Russian company commander with five soldiers surrendered
A significant development occurred near Kharkiv. A Russian company commander, a lieutenant from St. Petersburg, withdrew the remnants of his company from their position, and they voluntarily surrendered to the soldiers of the 13th National Guard Brigade "Khartiia."
The Russian battalion was almost completely eliminated over several months of fighting, and the remaining soldiers of the 7th Motorised Rifle Regiment chose to stay alive. They were led to Ukrainian positions by their commander, who made significant efforts to save the lives of the five soldiers who were all that remained of his battalion.
This is an interview with the only surviving Russian company commander.
My name is Balgrabsky Vladislav Ivanovich, born on 19 November 1996. I hold the position of company commander of the 3rd Assault Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment, 7th Motorised Rifle Regiment, my rank is lieutenant, and my call sign is Mirage.
Even now, I’m smiling — I genuinely feel comfortable and relieved, I’m glad that I managed to withdraw with the guys relatively well: quickly and safely. To be honest, it wasn’t entirely safe — apparently, someone didn’t want me to reach you. Maybe they didn’t want me talking too much — I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter.
Tell me, why did you go to war against Ukraine?
To put it bluntly, I had no intention of fighting. I had no intention of fighting. I was just trying to sign a minimum one-year contract, and the only thing that really motivated me, I mean, the only thing that was, so to speak, tempting, was possible all kinds of cash payments, compensations, and benefits in general. Since I lived in St. Petersburg, I was entitled to 500,000 rubles paid directly by the regional governor, plus the president’s bonus of 200,000, and they also promised monthly payments of 200,000 rubles. Roughly speaking, that was the minimum. I thought the year would pass quickly, there wouldn’t be anything serious, and I’d save up some money for my family and that would be it.
On what date did you enter the position and what kind of fighting was going on?
The 8th or 9th of the seventh month.
How many people were at the position when you entered?
When I arrived at the position, there were quite a lot of people. Just in my company alone — I think we had about 70 to 75 troops, maybe not more, but definitely around that number.
Yes, and were there other companies?
Yes, the second company had up to 50 personnel. Then, somewhere around the area we called "Berlin," the second and third battalions were also stationed. I can’t say for sure how many there were, but the second battalion probably had around 30 to 40 people deployed here, and the third battalion — maybe 20 to 30 soldiers as well.
And on top of that, there were the so-called "V" and "Z" units, and a reconnaissance group that had been formed here at the very beginning. I think they also numbered about 20 to 30 people.
So, several hundred people were at the Berlin position?
Yes, yes, yes, that was back in the summer.
And how many were left at the Berlin position when you surrendered?
So, right now, from the first and second battalions at the Berlin position, after I surrendered with five others, there are just 19 people left from both battalions.
Nineteen people?
Yes, 19 people from two entire battalions.
And no one is allowed to execute a withdrawal; everyone who goes in just stays there?
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely right, because there are 18 people left from the first battalion, and one person left from the second battalion. One company commander. He was told that if you withdrew from Berlin, they would blame him for everything: abandoning the position, losing personnel, weapons, ammunition. Basically, they found someone to pin it all on.
And the entire second battalion has only one company commander left at the position? No soldiers at all?
None at all.
And what is he doing there?
He's just sitting somewhere off to the side, trying to survive in that forest.
What's his name?
His call sign is Zen. That’s why I made the decision to surrender, just to survive. To one day maybe see my family, my child. I just wanted to stay alive — and let the guys stay alive too. That’s why we made that decision and came to you.
What pushed you to make that decision and to surrender?
I had actually been thinking about such a decision for a long time. See, when my contract ended, they told me there had been some amendments to the legislation — that a law on partial mobilisation had been passed. And under that law, if you’ve signed a contract, you can’t be discharged from the service when it ends. The only way out is if you’re killed in action or severely wounded, like if you lose an arm or a leg, something like that. In other words, you have to be seriously injured to be considered unfit for further military service... The way my commander humiliated me, the things he said, the way he spoke to me.
What is the name of your battalion commander?
The battalion commander, call sign Rzhev, his name is Rustam, I say, there's something with an R in it.
Some of the guys who withdrew with me — and those who stayed behind — they're afraid to head in that direction, because they might get shot or buried somewhere. I honestly don't know what could happen. My head is full of all kinds of thoughts. There were people who disappeared — those we called "500s," the ones who deserted. They left the position, but they never really came back, and no one ever told me where they ended up. Maybe they were killed in action... It's all really strange. Someone might leave a hotspot like this and die somewhere else down the line. It's just unreal.
Is this battalion commander Rzhev the kind of man who can shoot?
