"Bradley" combat vehicle driver Slavik, call sign Salty: "Vehicle hits chain of 12 TM mines. Front end smashes, but everyone is alive, even not single seriously injured one"

The appearance of the infantry fighting vehicle, named after the American general of the Second World War, Omar Bradley, was awaited in Ukraine as a salvation. And the enemies were afraid. And the vehicles have proven to be very reliable. "This IFV was invented and designed to save human life," the guys who are fighting in Bradley emphasized several times during our conversation. The 47th Magura Brigade was equipped with them. It was on these vehicles that the volunteer fighters tried to break through the powerful defense system of the occupiers in the Zaporizhzhia region.

I myself was very interested to talk to the men who came to the 47th Brigade in different ways - those who heard about the selection and voluntarily passed it, those who were mobilized, and those who transferred from another unit. All three of them had not fought until 2022. And they do not call themselves soldiers. They want to live a normal life. But due to the circumstances, they became the infantrymen on whom Ukraine's defense actually holds. None of them wants to stay in the army after the victory. None of them likes the war. But now they are forced to do what is necessary.

We talked to the Magura soldiers in Pokrovsk, shortly before they were redeployed to another hot spot. The way they talked about their deployments, their training, rescuing their comrades in arms, their own contusions, their hopes and dreams, I was struck by the incredible contrast. The youngest in this company is 27-year-old Ivan Kononiuk, call sign Stalwart, a gun gunner. He joined the brigade as a volunteer fighter, was selected, and studied in Germany. So did 38-year-old Slavik, who has the call sign Salty. In civilian life, he used to cook. He got his call sign for putting too much salt ... But during the fighting, he doesn't cook anything - these skills seem to have remained behind some imaginary line. Here, he is a Bradley mechanic-driver and seems to feel each vehicle by its sound, rhythm, and smell. Dmytro, 34, with the call sign Christmas, has been cooking pasta in restaurants in Kremenchuk and Sumy for many years. But during the war, even during his rest, he never stood at the stove. Here, he is the commander of a Bradley fighting vehicle. He joined the 47th from the 3rd Assault Brigade. He wanted to work on Paladins - self-propelled howitzers, but he became a crew commander. And he seems to have no regrets. Because the company is very powerful. And efficient.

In the photo (from left to right):

Gun gunner Ivan, crew commander Dmytro and driver-mechanic Slavik

"EVERY TIME I GO ON A MISSION, I'M SCARED"

- I'm from Dubno, Rivne region," Ivan Kononiuk says about himself. - "I joined the brigade when the 3rd battalion was being formed, in November 2022. After a certain period, we went to Germany, where we were selected, and the instructors looked at who could do what. There we were taught how to use the Bradley. The commanders of the combat vehicle and the gunners studied together, and the driver-mechanics studied separately. After Germany, we received our equipment.

- Who are you in civilian life?

- I worked on construction sites, traveled abroad and did a little work at home. For the last two years before the full-scale war, we developed a farm at home. We built a pigsty according to European standards. We planned to develop it. But the war interrupted everything. In fact, I originally wanted to join the 80s - I did my military service there - but it didn't work out that way. In the fall, I joined the 47th.

- "When did you join the brigade and how?" I ask the other soldiers. - "And what did you do in civilian life?"

- "I've worked so many jobs..." Slavik answers. - "I was a taxi driver, among other things. That's probably why I was sent to study to become a mechanic-driver of an infantry fighting vehicle. I joined the 47th through the military enlistment office. That's where I was sent. Before that, I had no military experience. During my studies, I was interested in learning something new. I love heavy machinery, so I seemed to be able to do it. And the guys are happy with me now.

- And what is the Bradley like inside?

- I will say this: as a mechanic and as a driver, I enjoy this car. I feel comfortable in it. There is enough space for me.

-"You'll have enough space wherever you sit," I say, because Slavik is quite thin.

- I lived in the car for over a year.

- You lived in the car?

- Yes, I did.

- "When we first got the equipment, at first the cars were parked in the forest plantations," Ivan explains.

- "So we lived in the Bradley," Slavik continues.

- But did you understand what you were being trained for? That you would be storming, breaking through the enemy's defence line, liberating the territory...

