Artem Rakitin (Rocket), DIU Special Forces officer: During operation on "Boiko’s towers" missile struck boat, then airplane was operating
How are special operations at sea prepared and conducted? How do Russians storm Ukrainian positions on the ground? The secrets of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine were revealed by Artem Rakitin, a DIU Special Forces officer "Rocket". He told about what was happening on Zmiinyi Island (Snake Island-ed.), how an airplane shelled a boat at sea, why his comrade-in-arms spent 14 hours in the open sea and about the "road of life" from Chernihiv. These and other topics were discussed in the program "Who is with Miroshnychenko?".
ABOUT ZMIINYI ISLAND (SNAKE ISLAND)
- What high-profile operations have you been involved in?
- Zmiinyi, Crimea. Zmiinyi was an assault action, there were, as they say, orcs. We were preparing for this operation, it was like the "Our the Lord's-prayer" in our unit. Our task was to hold the island of Zmiinyi. We were there for the first 7 days - we landed and left. At that time, we knew that there was no one there, we cleared it, and suddenly there were a lot of different caponiers, arrowslits, bomb shelters, basements. We went through them. There were a lot of mines there, yes, the island was mined both across and inside, where the shelters were not broken down so that they would not be mined.
-Did the Russians leave anything there?
- They left a lot of things, they put up trip wires, they really damaged the equipment, they are famous for that and they know how to do it.
- Was your task to hold the island for 7 days?
Yes. This was the control of the Black Sea, directly, this is a sub-stage task for the peninsula, and it was done in this way and in this way. First action, second, third...
- Did the Russians realize that someone was on Zmiinyi?
- Yes.
- How did they figure you out?
- Their "birds" flew, " Orlans" flew, then they tried to use airplanes, and the next day, we were sitting there, the commander directly informed the command that there were "bastards" in the sky. Our man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) guys are fighting to shoot down the enemy Su as soon as possible, and you can understand that we have so stone cold guys in our unit. When I was on the island, my dream was, not so much a dream as it sounds... My wish was that the plane would drop a non-fragmentation bomb (NFB) on the island, not a cluster-munitions dispenser (СMD). If it dropped a cluster-munitions dispenser (СMD), it would have to fly over the island, and we would have the opportunity to shoot it down with a Stinger.
- These planes are flying around, do you realize how dangerous was your stay in Zmiinyi?
- First of all, the island is so... internal, you can't tell how much it charges you. The sea when there is a storm. You look at it and realize that you won't give it up... The internal state is when you look at how beautiful the country is, how beautiful Ukraine is, and you are ready not only to defend it but to bite to their death.
ABOUT THE CRIMEA
- I can imagine what it will feel like when Crimea will be ours.
- We will fight for it.
- By the way, are you operating in Crimea?
- We are working, the management is working.
ABOUT OPERATION "BOIKO`S TOWERS"
-Let's talk about the Boyko towers, a complicated operation. Did you take part in it, didn't you?
- Yes, we were preparing for about a month and a half. This is a step-by-step visualization of the entire mission, i.e. holding Zmiinyi Island, Boiko's tower, and the peninsula. Someone is involved on Zmiinyi Island, someone is involved on Boiko, someone is involved on the peninsula. This is teamwork.
- And so, in fact, the day you go there...
- We talked about it with the guys, in my platoon we worked, we swam in clothes, without a wetsuit, for two hours tideborne, in clothes, without armor, without a helmet. I tell it like it is. We swam to practice it from A to Z. Then our instructors got involved - they are the best. The guys will be watching, they are our older brothers, not just comrades, but brothers in real life.
-How difficult is it on boats, at sea...
- It is difficult. The main thing is to understand how you can even get on a boat when you are practicing in clothes, in a wetsuit, how to get up when you have fallen overboard, it is very difficult to get up when you have a weapon, loading, unloading. These are very, very difficult exercises, and you have to understand that you have a gun ready, what you are working with, if you have a teshka (an aircraft in the "T" modification -ed.) - you ran out to get a teshka - you have to not get it wet, jump out correctly, jump in correctly. And we practiced all these details in practice. Somewhere someone took at hand, somewhere someone put their foot down, that is, as the book says, we did not do it. You know, we didn't do landing, we didn't do loading. We did everything from our experience, from our practice. Not everyone signs up for such operations.
