Until recently the warrior with callsign “Donchanin” (means “citizen of Donetsk” in Russian) had to hide his face. But against his will the volunteer from partisan group ”Ravlyk” (means “snail” in Ukrainian) became well known all along the country. In his interview to Informator.lg.ua “Donchanin” told why he is not de-mobilized yet, about following “Minsk agreements”, future revolution and changes needed for the country…
– Last time when we recorded interview with you, you asked not to show your face. Something changed since that time?
– Well, everything has change radically. As one of my friends told me “Before everybody in Donetsk knew you, and now everybody in Ukraine knows you”. So there is no sense to hide my face. Everything has changed radically, I became a soldier of Armed Forces of Ukraine and I am also a volunteer… I am mobilized volunteer. This is probably the first and most important.
– What made you do that?
– Now all volunteer units that were not part of the system, I mean not in Armed Forces of Ukraine or not in Ministry of Internal Affairs, all of them get withdrawn from the contact line. My goal is to continue to fight for my country. So if I have a goal, any means are good to achieve that goal. So this is the only way how I continue to fight, I need to be official with official weapon in my hands. I have to get legalized in 93rd brigade. And now my official status says that I am “a soldier of 1st squad of 1st battalion of 93rd brigade”.
– How long are you in ATO already?
– Well, about one year and four months.
– Aren’t tired to fight? Don’t you want to get de-mobilized?
– Now I don’t want to get de-mobilized. First of all I have no place to get de-mobilized to. That’s number one. Guys ask “How long do you fight?”. I reply “Over a year”. And they say “Wow, when do you get de-mobilized?” And my reply is “I will get de-mobilized after the victory”… I just have no place to go, everything I had got left on occupied territory, my house is there, my job was there too. I am a little tired. Maybe time goes by, sure… Yes, I have moments when I feel discouraged and when I see what is going on here on this war. And this happens quite often lately… This is not a war, this looks more like a theater, some kind of play. You get discouraged by that. But you remember that you are a warrior and not just a soldier and that you have a goal. And I think if you choose your goal and walk this direction, you must keep moving. Because if a man changes his direction every six months… this is not the best characteristic for a man.
– How can you characterize the current situation on the front line now?
– We are almost for a year already in the same trenches, keeping same positions, we don’t move forward, they don’t move forward. Plus there are many other things like smuggling and so on… I mean that everybody are trying to make money on this war… I am telling this about superiors, not about those who fight here on the ground.
There is a lot of money in smuggling. Fuel goes in unclear direction, soldiers’ food goes to some wholesale warehouses and so on… There was a situation when they were driving cargo trucks in a corridor under mortar fire. I mean there are mortars shelling and between them there was “dead zone” and the trucks are going through that corridor… There were guys, border guards, who were trying to stop that smuggling, they took their vehicles and put those guys to the base, so they don’t bother them… This is not a war… I know a lot of good men who really fight, who are warriors, but they got de-mobilized and they told me “This is not a war, when active phase begins, when military actions start, we will come back, but now we don’t see military actions that are worth staying here.” ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) goes on for over a year now, but in fact this is a war. For Kiev this is “ATO”, for cabinets this is “ATO”, but in reality there are military actions. For years…
– And are you ready to stay here for years?
– I am ready to stay here for years. As long as it’s needed, as long as it continues, whatever the end is going to be, I will go until the end. Live free or die. We will liberate our territories, Donbas now and Crimea after that, or we will have to die. So I die, this is my Cossack destiny. I will have to die for my country. I think this is the greatest honor to die for your Motherland that the destiny gives you.
– Tell me about OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) battalion please. What was going on with the battalion in the last six months after there was a condition to withdraw illegal military units from ATO zone?
– OUN battalion, most of it, got relocated to training centers. OUN battalion gets organized as political movement. Small groups continue to fight anyway. They put insignia of other units, but there were still OUN, they continued to fight for unified independent state of Ukraine. Kokhanivskiy Mikhail is still the commander of our battalion, Andriy Syvy is the deputy commander, there is no other commanders in OUN.
– What are the causalities in the battalion for this year?
– There was about 6-8 KIA and I don’t know how many WIA.
– Did families of those men got some compensation, help from government?