What was the difficulty? The place of the assault had to be demined. The engineering equipment arrived. Then the Bradley was next, and the Leopard was behind me. Finally, we could not move forward because we were behind the deminers. The corridor was so narrow that the vehicle could not turn around.

- We had to turn around very carefully within the lane," Ivan explains. - "Back and forth, back and forth... We turned around so carefully and took out the "two hundredths" and "three hundredths".

- Most of the people in our unit had never served before and didn’t know what war was like," Slavik adds. "My first mission was... I was driving, and a vehicle in front of me exploded. The turret flew off to the side, the vehicle "swelled up" – it looked like it was distorted by air. I thought: that’s it... But then the hatch opened, and the gunner and commander climbed out of the overturned turret. They were bruised, but alive. Then they pulled out the driver-mechanic. They really got hit hard, but they survived. They were evacuated. That was my first mission. When everything around you is flying and exploding... I still can’t come to terms with it."

- But every time you get in the car and drive.

- What can we do? We have to go. If we don't go, who will? Every time I go, I get scared. It's like a marathon: when you run, you don't feel any pain, you just think you have to run. As soon as you stop, you start to feel short of breath and your muscles hurt. But while you're running, everything is fine. I guess that's how we are - we're always on the move.

- Everyone says that Bradley is a very reliable car.

- It is very reliable! Its armor works wonders! This car is designed to save lives," says Slavik. "I have already driven seven cars. All of them were either hit - a direct hit, in the side, from above, or exploded on mines. And no one was killed! The seventh one even drove itself, it has already been repaired, just like the first ones that were damaged... I changed four cars in Zaporizhzhia... Three are already near Avdiivka.

- We got all the vehicles that did not drive after hit or explosion. We left nothing for the enemy, - Ivan adds.

- "It happened that we took off our shoes, dismounted, and walked two kilometers from the battlefield," Dmytro recalls. - "And then we got our car... It was already here, in the Pokrovsk direction. I am the youngest of these Bradley drivers. The guys from Zaporizhzhia are firing, and I've already started here.

- And when did you join the brigade?

- In October 2023.

- We were just at the training ground," Ivan explains.

- "I came there from Bakhmut because I was in the 3rd Assault Brigade before," Dmytro continues. - "I was transferred to work at Paladin. I have a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) - artilleryman. I practiced for a year, I have experience. One day I met a representative of the 47th Brigade, who told me that they had Paladins in their brigade. So I decided to transfer here for such a job. But I found myself in the infantry, became a crew commander of a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle...

In Avdiivka, we were helping the 3rd Assault and 255th Battalions of the DIU. The last battalion to withdraw from the city, we were adjusting the withdrawal of the 3rd Assault Battalion, and we were taking out the fighters ourselves. Because on the last night, there were still twenty people left. They split into three groups, and we came back for them several times and took them all away.

When we first went out, I didn’t understand how the crew operated. A Polish 'Krab' led us to the position. We arrived close to the planting and stood three meters before it, just in front of it. And they told me, ‘Fire!’ I ask, ‘Where?’ They said, ‘At the planting.’ And that’s when I realized we had an encounter—five to ten meters away. It shocked me a little. This was near the villages of Semenivka, Berdychi, and Stepove, close to Avdiivka."

Around the same time, we went to work with the Leopards. That was the first time I saw this tank. Relatively speaking, I didn't know what armored vehicles were until I came here. "The Leopard had to do its job, and then we had to finalize it. Well, a plan is a plan. He managed to shoot twice, then something hit him in the side. The crew said they were hit. We realize that we have to take them out now. They were getting out. As soon as they got out and ran about 30-50 meters to our car, I saw that the tank was already on fire, it was not visible, it was such a fire. That was my meeting with Leopard. We drove on, the tank stayed behind.

We still had a young driver-mechanic, green as grass, like me. So he and I went through the fastest possible course: during the first three days, we dismounted out of the car and walked on foot under cannonade, we were hit by hand-held AT grenade launchers, we evacuated the wounded, rotated the soldiers on the position. We supported an assault, covered the assault, and repelled the assault. In three days we had everything. It was an accelerated course.

- Why do you have the call sign Christmas? It's kind of unexpected.

- Because my surname is Rozhdestven (a surname from Ukrainian is a derivative of the word Christmas - ed. note). I am from Kremenchuk. But I met the full-scale war in Irpin because I was working there. I wanted to join the 3rd Assault Brigade right away, but there was no place.

