The reporter of Informator.lg.ua, who is volunteer soldier of Ukrainian Army now, Anton Goloborodko continues to tell about his everyday life in the training center. This time he tells about military training ground and his life there.
Day 13-14. August 26-27
We started to pack in the morning and went to the military training ground. 12th Company, except our platoon doesn’t go anywhere, their training stopped and by August 30 they will be taken to different combat units.
So when we return they are not going to be there already. We say goodbye like “Ok man, see you on the front line and party after we get de-mobilized”. We became good friends in the last two week, people are different, but very sincere and open.
Traditionally we spent two hours waiting for departure, why couldn’t they get us to line up later, I don’t know.
300 men, 3 men in a raw, walking for over 10 km. When you walk together with so many people you feel connected to big power and that is exiting. And how many battalion like that are on training and how many are on the war… When you realize that it seems like this force is invincible.
Military training ground. Here they put us in army tents, 12 men in each tent. A lot of space, you can even dance if you wish 🙂
They gave us mattresses. There are army beds (but new ones) and two blankets for each, the nights are cold, so they worry we can get cold. I sleep in my own sleeping bag and I am very happy that I have it.
I want to tell how commanders are trying to organize strict discipline. We follow orders, but very unhappy about them. There are some stupid orders like we should walk only in boots and only in a line or we must shave beards…. so we just ignore that.
Food here is much better than in the training center. Ingredients are same, but cooked much better. Porridge is not overcooked ad meat is more tasty.
In the 1st day I was on duty. That was short, from 16:00 to 09:00, 2 hours on duty and rest for 4 hours, I was on 3 times. That was a little hard at night, just fall asleep and they wake you up again to the post.
After being on duty you supposed to have a day off, but I was feeling good and went to training.
Here the training was really useful, they show you communication devices, they give it to you to touch, set up and try to send test signal to another device. I will not write the name of device, they say separatists are hunting that. But I can say for sure that’s newest equipment. And there is a lot of it in the army.
Now there will be evening check and sleep.
Day 16. August 28
The training started, there was obstacle course. 500 meters long, sounds not too much. But 18 obstacles have some effect on you. You get exhausted pretty fast after jumping over walls and pits.
When you go through the obstacles there are sounds of shots and explosions coming from speakers, plus real flash-bangs explode under your feet. When you watch this from a side, you don’t pay attention to that. And when you run, you are only thinking about how to run to the end. I didn’t even notice flash-bangs that were exploding under the ropeway.
After an obstacle course and dinner we were supposed to have a class with political officer. Nobody was excited about that. But seems like the “instructor” felt that and didn’t show up. We were waiting for him for an hour (instead of 15 minutes like students do) and went back to our tents.
It was only 18:00 and the officers already left the training ground – Friday. So calls for discipline sound strange. What about personal example by commanders? In general people here are irritated by officers. Some contract-sergeants are not in favor too. But contract-sergeants are closer to soldiers and they don’t nose up that much.
This is how the day passed.
The conditions on the military training ground are good really. There is one problem, no electricity and not enough sockets. We have to charge our phones in classrooms, but there are very little sockets there. So we charge for 20 minutes anywhere we can.
Local inventors make wires from electric posts to tents. But if you don’t dig them, sergeants cut them off. This is logical reaction. There was blackout because the network got overloaded when people started to use electric kettles. Half of the camp was without electric power today.
Tomorrow is Saturday, it means short training day, day off and go to the city. Everybody are waiting.
Anton Goloborodko for Informator.lg.ua