Well, I can't say anything for certain, but I do have my suspicions, you never know. Rumors are rumors, but I didn’t see it myself. As they say, no proof, no guilt. What I do know is that some of the guys heard him say: "I’m not withdrawing from Berlin. I’m staying here. Doesn’t matter who comes or what happens. He said I wouldn't withdraw from here, from Berlin. Those were his exact words. Later, when I got wounded, he said he’d replace me. "Once the weather clears, I’ll get someone to replace you." But honestly, his state of mind was strange; one moment he seemed to understand things, the next, not really. He’d switch — one moment he was kind, the next he was bad. And then, literally two or three days before we surrendered, he gave me an order: "Deploy two men to that area." I said, "How am I supposed to do that? There’s no cover out there." He replied, "I don’t care. Deploy them. Right now. I mean, right now." Then he started raising his voice, shouting, going off on me. I just said, "Understood. Message received." That’s it. I accepted the order. I started making calls, relaying the order to the guys: "You need to move into that area and try to dig in." They responded: "In an open field?" I said: "It’s not completely open — there’s debris, something. You need to find a spot, dig in, do what you can."I understood it was a tough ask, but that was the task. "Either you do it, or we all go together and do it. Because they won’t leave us alone." The guys kind of want to do but they’re really scared. Everyone just wants to stay alive. "Why should I leave my hole and go risk my life out there?" — that’s how they think. A whole day passed — nothing happened. The next day, the battalion commander reached out to me again: "What’s going on with my task?" I told him: "It didn’t work out yesterday. Today, since early morning, they’ve been monitoring the weather and watching the sky. Once there’s a window, they’ll move out, link up, and start working on it." That’s it — I said I Roger, I’m standing by. Half an hour passes, maybe an hour — he calls again. Basically, every 15–30 minutes, he’s checking in: "What’s going on? What’s going on?" And I keep telling him: "Nothing’s changed — it’s a swamp out here, the sky’s overcast, we can’t move, we can’t get through. Even just covering 50–100 meters through the forest — I’m sorry, but there are so many drones overhead, they’ll spot any movement right away." And he keeps asking: "What’s going on? What’s going on?" I tell him: "The sky’s still overcast. We can’t move yet. We’re waiting — waiting for the weather to clear, just watching and waiting." And then he says: "If they don’t get into position today, then you go there yourself." But I’m wounded — I’ve been lying down for a month. I literally can’t stand. And I’m just thinking, How is this supposed to work? How is this even real? And all the while, he kept throwing in swearing, insults, all kinds of foul language. The guys heard everything. They saw it all. They know how he talks. Many of them know exactly how he insulted me — how he humiliated me. Everyone heard it. But for me, it was the final straw. I knew that if I didn’t follow the order, I’d be setting up my command, maybe getting others in trouble. But at the same time, I realized — I want to live. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything out there anyway. So I made one important, alternative decision — and now I know it was the right one: I surrendered. I saved my own life — and the lives of my comrades who withdrew with me.
What were the living conditions like at your position? Let's count — how many months were you continuously in the field?
Eight months, for sure.
Eight months without a break?
Yes.
On the same position?
No, we had to change positions three times.
But you never left the front line?
I never left the front. But I did change locations twice. The first one was an actual dugout, and it was warmer — I built it myself. With logs, gear, everything. We had heaters, mugs, plates — it was more or less livable.
What happened to this position?
Over time, that position was destroyed. When I became the company commander, I was relocated to another spot — the COP (command and observation post), which was situated lower. The place I had been before was an actual fighting position. So when I ended up at the COP, there wasn’t much there either — but the guys had managed to put something together. There was some kind of basic cover, more or less. After that, the COP was destroyed too — I think it happened after December, sometime after New Year’s. And after that, I basically started living directly in the ground — in a hole.
So how many months did you go without washing?
Basically, since I left home — since the last time I took a bath, back in the summer of 2024 — that was it. And only just yesterday, here with you, I managed to at least wash my face a bit, tidy myself up a little. As for clothing, basic hygiene — underwear, socks — I won’t even say when I last changed them. It’s kind of funny, honestly, but it is what it is. The uniform I'm wearing was issued to everyone, but I wouldn’t call it winter, or even seasonal. It’s more like a summer version, like a raincoat. It offers minimal protection from the rain, but as you can see, it’s very thin. There’s nothing else to it — it’s just like a raincoat. It was issued to every soldier. And then in October, winter clothing started to come in — jackets, the green pixel-patterned ones. They came in gradually, one by one, but they did arrive. Each soldier eventually received something — first the jackets, then hats, gloves — and that was it.
What kind of losses did you have in your position, what did you see?
The losses were heavy, a lot of positions were lost. But the orders from command were to restore them — to rebuild positions in the same position, even though there was nothing left. The task was to dig in, bury ourselves there and hold — just to avoid losing the sector, gaps, or flanks, not to expose something, but there were no people left, no resources, no capability, nothing, and during my time, we lost a lot of positions.
So no withdrawals? Two battalions were left like that, and now only 19 men remain? No evacuation? No doctors or medics?
No evacuation. There was only one medic — the company medic, part of our unit. He used to help everyone, always did his job. But these past months — since around November, when the assault on Berlin began and the positions started pounding, he stopped moving completely. No one could reach him, and he couldn’t reach anyone. It just became impossible. Now everything happens only through supply drops — drones dropping meds, injections, syringes, bandages, whatever they can send.
Do you get many packages dropped on your position daily?