- What did you do?

- I'm a cook in general. And there I helped my friends to serve the recharge terminal units. The guys and I saw the fighting near Kyiv, we were there for nine or eleven days, I don't remember, and then we left through the conditional "green corridor".

- Have you ever served before?

- No, not even compulsory military service.

- Perhaps you can explain how quickly a civilian becomes not only a military man but also an expert in foreign equipment?

- Everything you care about, your life, depends on these skills. And you hammer these skills into your head in such a way that, I think, you will never get them out later. I was just on vacation. I sat and looked at the sky. I realized that everything was calm, we were just sitting, but I kept looking at the sky. I guess it's a professional deformation...

- Compared to what happened in Zaporizhzhia, here, near Avdiivka, fewer fields were mined. But over time, a lot of FPVs started flying here," says Ivan. - "One day, we had a couple of missions in four hours. And while we were driving, I was turning the turret and monitoring the sky. You looked up and two FPVs were flying overhead. We have one specialist who shot down two FPVs from a Bushmaster. You have to be lucky to do that.

- "Yeah, yeah," Slavik recalls, "and once I was driving and saw an FPV start to build up speed in my direction. And I was walking along the highway. I saw it was starting to descend, going down the trajectory. I waited until it came close and jerked the steering wheel. The drone exploded, but it moved tangentially, hitting the defense a little bit, but not penetrating it. I understood that there was a cumulative charge.

The second time I went to the field after that, and the drone was already hovering there, waiting...

- We then took another fighter, - Ivan adds. - "And then we also dodged the bullet ... The machine gun was firing on the FPV. It was just our luck that it did not hit us.

- Before that, a swallow flew to me - I was afraid of the bird. I thought it was something else, not a bird. And then I noticed that the birds were flying in circles, spinning, but one of them was not spinning. I could see that it was descending. That's why I yanked the steering wheel, and it was good that there were no mines in that field.

- "The EW system that Bradley is equipped with is supposed to jam the FPV if they are flying on standard frequencies," says Dmytro. "In such a situation, when they lose control, the FPV continues to fly by inertia, so they will hit somewhere. Maybe even into the armor. We've had that happen. But, well, everyone is alive. It's just that you pay for total luck there with total bad luck in everything else...

- But you are a philosopher, not a cook.

- I am an unlucky person. In the war, I am lucky, but otherwise not so much... I'm just wondering how it will end..." Dmytro laughs.

- Do you always work on the same car? Relatively speaking, on your own?

- "Every time we are on duty, we get a new car, because it's hit," Dmytro answers. - "We pull out the vehicle or drive it out, but it is no longer combat-ineffective. And each vehicle has its own nuances. Somewhere you can't turn the turret sharply, somewhere the brakes are jammed. As a rule, this is discovered on the road, when you are directly in contact with the car.

- It shouldn't be like that!

- It's very difficult to control it and find minor flaws before you go - there's no time for that. Because the vehicle is repaired as quickly as possible and sent back because we need to cover our positions and take out the wounded...

"WHAT DOES THE ENEMY DO? HE MAKES CARS OUT OF CARDBOARD AND SENDS THEM TO WAR. IF ONE DOESN'T MAKE IT, ANOTHER ONE WILL. THESE CARS ARE CHEAP, AND PEOPLE ARE FOR FREE."

- At what point did you realize that the machine was very reliable? The first battle, the second, the third...

- When you blow up on something and realize that you are alive... When "IFV" hits mines, nothing remains of it. And here - minimal concussion, I went to take an IV drip and that's it.

- Recently, we were driving along the plantation in two cars, Karatsupa in front and us behind," adds Slavik. - "As I understand it, we wanted to cut off the enemy from this plantation and defeat them. We were driving, and we were striking the plantation. The first vehicle hit 12 TMs! Chain of 12 TM mines. The car's front end was smashed, but everyone was alive, even not single seriously injured one.

- Did the car get out of there?

- No, the engine blew out.

- "My vehicle hit six TMs in Zaporizhzhia," says Ivan. "As practice shows, in such cases, the Bradley's front end is smashed, but everything else remains intact.

