Last interview with Mayor Oleksandr Tsebrii
This video was recorded on the day of the death of Ukrainian hero Oleksandr Tsebrii, mayor of Uman (2015-2020), platoon commander of the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade. In a conversation with Censor.NET Editor-in-Chief Yurii Butusov, Oleksandr Tsebrii spoke about the difficult military everyday life, the conflict with the authorities when he was mayor, and the dirty information campaign waged against him by People’s Deputy Anton Yatsenko.
July 24, 2024. 12:33 a.m. 18 hrs. 27 min. to the assault
- To be honest, if volunteers didn't help, I don't know what the Ukrainian Armed Forces would do. It's not for me to tell you. People help, and I don't even know who they are. They call: maybe you need this, maybe you need that. You need this, you need that. In social networks, we saw, for example, about fire extinguishers. Half of Ukraine sent fire extinguishers. They were distributed to all positions. Everyone already has one, everything is fine. We transported them with the boys, that's going some. Yes, all the kids send pictures. All of them are from Ukraine. Everyone has a picture under their armor. Anyways. Children's drawings.
24 July 2024. 12:48 p.m. 6 hours 12 min. to the assault
It was only a matter of time before war broke out in Ukraine. It had to happen. There were two options. Either, from my point of view, there would have been a war, and Ukraine would have become a governorate of Russia, or we would have surrendered our interests to Ukraine, as it basically happened.
(Talking on the walkie-talkie)
That's why it happened. I think that no one expected that Ukrainians, simple, ordinary people, would rise up like that, take up arms and say: "No, we will not do this. We will not be a governorate of Russia." Ukraine is not held together by military leaders, politicians, presidents, mayors, governors. No. We owe it to ordinary foot soldiers like me here. Just like us, guys. No super-strategic strategists or military commanders will do anything if there are no ordinary infantry who are dug in and will stay there. It was easy to fuck up the territory at the beginning of the war, but now it's hard. Now I have to lead my guys forward to recapture 100 meters of territory. Very dearly. Very dearly.
- You saved the life of a сomrade in arms. This is also a very important feat. Please tell us how it happened and what conclusions you have drawn for yourself.
- This is not a feat, it is a common thing that I am not the only one doing here. When such an incident occurred, we all tried to pull our comrade in arms off the battlefield. There is no feat here. The three of us went out, a scout, me and a sapper. We were making our way to the position I'm talking about, because everything was mined there, and my comrade in arms, Ruslan, was walking, he cleared the way, then we entered the position, he went around the entire position, found several anti-personnel mines, MON-90, if I'm not mistaken. He cleared them, and he stepped on something that he was blown up by. It was 500 meters from our zero position. It was dawn, it was foggy, our drones stopped flying. They said: "Mayor, you're on your own, we don't have our eyes there, be careful, we won't help you." They couldn't see me because of the thick, thick fog, they wouldn't have helped me. And there was a roar of enemy vehicles, they were approaching, in the fog, it seemed that in 20 meters this enemy vehicle would come out, and so we had to hurry. I gave my rifle and my comrade's rifle to the scout and dragged him these 500 meters. Thank God he was conscious, he somehow managed to push himself with his foot, but the explosion had hurt his eyes, he could not see anything. He only said: " Sania, Sania, we have already reached, Sania, are we on the path?" - which he had cleared of mines. But we were far from the path, it was still far from the path, we were in a minefield. It was extremely difficult. Anyone who has pulled a wounded comrade in arms from the battlefield understands what I am talking about. It is extremely difficult. I have never done anything harder in my life.
- What do you have on the LBE (Load Bearing Equipment)? Please tell us how the infantry is going to assault.
- This is an LBE. I have four magazines, a bag, spent magazines release, two grenades, and a first aid kit. I always have a stretcher with me, just in case, because several times it happened that there was no way to pull a wounded comrade in arms off the battlefield, so we pulled him out with improvised means. I even pulled out a comrade in arms after he was blown up, just by dragging him through the minefield with my hands. That's why I always carry a stretcher with me now so that I have it. I have a bag with all sorts of things in it, such as batteries for a night vision device, a candy bar, and other things, and I carry it with me. I also have a walkie-talkie and magazines on my armor. I have machine-gun magazines, and I usually take bigger ones to have a bigger stock.