I wouldn’t say so, it depends on how many people are on what spot. For example, at our location, there were three of us, and they dropped three to five packages a day. But we usually only found two or three. One of them would be water, and another would be a metal package, like canned meat. Inside that there might be some instant mashed potatoes, a teabag or two, maybe dry fuel. Everything wrapped in tape and stuffed into a bag — just a small bundle falling from the sky. But the water, for all three of us, was just one 0.5-liter bottle. And it was always dented and partially deflated. Probably lost some air in the drop. The bottle was wrapped in tape, again packed in a bag, again taped up. When you opened it, there wasn’t even a full 0.5 liters — maybe a bit less. That meant less than 150 milliliters per person per day. That’s not even enough to brew the tea they give you, or rehydrate the mashed potatoes. You can’t even drink properly. You just wet your lips. Maybe take a sip — and that’s it. And you have to make that last until the next day, hoping for another drop. The older guys — the ones with chronic conditions or who had been through something serious — they just didn’t make it. They died. Just like that. They’d stop eating, stop drinking. A day would go by — and that was it. They were just...
Were you starving on the front line?
Yes, yes, that happened too. I’m telling you, we only just reached your side — calmly, peacefully, to surrender — and by the time we’d reached even your first two positions, I’d already eaten more than I had in a whole week. These last three or four months were really, really hard. We’d all wanted to get out of there for a long time. As a company commander — I’m an officer — I knew they’d threaten me with prison or worse. But I just wanted to get my people out. Just leave. But possibilities... Everyone’s scared. Your control of the skies is too strong. Everyone’s too scared to go anywhere; they’re afraid, I don’t know, but I made it out. I took six guys with me, I’m the sixth. I really felt it, right after I surrendered to your side, that my fellow troops wanted to take me out. If it weren’t two of them, I came up to them. If not for those two, they had body armor and helmets. I came as I was, with nothing, my arm wounded. If they hadn’t covered me, even just a little, I would have been killed. The payload drops were hitting right where they were, right on their position. I think my own realized I was there, and that’s when they started hitting that area hard — just raining it down. They didn’t want you to take me alive.
An incredible story. So your own comrades, drone operators, saw that you were in the trench with two Ukrainian soldiers and started throwing grenades at you?
Yeah, I don’t know exactly, maybe VOGs, grenades, something. The flashes were really bright, and the shrapnel was flying everywhere. It tore through the plastic sheeting, through the roof.
Did two Ukrainian soldiers shield you?
Yeah. At first, they were keeping me under control; they were afraid. I told them I wouldn’t do anything stupid, but when they started dropping explosives on us, they just started shielding me, at least with their body armor. They were trying to protect themselves too, of course, but at least they gave me some shield. I came as I was — completely exposed. I didn’t even have a hat on at that point.
Please tell us what kind of injuries you have?
It turns out that was "Baba Yaga". It was dropping so-called "carrots" — rounds that are usually loaded into grenade launchers, it dropped four of them. The first two went right through the roof. Then, during the third drop — well, I guess I panicked a bit, maybe because of the concussion, and I stood up straight and tried to shield my face. That’s when the third "carrot" and shrapnel from it went straight through my arm. The fourth one dropped after I’d already fallen — I thought I hadn’t been hit, but it actually caught my shoulder blade and a rib. The ribs seem okay, and the shrapnel in the shoulder blade came out on its own since the fragments were small. The arm was shot through, the holes eventually closed up. But I was bleeding for three days. It was terrifying. I was completely pale. I thought that was it.
If I could say something to the guys who are still out there, guys, it would be this: Look, if you think it’s scary to surrender, if you’re afraid that something bad will happen to you, it won’t. No one will harm you. On the contrary, they’ll guide you out, give you a "window" to get out, take you somewhere secure. They’ll feed you, give you water. I’m telling you, the first day I ended up on their position — right there on "Berlin" — I ate more than I had in weeks. I had pâté, crackers, tea, coffee, potatoes with vegetables, sausage, sweets. They gave me water, not in that 0.5 volume. They didn’t even tell me, "Hey, leave some for us," or "Don’t drink so much, we’re stuck here for a while." I must’ve drunk, I don’t know, maybe three or four big bottles — 1.5 liters each — in just one day. That’s a lot of water. Like, a lot. So, what I want to say to the guys who are still out there —my call sign, once again, is Mirage. I know — if you hear me out there, if you recognize me — please, don’t be afraid to come out. What you should really be afraid of is what our own people might do to you if you stay. That’s why, in my opinion, it’s better to surrender voluntarily. Come out. Because if you can’t, you’ll just rot there. You’ll rot there. That’s it. People will forget about you — where you are, what happened to you, what hole you’re in. Because no one really knows where you are, or how you are. So it’s better to surrender calmly, without any stupidity, without panic. Come out, and at least you’ll be alive. They’ll feed you, give you water, clean you up, give you clothes — even cigarettes, I’m telling you. Then they’ll exchange you. And you’ll be back with your family, with your loved ones. It’ll be okay. It’ll be fine. I still can’t believe that I made this decision —that despite not knowing what’s ahead, I managed to save people. And now I’m trying to get more of them out — to save them. So they can really get out of there.
Yurii Butusov