- "I recovered from the concussion," Slavik continues, "and we went to get that vehicle. We got it. While it was standing there, the enemy took a hand-held AT grenade launcher and shot at the side. They were very curious to see how the armor held up. There was a chainsaw and other tools inside. They took something out and took it away...

- Unfortunately, several Bradleys had already been taken by the enemy. They always wanted to capture such a vehicle...

- "Yes, but not to make a similar one," says Slavik. - "It is expensive and time-consuming. "They have another working option: they glued together some cardboard and sent them to war. If one doesn't make it, another one will. They are cheap. And people are for free. They will not make such a car. But, having studied it, they know where to hit it, they know its weaknesses, and now they hit it there. But the survival inherent in the Bradley is just enormous.

- Lately, Russians have been storming our positions on whatever they can find...

- They arrive by bus, by "loafs", by bikes... They are given a task to storm the area, and it's up to you how you get there. Even on skis... There was one case when they came in a car with an alarm. We could hear that at some point it went off...

- Have you seen how other armored vehicles, ours in particular, are arranged? Are you interested in this?

- Well, I looked at the military characteristics... Some of them may be faster, some may be something else... But no vehicle other than a Bradley is capable of going to the plantation, driving through it, picking up our guys from the encirclement and driving back. I guarantee it. Even if the driver is very lucky.

- So you are Bradley fans?

- Life made me become one," says Slavik.

- I'm not a fan," adds Dmytro. - "In general, I don't like war. I would rather stay at home. They decided for me that I shouldn't stay at home. Well, as they decided, the occupiers came here... I have to work. But by coincidence, it's good that I work for Bradley. I'm happy with it.

- "Comparing IFV to a Bradley is like comparing a Zaporozhets to a good foreign car," Dmytro continues.

- "In the Bradley, you don't feel the hit of a hand-held AT grenade launcher. "But the APC will pierce you," says Slavik.

-"Even a 5.45 caliber machine gun bullet at the right angle pierced through the armor. And there is aluminum underneath, so any mine is dangerous... APCs are not made for quality and saving lives. They are made to get in and get there - if not these, then the next ones. This is how the Russians act. And it works, we are forcing back, retreating, because they have a completely unlimited number of people, assault after assault. It is not clear where they get them and what drives them.

I draw conclusions based on how many wounded we have taken out. I believe the Bradley is a machine for saving lives, not killing.

"I THINK ALL OUR MISSIONS ARE HAPPY BECAUSE WE ARE STILL ALIVE"

- They say that you also fought with an enemy vehicle?

- I guess it happened," Slavik shrugs.

- "We finished off one. We were on our way back, and we heard on the walkie-talkie: "An APC is moving towards you. Meet him." So we fired at him about 200 meters away. It was close," Dmytro recalls.

- "When the Russians move against Bradleys, no matter whether they are APCs or not, they don't know where to go," says Slavik. "We also know clearly from the enemy's behavior when they are rotating. Those who have already been targeted by the Bradley are already burying themselves even in the asphalt... And here, in the position opposite, they are sitting in a half-crouch. 300-400 meters, line of sight. It was night. They, of course, did not see me, but I could see them well. It was obviously a rotation. I started to strike at them... Until these newcomers got used to it, you could strike at them as much as possible. And when you had learned everything, you drove away and you couldn't see anyone. Then we fired from a distant position by coordinates. The machine was accurate, the machine fired very well.

- How can you see anything while driving this car?

- Bradley has a special system that allows you to see everything on the screen. There is a night vision camera, and as a combat vehicle commander, I look at both the road and the sky," Dmytro answers. "Once we were driving along the road at night and everything was fine. And at dawn, we came back and there were mines lying there, laid out neatly, symmetrically, in a checkerboard pattern. Good, I saw them. When you drive, you have to look up, where the "UAVs" fly, and at your feet.

- In Germany, we learned how to look at people's silhouettes and recognize equipment from a car," Ivan adds.

- Which mission was the most painful for you, or do you consider it a failure?

- We were bringing infantry to the positions, were blown up, and Russian artillery started shelling us. A couple of hits were very close," Ivan recalls. - "But we did not stand still, we maneuvered. When you have to fire, you have to be on the move. But everything stroke at me... We were moving and shooting back - we were being guided.

- How do you stay cool-headed at such moments? Not to panic?

