Yurii from Chernivtsi was mobilized at the end of March. The man was sent to the 72nd detached mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “When I was conscripted, I was full of emotions: Russia took Crimea away, think about that! First I thought we were going to take Crimea back, but then unrest in Donbas started. Okay, I thought, let’s go there and show Russia!” Yurii says.
In July, in a Grad attack from Russia, the man was injured by a shell explosion, splinters hit his head, back, and arm. The arm suffered the most: nerves and a vein were damaged. Now Yurii is at the Main Military Clinical Hospital in Kyiv, he has been through several surgeries. The man admits: “I have a physical injury, there is no serious psychological trauma. However, I have an unpleasant feeling when I hear fireworks. And I worry about my arm a lot.”
Yurii tried out a lot of professions before he was conscripted: he worked as an English translator, sales manager, and repairman. At the war he was assigned to an artillery command platoon. Informally Yurii’s squad specialized in supplies and maintenance: soldiers loaded shells, delivered parcels to the military, and dug trenches. “At first supplies were scarce: we did not eat enough and were freezing often. In general, I spent four months in the fields: tents, fields, bushes, even snakes in some places. Closer to the summer volunteers started helping us out, sleeping bags appeared and the food became more variegated. However, I do not eat porridge now at all, I cannot bear the look of it: there is only porridge at the front, and nothing else,” Yurii smiles.
By the way, Yurii’s division protected the border of Zaporizhia and Donetsk oblasts, it was located near Amvrosiivka and covered border crossing point Uspenka. Artillerists fired back in response to militants’ attacks near Amvrosiivka, and only if the enemy bombarded from the Ukrainian territory. Yurii emphasized: “We never shelled villages or towns. We fired where separatists were hiding in the bush. In general, we just sat near Amvrosiivka and waited, while Russian drones were flying over our heads exploring the terrain. We shot one down, of course, but... We should have moved on, clean up Amvrosiivka. But instead we waited till our equipment and vehicles were destroyed and we had a lot of wounded and dead.”
According to Yurii, many soldiers receive psychological traumas. The man remembers when boys from his platoon were dispatched as reinforcement. The soldiers set out without officers, an ambush was waiting for them at the destination point, and they were shelled from mortars. They hid in a bunker and survived, but received psychological traumas and are now being treated in a psychiatric hospital.
Yurii thinks that fighters of the 72nd brigade who retreated to the Russian territory did the right thing, because they saved their lives. “In public, the command declares that the most important is to save soldiers’ lives. And when the men retreated, they were called deserters. No, they saved their lives,” Yurii notes and adds, “we did not have deserters. Some of our men were placed along the border, and all their equipment was destroyed by bombing. So, they dropped their guns and went to Bila Tserkva. They were lucky and got there safe and sound. Men from another division were captured, it all depends on luck. But it is not desertion.”
“An ordinary miracle” and delight for the military on the frontline is a field shower. Yurii explained how a field shower stall is made: you need to put two planks between two trees and an improvised barrel on top, for example it could be made out of a large can. A tap is fixed at the bottom and the construction is wrapped around with waterproof cape-tents. The barrel is filled with water heated on fire and there it is, you can take a shower.
“You get used to the war quickly,” Yurii says. “At first you start going insane: to hell with it! But in a day or two, when you calm down, everything gets fine. I was not scared, even when I was wounded. I was scared when I lay on the surgical table, I was afraid my arm would be amputated. When I woke up after the surgeries, the first thing I did was check if my arm is still there.” The man is not likely to come back to the front, he still does not feel his wrist, it will take at least half a year for the arm to recover.
Now Yurii wants to control conscription in Ukraine. “Stupid things have happened at recruitment centers lately. People from universities, doctors of sciences are dragged to the front. A person with Ph.D. is of more use in scientific activity than in the field. Patriots of Ukraine are taken to the front, while all kinds of sturdy fellows sit in bars and boast they paid off to avoid the conscription. I want to have power to check various military commissioners and send those who violate the rules to the front,” dreams the soldier.
He is convinced that the conflict in Donbas will last long: guerrilla wars will continue, the population will rebel. But the soldier is also convinced that all the bad in Ukraine will be over soon. Yurii stresses: “Victory will come soon, reconstruction of the country will begin, our golden age will start. We have had bad luck for a whole century, how long can it last? So, in this century we should have better life for sure.”