- Do you take 45-rounds RPK?
- Yes. A walkie-talkie, things like that, gloves that I keep losing - I've already lost a dozen of them on the battlefield.
- What's that behind you? Let me hold it...
- Don't get blown up... Backpack, water, EW.
- A EW backpack, wow.
- Here I have a water supply, here I have an EW.
- My friend, how much does this weigh?
- I think about how much, how much I am.
- Do you rock your back here all the time?
- Yeah, and not only that but also my knees. I mostly rock my knees, my knee joints.
- My friend, it is really very difficult. The infantry platoon commander is equipped fully up to the eyeballs. Well, I don't know how much you're wearing. Do you weigh it at all?
- No, I don't weigh it, I don't know, I won't lie, how much it weighs. I will say that it weighs a lot. If you want to become mayor, I'll be happy to carry it for you. To become mayor, without elections, without anything.
And a helmet with active headphones. I don't use it that often, but it's good to have it.
And an assault rifle. By the way, my machine gun is a little bit blinged up. It is a target indicator that works both in day and night mode. The infrared gives a beam, a dot, and a night vision device, but only I can see it. You point it at the target, you don't need to aim, you just open fire. There's a calimeter. That's how I work.
- This is how an infantry platoon commander of the 2nd Infantry Battalion, 58th Infantry Brigade, looks like, dear friends. His call sign is Mayor. Friend, tell us, for the sake of understanding, how old are you?
- Fifty.
- Fifty years old, an infantryman carries a lot... You have to be an athlete, really. And a very strong-willed person who does everything for our victory. It's really impressive, my friend, thank you.
- We will soldier on!
- How many years did you serve as mayor of Uman?
- I was the mayor of Uman for six and a half years. It happened, the whole of Ukraine knew it, and I had difficult relations with the authorities. I always defend the interests of my community. There was a period when there was a coronavirus pandemic and we did not hold public events. Moreover, I decided to set up checkpoints so that no one would enter the city because the first deaths in the Cherkasy region were in the city of Uman. We held our Easter online. Then came the Jewish Rosh Hashanah. I am tolerant of all religions and nationalities, I sincerely respect everyone, but it was extremely dangerous because Israel was in the red zone. I was approached by Knesset members and the Minister of Health: "Oleksandr, do everything possible to prevent people, our pilgrims, from coming to you, because they will come with our virus, take your virus, and then it will mutate to us, and then we will not be able to cope with it." I absolutely understood this. That's why I made a poll. 96% of Uman residents said that we were categorically against it. I brought the opinion of Uman residents first to the level of the regional administration and the governor, then to the TESE (Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergencies), but I was not heard there. I expressed my opinion there, to put it mildly, that it was wrong. I stayed at the President's Office for two days, as the current mayor, and I said that until I meet with people who will not make a decision and close Ukraine, I will not leave.
A decision was made, and I'm a stubborn guy, I'm a man, I pressed the issue, and Ukraine was closed for a month. Rosh Hashanah passed, there was no mass arrival. I believe that this saved the lives not only of the people of Uman but in general of most Ukrainians and Hasidic pilgrims. I was clearly told that you will not be mayor anymore.
- Where was it told?
- In the President's Office. They said: you will not be mayor anymore. I said, "You know, I don't really care whether I'm going to be mayor or not, as long as I'm a human being and look straight into the eyes of my fellow citizens who elected me to this position. They thanked me for it. In the mayoral election, two clones of Oleksandr Volodymyrovych Tsebrii were registered, who became Tsebrii a month or two before the election. I was not registered, neither were my two parties. First of all, this was done by the decision of our territorial election commission, which was local, which was bribed. The election commission voted at one o'clock in the morning, gathered sneakily on the stairs of our TEC, voted by a show of hands, someone abstained, and they made the decision not to register.
- This is an absolute violation of the law, of the Constitution in general. No one can restrict your rights.
- Yurii, everything in our country is done according to the law, do you have any comments?
- Just tell me, please, do you remember the names of these election commission members who illegally prevented you, the current mayor, from running in the elections?