- How was the operation against Boiko's towers carried out? How many events, how many attempts were there?
- There were five.
- Did you participate in all five?
- I took part in two. Two of them were dangerous.
A rocket comes up from the peninsula, in a word, it goes up, opens up and hits the power-operated... it was a heat rocket, I'm telling you, it was a real fact. And we start spinning. After maybe ten minutes, an airplane enters the water area and starts shooting at us. We are working with the guys, this is when there was maneuverability, the legendary Conon, who fell out of the boat.
- Is this the guy who was in the water for 14 hours?
- Yeah. And we couldn't stop, because the plane was shooting at us, the plane was shooting at us with, I don't know, 30mm, which would have split our pilot's head in two, so you can understand the caliber. Neither bulletproof vest nor armor would help, nothing would. The guys worked with everything, including weapons. We had pipes, so I decided to work with pipes. He was lower, then he went higher. Apparently, when he was lower and working on us, I worked with AT, and he went higher because he thought Stinger was targeting him. We walked forward on Konon and started making figure eights, circles, looking for our comrade, shouting. We also had a situation where one shell hit the tube, on the back side, where I was. It lasted for 40 minutes, up to an hour. And they came in, he was firing. We maneuvered, they started. We were making circles so that he wouldn't hit us from the sky. With God's help, he didn't hit the boat, only one shell hit the tube, so our boat lost a little maneuverability because part of the tube was slightly deflated. We started to follow Conon, but there was no connection, then the connection broke through and I was given the command to go back - that was the situation. We circled and circled around, but there was no result. We had trackers, we had a marker, I knew in which square to look for him because we had marked the point in which direction to look for him. Our comrade said, "I see you, you understand?" He said, "I see the boat, I'm shouting, but we didn't see him, you understand? I see that the boat is spinning, and we have sailed a little bit forward, we had to go back, and we are looking for it, the plane is coming in again, and we have already made this decision..
- Was he found then, right?
- Yes, yes. They found him, thanks to our birds, and they picked him up, also a team of crazy guys, and after 14 hours or 12 hours. He spent 14 hours at sea.
- And is he okay?
Yes, he is a Cossack.
- Is he still in the service?
- Yes, he is serving.
ABOUT THE INJURIES AND THE ASSAULT
- Under what conditions were you wounded?
- I'm currently in a military hospital, I was wounded, it was a position, there was a forest belt. We laid out the position, put all the guys in the observation stations, and about an hour or twenty passed, and we heard the characteristic sound of equipment. I sent a message to the headquarters to send a bird into the sky and see what was going on. It didn't take long... Two short ones. Within a minute and a half, they stormed our landing. They came in two infantry fighting vehicles.
- Were there many of them?
- 35-40 people. There were 6 of us. There were 6 people from my unit and 4 from a related unit from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They came with two armored personnel carriers and a tank. I had a Bulldog on my observation station, which is an American hand-held grenade launcher. I made this decision because there was no arrowslit and I could not shoot at the enemy with a grenade launcher. We started a quick landing - the troops jumped out of the infantry fighting vehicles and I started working with the Bulldog. They were taking up positions so quickly that I had no time to reload... I do it like I "run" with a Bulldog, I do it for 15-20 seconds, quickly, I drop it, throw it and work again and that's it. I decided that they were so close, that was the contact, they were close, close.
- Close, how many meters?
- 35 meters, probably 30-35 meters in general, we could see everything visually, what he was running with. So I made a decision and started working with a zigzauer, which is a 5.56. I used up one magazine, reloaded the second magazine, and that was it. A tank hit my position. What happened to my eye, with God's help, I am in a very, very good condition and we are not broken. The tank hit my position, I, as they say, "snored, bow out ," this picture, I will say that it is like a kindergarten, family, parents...