– Nothing from the government. We were “not official”… The government doesn’t support such people in any way. Our battalion commander is trying to organize some help for them, volunteers help, but they don’t see anything from the government. We were fighting not officially.
– Why OUN fighters are going to service in 93rd brigade now?
– Because we are almost for a year side by side on these positions with 93rd brigade, I mean this is our front line. We know this territory, we fight here. 93rd brigade always supported us in everything, so we decided to get legalized in 93rd brigade. They are our brothers in arms and for us it doesn’t matter if they are from “Right Sector”, “Dnepr-1”, “Carpathian Sich”, 93rd or 95th, all of them who fight side by side with us are our brothers in arms and there can be no confrontation between us, because who do one job here for one goal to liberate Ukraine.
– You took part in EuroMaidan of Donetsk and in pro-Ukrainian demonstrations. Were the goals achieved? What do you think?
– Absolutely nothing was achieved, we passed by the first stage, we overthrew the power of bandits… To be more precise, we didn’t overthrow the power, we overthrew bandits. We didn’t break the system, the system remained the same. We were not against Yanukovich and for Poroshenko, no. We came to break the system. Until now I didn’t see any positive changes. Revolution will go on, revolution will continue.
– What was not enough? What didn’t we do?
– We didn’t prepare patriotic power that could rule the country with national interest. Again those who came to power have their own financial interests, business interests, but they don’t care about interests of the country. But something starts to change. Now I know at least 5-6 Deputies of the Ukrainian Parliament who I can call and ask “My friend, how are you doing?” or me as a regular soldier can call them and ask “What the hell are you doing?” and he can tell me his position or he can explain me everything… But in general nothing changed. We didn’t pushed enough, didn’t prepare new force that should have taken the power.
– What changes do we need now exactly? What are the most urgent?
– The most urgent is to declare martial law here on the East. This is the most important thing. After that we will begin to fight, orders related to war will begin, so there will be none of this “Minsk betrayal”… After that real liberation of our land will begin. So far I don’t see that.
The peace agreement… What “peace agreement”? Last week 6 packs of “Grad” MRLS landed in the area of Krasnohorivka and Mariinka… is that the peace agreement? 10 days ago I was coming to Nevelske and 152 mm artillery shells were flying over my head and that was at 7 pm still daylight, is that the peace agreement? And our artillery is not responding as we don’t have an order, as we have “Minsk agreements”… There is a story about one commander of battalion or brigade, I am not sure exactly, who opened fire in response. The General Staff blamed him for not keeping cease-fire… “Minsk betrayal”… So he put the document that he got from them in a frame on his wall.
As for the rest of Ukraine, people should realize that there is a war going on and it didn’t finish. Because when you come to big cities you see that they don’t care. I am not used to big cities now, I can’t stand them, it’s hard for me in noisy places. That’s crazy for me… When I come to Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, people drink in bars, eat at restaurants, there is no war for them. The say “When it comes to us, we will go”. Yes, dear gentlemen, when it gets to you, there will be one direction for you to go, in the direction of the male sexual organ… If we don’t protect Ukraine here and now, Ukraine may be lost. If we don’t protect it here and now.
We need to change power. We need power that will value Ukraine and Ukrainian people first and not their own pocket, business or something else like some agreements with Europe or USA… Yes I don’t need agreements with Europe or USA… For me that was not Euro-Maidan, for me that was Maidan, because I don’t want Europe or Russia here, I want to have Unified Ukrainian State here. Purelyindependentcountry. Wecandoit. But everybody in this country should want that. And everybody should believe in that, that we can do it. Our people wait for somebody to come and do everything for them. Nobody will do anything for us in this country, until we do it ourselves… For us. Firstofallforus.
– Did you raise flags?
– Yes. First day when we arrived the base here. Those who were raising flags, one was from Donetsk and another one was from Kiev. There are many guys from the East of Ukraine in the unit, from Selidovo, Krasnoarmeisk, Novgorodka, Donetsk…
– I haven’t seen such insignia before.
– I saw it in Syvy car and put it on my uniform, I told him you don’t wear beard anyway, and it fits me…
Konstantin Reutsky for Informator.lg.ua