- Oh, this can be raised. I appealed to the ministry, to the police, I appealed to all the services, to the Security Service, wherever I went. But the collegial body, they bought all the quotas. All the quotas of the political forces that were in parliament at the time sold their quotas. They sold their quotas to the dirty bums who took advantage of this and did not register the current mayor, Oleksandr Tsebrii but registered clones. Later, when the wave rose throughout Ukraine, I was registered, but my political forces that supported me were not registered, and the elections were rigged. Well, it so happened that I was thanked for my integrity, I believe, for the period of the Covid...
- It's just an incredible story. I wonder where these members of the territorial election commission are now, how they are defending their homeland, how they are defending Uman, how they are showing themselves in the war?
- This is also very interesting to me. It would be interesting to know where they are. Or maybe they are somewhere in a neighboring plantation, digging trenches there, repelling enemy attacks?
- Tell me, friend, why are you wearing mountain boots?
- These shoes are very comfortable. I actually planned to climb Everest last year. I was preparing for it. I climbed Ararat, Kazbek, went around the Carpathians and did the appropriate training. I practiced every single day. I was dreaming. I was dreaming about this, dreaming about Everest. But the war made its own adjustments in the life of not only me but everyone. So now, in these comfortable shoes, I am not storming Everest, but plantations.
I am a machine gun platoon commander. It is cool, very cool to be a machine gunner. But to be honest, I feel I can do more, so I picked up some guys, made an assault group. And now we are doing some work in the area of responsibility of our battalion.
(Military conversation)
How the Buryat was captured
- My comrade-in-arms is Vitia Katasonov. He is also a machine gunner. There was an attack on our position, I was changing him. He used a Browning, firing 5 rounds, if I'm not mistaken, to smash two MT-LBs, shoot down the sights of a tank and stop the enemy attack. I replaced him and went in after him. I heard on the walkie-talkie that there was another enemy in the enemy territory, and whether you could organize his capture. I said that we would take him prisoner now. Who would go with me? Two of my comrades in arms refused, and the third said: I'll go with you, I haven't seen him in the eye. He was crazy in the head, his name was Lokha. We went to capture this Buryat, he was 50 years old. He stank incredibly, I could tell you that. The smell was so specific, I could not even describe it. His name is Alexey, he was convicted of murder, he was sentenced to 15 years. He served a year, and they took him away. I don't know, it was some kind of 'Storm', I took his documents and his phone. Then our guys from the far positions came and took him away, I handed him over and that was it. That's why I was awarded a medal, I received the Order for Courage.
The next day, there was another enemy attack, they dropped drops on us, I was poisoned with gases, the enemy uses these combat gases.
- Did they drop from drones, right?
- They dropped from drones, yes. The situation was as follows: they dropped gas, first, if you were in a shelter, where you were, people ran out into the open, then they dropped a grenade and the drones worked in pairs. We repelled the attack first, then the drops, and after the drops my shift ended, I went to the hole to rest, just closed my eyes - it turns out you can sleep even under mortar fire, under assault, under attack, when your body just says it's time to go. And I woke up to the fact that I was suffocating. They dropped this gas, it fell without sound, it just fell, the grenade - a plastic capsule and the gas spread. The gas is very heavy, it flows into every hole and a person suffocates. You have tears in your eyes, your breathing spasms, your whole body burns incredibly. This is fierce rock and roll. You needed to wet your hat so you had gas masks, but it was winter, the water in the bottle was frozen, and you couldn't soak this cap comforter. I took it, realized that I was going to dart out and a grenade would be thrown, so I ran for cover. It was good that there was a headwind, and the gas was carried away. And then I was contused in that battle.
(Military conversation)
-All the people who are here have their own plans, their own dreams, and someone is waiting for them. For some, they are the most precious people in the world. I have many comrades-in-arms who, unfortunately, are no longer among the living. Take my comrade in arms with the call sign Taxi Driver. He had plans to buy himself an elite car after the war and transport VIP passengers in Kyiv. But a mine hit, and both Taxi Driver and Psycho are no longer with us. There are many such people. We must remember them and do everything we can to ensure that at least their families and children understand that their loved ones died for a reason.
