shouting, "Clean it and reload the loading cases, or we are dead!" Puppet relayed over the walkie-talkie with Pickup, bandaging the wounded and reloading the loading cases while cleaning the rifle. Meanwhile, I was engaged in continuous fire. I thought to myself, "I need to throw a grenade, f@ck." I grabbed a grenade, threw it out of the dugout, and heard it explode. Then I shouted, "Guys, they’re going to start tossing grenades at us soon because they can’t get closer." I heard the distinct sound of a grenade. I can hear him clearly, f**k, the sound of grenades firing off."

I shouted, "Grenade!" and I flattened myself against the wall here, they’re all exploding against the wall, and it did not roll to us, because Sania, he died, he crouched, and in the place where he crouched, he blocked the last hole through which anything could get to us. A grenade landed at his feet, exploded. I keep fighting. I heard another grenade went off. It landed at his feet, and he held it with his dead body. It exploded again, but I kept firing. That’s how it was, damn it, I don’t even know for how long, damn it. I really don’t know how long it lasted."I have no idea how long this lasted. It was total chaos. I can’t even tell you how long we fought like that. I tried to reach out to Star, but no connection—nothing. We're only in contact with Pickup via Signal. They already destroyed our antenna. No comms. I could hear them moving around, firing at us. But they couldn't get a direct line of fire into our dugout. I was doing everything I could to prevent them from getting a direct line of fire. They didn't hit us with RPGs or anything. I was holding this position, countering. I told the guys, "If we go silent, we will be dead." We’re reloading ammo, cleaning our AK rifles. I saw Roma applying on a tourniquet. I told Puppet, "Apply a dressing to his arm." I saw his arm’s not broken, but a bullet went through it, straight through, leaving it open on both sides. He took out a bandage. I said, "No, not a bandage. I said, "Here, a hemostatic. Take the hemostatic, open it, patch up it tightly. It's a bandage, patch up it tightly, and it will stop bleeding. I kept fighting. Then another grenade, fuck it, and I don`t know, they must had thrown at least ten grenades at us. All of them landed near Sania’s feet. He literally blocked it with his own body, f@#k, grenade didn’t reach us, do you understand?

Oleksandr Khomiak covered the soldiers with his body. He covered them to the end. He took the fight.

The fight had already subsided. I checked the time—it was around 2 PM. I could hear FPV drones targeting us. Our guns were probably firing back too. Artillery was firing, just hitting hard to kill those bastards. That three-group attack against us was over. Later, they started coming in groups of five or three. They found wounded and shoot back. During this time, when the comms were disrupted, we had spider antenna and another mounted separately. I turned it on, adjusted the signal, but it wouldn’t catch anything from inside the trench. I had to stick my hand out of the trench to get a signal. The first time I reached out, I sent some information, but then a bastard fired a burst at me. I quickly pulled my hand back and didn’t get hit. This happened a couple of times until, apparently, they killed him out. After that, I managed to communicate properly. That’s how I was sending messages—hand out of the trench. I relay a couple of words to the Pickup, they’d relay it to Vietnam, Vietnam would pass it to Star, and then back to Vietnam, Vietnam to the Pickup, and I’d wait for the response to come back to me. I sent the message: 'Relay to Star, we’re withdrawing today.' They responded, 'Roger, roger either today or tomorrow.' Later, as it got darker and dusk settled in, we received confirmation that vehicles were coming to pick us up." I said—pass the information to Star, it’ll understand. Hit the forest plantation at Star with all weapons. That’s where the f@ckers... They should just throw mines, explosive payloads, everything they’ve got—kill them. We’ll move through the woods at night. I would withdraw the soldiers. He said, "Roger, Roger," then paused and said, "No, Volodos, this plan is f@ckingly risky. The vehicles won’t сame for you." He added, "We’ll cover you." "Here’s how it goes. You have cloaks. There are four people in the pickup. Two of them come to you, and you meet them. One of yours gets on the pickup. I decided the first one to go would be the wounded. I said, 'The wounded is being moved to the center.' First, Skif goes, followed by Vilnyi, and I don’t remember who else.

They come out of the trench, the command is given to move, and we’ve got three drones hovering above us plus three FPVs. There’s an FPV on Adolf, one of ours hovering and another on the forest plantation at Star. If there’s any movement, a drop—boom—it’s all over. They step out, move three or four meters, and I heard a burst of automatic fire. I thought of asking Star what happened, but then I stayed silent. I figured it was an automatic burst—either our guys fired or they were fired upon. Our guys were not shouting or retreating. I thought to myself, you could not kill three men in a row with a burst like that, especially with only four rounds of ammo. That means our guys are alive. It was probably our fire, maybe even a random shot. I decided not to ask so as not to interrupt Star, who’s on a closed channel guiding them with a drone, telling them how to cross the field. They’re moving out, it turned out—bastards in front, behind, and to the sides—and we have to cross this field. About 20 minutes later, Star reports back, 'Vlados, roger, roger the first group is roger.' I replied, 'Understood.' Then the second group arrived. "Two guys from the Pickup came. I took one of them, and we headed out across the field. Everything was fine, we made it. I asked, 'Guys, when you were crossing, about 3–4 meters in, there was a shot. What was that?' Was it you? Skif said, 'Yeah, that was us.' I said, 'We were moving, saw wounded crawling. He barely started to say something, and boom, he was done.' We said, 'That’s it, we withdrew, no issues.'"

Were there heavy losses for the enemy? How many did you see taken out there?

"When I was withdrawing, I didn’t count the bodies, but I stepped over two and saw a third one crawling. And in the evening, the commander called and said that we had killed 50 people, fuck, a lot of equipment.