- You realize that either you will die in a panic or you will do something, and then you have a chance to survive.

- You have to give your life as much as possible," adds Slavik.

- "Another crew was coming to us... We stood up steady.

- "I said: wait," Dmytro continues. - "I opened the access ramp but did not lower it. We were waiting for it to explode, because they would be aiming at the place where we would be leaving and crossing anyway. So after the explosion, we immediately opened it sharply and ran.

- We came out of that battle without scratch marks," Ivan says.

- I think all the missions are great, everyone is happy because we are still alive. Even the ones when we were blown up," adds Slavik.

"WHY WOULD I GO THERE TO DIE?" - "AND YOU DON'T DIE, YOU FIGHT, WORK, DEFEND"

- Do you imagine returning to civilian life?

- "There are many things that irritate me there," Ivan replies. - "What is it like at home now? You come home and what?

- Any war ends eventually, it's obvious," adds Slavik.

- "My friend said, in my opinion, very, very accurately: we are like those one-day butterflies. It's a dark joke, but..." says Dmytro. - "There are guys who make some plans. But I don't. We have hit this wall that needs to be removed. And then everything else.

- "I don't want to fight," says Slavik. - I want to go home.

- So it was during the large-scale offensive that the defender's gene awoke in you?

- "It's not a gene," Slavik answers. - "It's not at the level of genetics, because if it were at the genetic level, everyone would go. But not everyone goes to war in Ukraine. "Why should I go there to die?" - So you don't die, you fight, you work, you defend.

- Dmytro, why did you study to be a chef?

- I didn't study, I worked. "Viva Oliva is a Sumy-based chain that has twice received the award from the TV show Revizor. It is a trattoria, Italian light cuisine. A friend who runs restaurants once said that they were looking for a chef for a while. But you know that there is nothing more permanent than temporary.

- So, what did you cook?

- I started with pasta. Carbonara was the most popular item. It was ordered the most. We sold more carbonara in a month than all other dishes combined.

- So you can cook it with your eyes closed and while sleeping.

- That's how I used to cook... (Laughs.) What did you expect? I started there with no experience, and I didn't even go out for five or six hours to smoke. Before Viva Oliva was opened in Kremenchuk, I went to Sumy and worked in the kitchen there for three days, and then I was thrown into hell in my hometown. We expected a lot of people to come. But we did not even understand 20 percent of what was going to happen.

- Did you make good money?

- The same salary, even if two people came in a day, even if 332... Then we, four men from Viva Oliva, went back to Sumy, to the Kozatska Brovarnia. We brewed beer there, made liqueurs... I cooked mostly hot food there.

- Slavik, did you study to be a cook intentionally?

- My father wanted me to be a cook.

- "But I used to put too much salt to everything," I remember you saying when we met. And none of you ever cooked anything for your comrades-in-arms during the war?

- I had a unit with three cooks. And none of them had ever cooked," Ivan adds.

- "There's a big difference between a professional kitchen and a home kitchen," Dmytro replies. - "There, you have everything at your hands, you throw away the dirty stuff and that's it, you don't have a mess. And here you put a plate down and it's already hindering you.

- What makes you happy at war?

- You get a lot of positive feelings when you dismantle enemy infantry and destroy Russian equipment. You feel some kind of positive, more courage," says Dmytro.

- "In war, the main thing is a person," adds Slavik. - "After the first combat mission, it is clear who is who. It just fits together. "I'm like this, like that!" someone boasts. And on the road, he don't say a word, sit somewhere in the corner, don't show themselves in any way. And then he comes and starts boasting about what a warrior he is. We have a lot of guys who have shown themselves very strongly. But they don't boast about it. And they are young! Take Kach himself - he's 19 or 20 years old, and he's been on so many combat missions that he can't even count them. 

- "During the time we have been fighting, we had one loss," says Ivan. "We hit a TM mine, and at the moment when the driver-mechanic was getting out, it hit the side of the vehicle, and the fragments cut him... If he had been getting out from behind, everything would have been fine. And so... But even one loss for us is significant and painful...

...During the preparation of the material, it became known that Ivan had suffered an arm injury in the Pokrovsk direction, near Zhelanne, and is now undergoing treatment.

Violetta Kirtoka, Censor.NET