I do not like the processes that are taking place in our country today. I do not like the actions that are taking place at the level of the Ministry of Defense. I'm talking about procurement, supply, and everything else. If the same members of the Verkhovna Rada were not engaged in stealing, siphoning off the budget and destroying the country, I am convinced that we would already be on the borders of 1991. If, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the whole country, as it was for the first two months, had been united, and the same deputies, those in power, those who sat on the streams, had been working for victory, the war would have already ended, we would have already been on the borders, one hundred percent, I am convinced of this.
- Tell us what kind of story it was when people started writing on the Internet that you were not fighting but sitting somewhere in the rear. It was kind of wild to read what was written and your response from the front. What was it like?
( Video insert of the Mayor's response to the criticisms on the Internet)
- One political loser, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, a fraudster, a button-pusher, a tender mafia, who is directly related to the constituency in the city of Uman.
- Anton Yatsenko?
- Well, I didn't say that because I didn't catch him by the hand, but...
- Well, everyone knows him, he is a well-known member of the Party of Regions.
- There is every reason to believe that it was him. He persuaded a few people who used to be involved in the Armed Forces to start spreading fake news online that Tsebrii was not at war but was traveling with a film crew in Chernihiv or somewhere else. At first, I was happy about it, but then people started asking questions on social media. And it is grating me, because my guys say to me, 'Listen, Volodymyrovych, we are fighting, we are running, we are dying here, and some scum and evil spirits will talk about you like that. The guys wanted to go to the Verkhovna Rada, just to talk, to pull his collar and ask him: "Listen, friend, what do you think you're doing? It's not enough that you, scum, were in the Party of Regions, that you voted for the laws of January 16, what you did together with your political force..."
All those involved in the Party of Regions, in my opinion, and in other pro-Russian political forces, did everything possible to ensure that this war was on the territory of the country. And we are now at war, giving up the lives of our best people, our health in order to win back the country. So my answer was unequivocal, the guys and I said everything we had to say, no one made anything up, it was a real events.
So that's the story. How do I treat Anton Yatsenko? I don't have any attitude towards him. I would respect him at least if he were right next to me, a few hundred meters away from the enemy territory. If he was giving me ammunition for my machine gun when my comrades-in-arms and I were repelling enemy attacks. If he would have gone with me into enemy territory and taken that captured Buryat. I wish he was with me in a crouching position, a hundred metres in front of the enemy position, digging up our fallen soldier who died defending the country. And it is precisely because the monsters from the Party of Regions did everything so that the war was in the territory.
So how can I treat such people? At the very least, I disrespect them. I believe that this is the past of our country. This is the distant past of our country. I believe that the Party of Regions, all members of this party, are a disgrace to Ukraine. Because it was a Russian project aimed at ending up with an independent Ukraine, but it didn't work. Because there are people like Pashka, there are people like Sania, there are people like Vasya, Kolia, Petia, me, Yura, who will not let any evil spirits trample on my country. And one more thing. I will do everything to be able to visit my father's grave in our city in the future. And no enemy, no internal collaborators, traitors, corrupt evil spirits will do anything to prevent me from doing so. That's why we are here today.
There were many events that made me pray. This was not a terrible situation, but you can say that I got a little bit of adrenaline. It was when we withdrew from our zero line, and it was decided to dig a position in the grey zone, 500 metres from our zero position. It was in the grey zone, it passed from hand to hand dozens of times. If we had assaulted it there, no matter how many people went in, they would have all died because there was nothing to hold on to. So, having studied the situation, we decided to go out at night and dig this position secretly from the enemy. We would go in and start working. It was there, at this position, that my comrade Capone was blown up on a minefield, and I was pulling him through the minefield. Thank God, he is alive and well.