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

You don't have to go far afield

Is this your uniform, mate?

Yes, this is my uniform.

Show me your uniform.

"These are the same pants and the exact same combat shirt I wore. I bought them because they’ve been pass through all this challenges, and they’ll pass more.

"You wore this through two months of nonstop fighting."

What will you do with it now?

"I’m going to burn it to hell. There’s no point keeping it. These are the worst memories. I wanted to burn it earlier, but I just threw it in a box. Now, when I get home, I’ll cook something, light the fire, in the pot we bought. First thing I’ll do is burn these to hell. I don’t need them. There’s nothing good in them—just dirt, shit, blood, piss. Nothing valuable in them at all."

Tell us about how you were greeted—by your comrades, your brothers, your commanders.

"They were shocked. We walk in, and everyone’s hugging, kissing. I kissed company commander on the forehead. I said, 'Toma, man, I’m so happy to see you.' He said, 'F***, Vlados, you guys are insane. I’ve never seen anything like this before. You’re f***ing special forces.'"

"After the whole battle was replayed, we started talking, ‘Guys, do you realize that Sania died in a way that he blocked the entrance with his body? Every grenade that exploded near us, he blocked with his own body. They landed at his feet and detonated.’
I said, ‘Guys, we just spoke with his mom yesterday. His birthday is on September 20th—that’s in five days. Yesterday, when I spoke to her, she asked how I was doing. Let’s take his body back.’
We still had abag for a fallen comrade. I said, ‘Let’s use the body bag, take Sania, put him in. I’ll grab gloves and pull him out carefully so we can pack him up. We still have an armored vehicle coming to pick us up.’ At that moment, we didn’t know we’d have to leave on foot. We had been told earlier that armor was on its way. The guys agreed, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ But then Oleh came out and said, ‘No, the armor’s minus. I said, ‘So we won’t be able to take Sania?’ He said, ‘No, guys, we can’t.’ So, he stayed there."

What were you thinking about the most during those over two months of fighting in those positions?

Home. I called home. I texted my wife. She was constantly supporting me. Thank God for the Signal, it's a good thing I took the Internet devices away—it honestly saved us so many times. In those first moments when the radio communications set went silent, the Signal was a lifesaver, even during the battle. Toma told me to сontact through Signal instead of the radio communications set. And for guys..."

Signal means the Signal app?

"Yeah, Signal – Signal app.

The 'Signal' app, which was functioning for you because you established the connection.

Having internet was an absolute lifesaver for us. It also provided a huge moral boost for the guys. When I got to them and brought the internet, they'd been without it for a month. Suddenly, they had access, so they could call home, see their families, and even talk to them. They were amazed to see themselves with beards and hearing from home. They were happy call, talk, and were asked when they’d be rotated out. The answer was always the same—no rotation yet. But at least they could call home, stay in touch,. I could call too, and it made everything much simpler.

Please tell us about the person who supported you every day, your wife. What is her name?

Anastasia, she's sitting in the car. She supported me every day. She’s a one-of-a-kind wife. If I couldn’t get through, she found the company commander’s number, found the number of the brigade operations duty officer, and she was calling everyone. I was reached out on the radio set, at position saying, ‘Get in touch because rumors are spreading—people are calling, saying you’ve been killed, or we’ve been wiped out.’ There were a couple of days without any communication. She even got in touch with the company commander, but he wasn’t responding. I only managed to text her early in the morning on the 15th after I hit the tank. I came back, wrote, ‘We've got tanks approaching, it's a storm.’ Then I put my phone down. At night, at 2:30 or 3:00 a.m., I went to Star and texted her, ‘I’m okay. Everything’s fine.’ She’s worried. When I got back, Toma, the company commander, hugged me and the first thing he said was, ‘Call Nastia.’ He did not ask me how I am—he told me, ‘Call Nastia.’ So I called her, and she said, ‘I’m getting on the first train.’ I asked, ‘When’s the first train?’ She replied, ‘It leaves Kyiv station at 6 a.m. She had already asked one of her friends to help. Her friend’s husband is also in the war. She said, ‘No problem, if you need to leave at 4 a.m., we’ll make it happen so you can catch the train.’ They got up, sorted everything out, and left in the early morning. By 6 a.m., she was on the train, heading here. When I got home, Mykolayovych asked, ‘Is your wife coming?’ I said, ‘She’s already on the train.’

What are your parents' names?

Iryna Stepanivna and Volodymyr Sviatoslavovych.

Well, Iryna Stepanivna, Volodymyr Sviatoslavovych, this is really one of the most powerful stories I have ever heard or seen in the war or in life in general. Thank you for raising your son, he is a true Ukrainian hero and an example for everyone in his battalion. I am sure that such commanders and citizens should be the backbone of our defense forces.

Petro Kuzyk:

The soldiers of this position - Roman Omelianenko, Oleksandr Khomiak and Vladyslav Stotskyi - all three of them are nominated by me for the highest award - the Hero of Ukraine. Oleksandr Khomiak is a true Ukrainian warrior, 

a fighter who selflessly and professionally fought for Ukraine, and the positions they defended left fifty corpses of the occupier and 6 units of burned equipment. I am proud of my comrade-in-arms, we are proud to be in the same unit with him. Oleksandr Khomiak is a true hero of Ukraine. The commander of the position, junior lieutenant with the call sign Fire, Vladyslav Stotskyi, I have nominated for the highest state award Hero of Ukraine, I believe he deserves this title, he is already a Hero of Ukraine.