- Are these seconds?
- This is a second, a picture, a wedding, children, my wife and a picture of my son. My boy is now 6 years old, and in the photo, I remember him as "Our Father," he is 4 years old, he is standing there painted, this is a picture of my son. I snore. So that you understand, I saw my body, I swear, from above. And I ask the Lord God - how can this be? I do so many good things, we are winning, this is our land. How can this be? I'm trying to convince my mother to go to the ice rink in winter, or when you come home from school late, to be let out. And that's how I prayed to the Lord God, to the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is my Protection and always protects me, and so, honestly, you ask, like you ask your mother. The Intercession, how can I, I'm 30 years old, I haven't done much yet... I don't even remember the moment when I was shooting a video on my phone. I lost a lot of blood, my first aid kit was hit by a tank, I just held my eye with my hands, the guys continued to fight. Today, the eye does not see, it has been operated on twice. It is necessary to do plastic surgery, it is a step-by-step treatment process. And they will fight at least for side vision. I will not be able to see straight ahead. The doctor said so. But at least a little bit, a shadow, so that I can see something from the side.
- It's scary.
- Not at all, it's good.
ABOUT SUPPORT
- When you are going to have surgery, how do you inform your family about it and do you tell them the details of the surgery?
- I probably tell my wife about 50 percent. If I told her everything, I would have to hire a psychologist to work with her. It so happened that she is already psychologically prepared. She realizes that she can't do anything about it and she won't do anything. I am who I am.
- Can you not get in touch for several days?
- Sometimes I don't get in touch. She is worried because she is not a stupid girl either and realized when I was there what she signed up for. In the Russian telegram channels, they wrote that one boat was eliminated, the other was shot by special forces... all this nonsense, and she watched it, there was no connection. She understood that this was not true, but deep down she says, "Damn, I was worried. And another thing. My family, my son, is my motivator. He motivates me very, very much. When I watch videos from my go-pro, where there is some fighting, I shout: "For our children, for our children."
ABOUT THE EVACUATION FROM CHERNIHIV
- Our hero is from Chernihiv, who is from Chernihiv and who knows Artem, write in the comments. And were you involved in the evacuation at the time of the full-scale invasion?
- Yes, I was involved in the evacuation. When I returned to Chernihiv, I first evacuated my family and then returned to defend the bridge. We evacuated with our own vehicles. Not counting those people who followed us in columns and left. That's a lot of people. I formed a team of up to 25 people, including drivers. We had a lot of stories. The evacuation was not like you came to a point, got into a normal vehicle and drove away. No, these were trucks, buses with thermal kiosks. I even punched a hole in one of them. I called the owner, my brother, and told him about the situation. He said, "Brother, do whatever you want to evacuate people. I punched a hole so that people could get oxygen. There were many people in wheelchairs, there were epilepsy and panic attacks. A thermobox without light or a truck, these were 5-ton trucks that used to carry potatoes. It was a "road of life", our guys from my team rose into the air Mavics, flew, it was near Lukashivka, and made sure they did not work with mortars. We were fooling them, we were driving along the road, they were working with mortars. We decided to bring people closer to the orcs and it worked because they were throwing mortars, they were looking at the map to see what they were working on, and we were 500-400 meters closer to them and were rolling the road. It was a team effort. Tank battle near Yahidne... Katsaps entered Yahidne, I was driving in a column, in my car. Then the tank battle started. You cannot imagine what it was like. And I have a convoy, so you can understand, about 15 buses and 30-40 cars behind, and a specific battle begins. Our damaged infantry fighting vehicle is standing there, a tank is working, mortars and artillery are working, so you can understand, and I am driving. I see it hit a building, but I keep driving forward. If I were to go backwards, I think someone would have died because it would have hit. So I decide to go straight to the tank battle like this. I had to drive straight for a kilometer, a kilometer and a half or two, and turn left. They hadn't been to Lukashivka yet, and the road was not shot at. I make a decision - the gas to the floor and we drive straight and then turn left... We succeeded then. There was not a single day that I was not in Chernihiv. Even when the bridge was blown up, I can tell you as a native Chernihiv resident, we had many, many routes, water, in a boat, several routes...