At that position, when we entered, once there was a tank, and I got in to do some work under the tank. It was very cramped, with low ground clearance. I was unarmed, and I warned some of my comrades-in-arms that I would be there, under that tank, leaving my weapon, please control it. I got in from the enemy's side, which was the closest to the enemy. And when I was under the tank, I barely got there, I took off my helmet, I heard them shouting into the radio: ‘Faggots, faggots’ - I got out and realised that I was the only one in the position. One of my comrades panicked, shouted, and the rest ran after him, ran through the minefield. I was a little scared, to put it mildly, because I was alone in the enemy territory, and I expected someone to jump out from behind the tank, or shoot, or hit me in the temple with a rifle butt. And what scared me more was being captured. I also ran after them, talked on my walkie-talkie about where you were, what you were doing. There was an enemy, an enemy, an enemy. We ran 500 metres to our territory, to our zero position. I asked them why. Well, it was obvious that people were scared, and I won't retell the whole dialogue, but I said that we needed to go back and do our work, because we were doing it there, so to speak, without advertising it to the enemy. We had to go back. Everyone refused, so I went there alone. I was shocked that my two comrades in arms, whom I didn't know at all, I didn't see them, it was dark, said that Mayor, we would go with you. Absolutely strangers went with me to the enemy territory, where everyone had just come from, and where 100% of them said there was an enemy. I went to the drones and they said there was no one there. Go back there. So we went back. I took my weapons, we camouflaged the place where we were working. After a month of intense work, we made a position there and advanced our zero line 500 metres in front without firing a single shot.
By the way, I started from that planting. The first battle was on this planting.
- The first battle, huh? So you've been fighting for a year for one planting?
- Not for a year. When did we enter this direction? In September. There is no year. A couple of months and it will be a year. But we entered and they told us that you would be here for three months. And the guys said that we would be withdrawn from here on 24 or 23 December.
- Are you serious?
- They say that every three months. They asked what year it was...
Yura, do you know what I told the guys? I said that after the war, God willing, if everything goes well, I will buy this plantation. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I will buy it. I will buy one of them anyway. We'll make a golf course there, or we'll just go for a walk, play airsoft here. Well, I'll buy it. I don't know if it's this one or this one, so you can decide. I'll take this one, you can take this one.
Seriously, we have to recapture it, because this is Ukraine. And those who say that Donbas is not Ukraine, I would spit in their eyes, because this is real Ukraine.
We have a machine-gun platoon, there are young guys there, they are having fun. And there is one old man, 54 or 57 years old. He's hard of hearing, and they start to make fun on him: ‘Grandpa, grandpa, where's your moped?’ I think I'll keep quiet that I'm 50, because they'll start to make fun on me: ‘Grandpa, where's your moped?’ So I kept quiet, drank some coffee and walked away quietly.
- ‘Grandpa, where's your moped?’ Yeah, I've just found out what Oleksandr Tsebrii is most afraid of before he goes out. Let his comrades-in-arms know this secret information. Grandad, where's your moped?
(Military talk about weapons)
24 July 2024. 1:31 p.m. 5 hours 29 min. to the assault.
- I could not be at the headquarters. I have a charitable foundation. I volunteered a lot. I have a lot of friends abroad who helped. We brought humanitarian aid by truck. A large number of vehicles were handed over to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We did all this. But I realised that it was not enough. Many people said you are doing a lot of good here, you have nothing to do in the war. But no. I wrote a report to the combat brigade myself, and now I am here. I could have not gone. I have every reason not to fight, not to serve. My knee has been operated on three times. But I have to be here. I believe that I am useful here. And the guys need me here. I see that I am doing the right thing here. So, as long as the war is on, I will be here.
(Group discussion about preparing for the stationing)
24 July 2024. 15:03. 3 hours 57 min. to the assault.
- Soon you will lead the group to the attack line. Tell us, what thoughts go through the mind of an assault unit commander when all your friends and all the lyrics are gone?
- I want to say that I have already replayed this assault in my head, probably a hundred times. We have performed it in different ways, as it can be. Everything is planned, everything is talked through. Everyone knows what they are doing, where they are going. Everyone knows what they are doing. In which two, who carries what, who does what. Who goes to the central forest belt. The Bravo group. There is a senior, a machine gunner, an ammunition load, a radio, an EW, call signs. Everything is loaded, everything is ready.
It's war. Even those people who are not afraid of anything at all get scared here. It is scary here. The blood here is not fake, the death is real. This is not a theatre, this is not a film, this is not a show. Everything here is real. And unfortunately, the heroes die.
(Footage of the assault and conversations on the walkie-talkie)