ABOUT THE ARTAN SPECIAL FORCES UNIT
- Have you learned how to evacuate and therefore joined "ARTAN" because you already knew about boats...
- I joined ARTAN because of my brother-in-arms. He suggested it. He said, "Are you going to serve, bro? I said yes. That is, I wanted to serve directly, not to pass the service, but to serve. If you decide to serve, it means you have to serve one hundred percent.
- What characteristics do you need to have to be in your special unit? How is the recruitment process carried out?
- First of all, we don't have people who just come off the street. People do not enter the special unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate "ARTAN" through the military recruitment office, no. These are motivated guys who want to serve. We have 80 percent of athletes. As an athlete, I used to box, I can say that competition is above all. Similarly, the ARTAN unit is a boy's team.
- Do you have any women?
- There are a few.
- What kind of physical fit do you need to have? Maybe someone will be interested in your unit.
- Almost all of us are former athletes. But as they say, there are no former athletes. Everyone is in good physical shape. We either have such pea-roll-along people like me or... We are all athletic guys.
ABOUT THE MOTIVATION
- What motivates you personally?
- My family, my son, our Ukraine. I am a patriot of my motherland Ukraine. I liked 2022, when people were so united... I feel it now. As a soldier, I feel it, some laws about volunteers are not clear to me.
- Don't you see the unity that you used to have, do you?
- Yes, I do.
- Where do you not see unity?
- I will divide people who are involved, we can say, and who are not. To be honest. Those who are involved are the military, the volunteers, the people who help, who live it, I call them involved. And those who are not involved are just... I have nothing to do with it, it's not my war...
- Some are now saying: when will it end? They do not even say that it is a war. They just say when will it end?
- Yes, and what have you done for this? The only question is that it should end. I regret that I did not participate then... I say this personally and bow my head to the guys who were in the ATO. It didn't affect me at that time, but I said that if it affected my city, I would go. I kept my promise and I believe that I am a worthy son of my mother Ukraine. This is true for every city in Ukraine today. I was burying my brothers, you cannot imagine my inner state...
ABOUT LOSSES
- How do you deal with losses?
- I've learned how to deal with losses. It scares me a lot. When you start to be friends with brothers, I can say that, brothers, brotherhood, and when you lose your first brother, second brother, close person... You have internal guidelines, some regret, sadness, you are upset, it comes to crying, but now I am in a state where I don't have this. And this scares me, that I buried my brother, my comrade-in-arms, and this state... It is always in my heart, I have photos. I lost my friend, may he rest in peace, this is Kardan, this is my brother, he was with us in these operations, he participated in many operations, he became my brother. Yurchyk, Mishania... worthy brothers, real heroes, people close to me whom I lost.
- What will you never tell your son about the war?
- My son and our children... they don't need to know this at all. I will do everything to prevent my child from being in my shoes. I would not wish the enemy to be in my psychological state. I am very grateful to my parents and thankful that they... Every guy's contusion makes itself felt, I mean, really, it makes itself felt. You can't hide it, you can't conceal it. Sometimes it happens hurriedly - I wonder, what the fuck, how is he different from me? I am at war, and he is not. It happens, it happens. It fails everyone.
- What are your future plans, taking into account your physical condition?
- My physical condition is very good, although I have put on a little weight.
- I mean, what to do with the eye?
- I have a left eye. What should I do?
- Will you definitely continue your service?
- It's 100%, it's not discussed, I immediately told the commander about it. He said, 'That's it, Rocket, no more questions, you're in the firearms.
- Take care of yourself. I think people are making comments now. Wish today's hero success and thank him for what he is doing. And write your impressions of our guest, they are extremely pleasant. I am very glad that we met you, I wish you success, get well and thank you for what you do.
Anna Miroshnychenko, "Who's with the Miroshnychenko", Channel 5
