Call sign Shturman: "If you don’t hear UAV buzzing above you — dig. Because it’s about to appear."
He makes difficult decisions and bears responsibility that is hard to put into words for civilians. Under his command is the reconnaissance battalion of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine "Khartiia."
This unit operates where every step carries risk, and every second is a weighing between "must" and "can." The callsign Shturman (Navigator) came to him as a reminder of his pre-war life, when he used to go on long voyages. It was during one of those voyages that he learned about the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of hostilities in his native Donbas.
- "At that time, there was no real Internet on the ship. But we received news bulletins. When I read them, I thought: This is nonsense, it can’t be true!" Shturman recalls in our conversation. "We reached Vancouver. I bought a phone card and called home to Severodonetsk (now Sievierodonetsk, which has been occupied by the Russians for the second time – O.M.). My parents confirmed it. I realized I couldn’t just come back from the sea and pretend that nothing was happening at home. I had to go. I wanted to prove to myself that I could. That’s how I passed the selection for the SSU special unit and joined the JFO."
- Why did you choose the SSU?
- "There is this romanticized stereotype: if you’re going to fly, then straight into space. The same here," (he smiles – О.М.)
- Was it difficult to get in?
- I wasn’t worried about the physical training, since I had been into sports. I was more concerned about the psychological part. Back then, you couldn’t just go online and find a step-by-step guide. There was only a list of documents and requirements. And then came the checks, tests, polygraphs, and so on. Altogether, the selection process took me a year and a half.
- Did you take part in combat operations during the JFO?
- Yes. I was a combatant even before the full-scale invasion.
- What were your first impressions of those events?
- It felt like some kind of movie. But once you go through your first clashes, the first losses, you realize: this is all really happening. That’s when you start ducking a bit, thinking through your steps, acting more cautiously. That’s when reality sets in. Although at the beginning everyone is so uplifted, trying to play the hero. You know, I’m often asked: who feels more fear, the one who has just arrived at war, or the one who has been fighting for years? Well, the one who has just come doesn’t yet know what exactly to fear. But the one who has already been through battles knows very well how it can end.
At that time, we had specialists I looked up to. There was a lot to learn from them. The training I went through back then helps me a lot now. That foundation gave me a great deal.
Overall, I’ll say this: I genuinely enjoyed it. For me, it was once again about proving to myself that I was capable of more than I had been six months or a year earlier.
- Considering the unit you served in, I assume you had some knowledge of a possible full-scale invasion in advance?
- Like everyone else. But no one could truly believe it until the end. I remember the last threshold I crossed in my own awareness. On the evening of February 23, I was on duty. We were assembled for reinforcement. I called my parents, who lived nearby, and said: "Come over, I’ll step outside, we need to talk." They happened to be walking the dog. They came. I told them to pack and get ready to leave. My father was a driver. We decided they would leave in the morning. But the car wouldn’t start. And then the strikes began, including on the parking lot, so the vehicle was shredded. As a result, they couldn’t get out and ended up living in the basement for a month and a half.
- So you met February 24 while on duty. How did it all begin for you?
- Around 3:30 a.m. I heard the news from one of the guys’ phones, and it became clear: that was it, time to get ready. My comrade and I immediately called our commander, the head of the department, and raised the combat alert. Then came the distribution of weapons. Barely an hour later, the first strikes hit the city. At that time, the line of contact was just ten kilometers away from us.
- Did you stay in the city?
- Yes. Later, the withdrawal began, first from the industrial zone of Sievierodonetsk, then Lysychansk, and further on to Bakhmut...
- "Khartiia" was already fighting in Bakhmut as well.
- That’s exactly where I first met "Khartiia." We carried out a joint infantry operation to clear a settlement in the Luhansk region. We accomplished the mission, spoke with the guys, and then went our separate ways. But some things I saw in that volunteer formation kept nagging at me. Above all, their approach to carrying out missions and planning operations. I thought: this is something new. I saw how the brigade commander worked there. He went in with us. Any fighter could come up to him and ask something. It was striking to see soldiers knowing their commander not just by voice over the radio. That kind of motivation works.
- When did you join "Khartiia"?
- In 2023, when "Khartiia" was already beginning to take shape as a brigade. I called and asked if I could join. Of course! They asked why I wanted to come to them. I said: "I see potential." I was genuinely impressed by their approach, young and competent commanders who make decisions and take responsibility. They are different from those who have been sitting in their positions for 40 years, never changing, never growing, and living in the past.
- Did you go straight to intelligence?
- When I arrived, I asked to be assigned to an assault unit. But they offered me to try myself in reconnaissance. And somehow I immediately felt, this was mine! In fact, I had already been performing similar functions before. We trained for about five to six months. And I realized that everything I had imagined was truly there in this brigade, in terms of training, motivation, weapons, and standards. That’s how I ended up as the commander of a special reconnaissance platoon. We were reinforcing the unit and defining our direction of action. When we deployed for combat, among all those who were then in reconnaissance, only a few of us, myself and several others, had actual combat experience. The rest had only theory. So we had to build ourselves up on the go. It was that NATO-style approach of On-the-job training — learning in the process of carrying out combat missions. Afterwards, we would regroup, analyze, and conduct After Action Reviews. In other words, we studied ourselves, introduced new practices, and kept building up our capabilities.
- When did you become a battalion?
- After leaving Kreminna for the Kharkiv region.
- What stood out to you from that period in Kreminna?
- I actually felt comfortable working there. First of all, because I was at home. As a child, I used to pick mushrooms in the Serebrianskyi forest, and in peacetime, I rode those roads on a motorcycle. I knew that area. The heights, the spoil tips, everything was familiar. I didn’t really want to leave. I wanted to fight the enemy right there.
- You hit a mine there, didn’t you?
- There was such an episode. A fragment hit me in the forehead, my night-vision device saved me. There were more fragments in my gear. But one of my brothers-in-arms was killed then, another was wounded, and I pulled him out.
- In such moments, it becomes clear how important it is to be able to provide first aid...
- That is largely thanks to the "Khartiia" approach. For us, medicine is a whole philosophy. Wake my fighters up in the middle of the night and they will recite MARCH theory to you; blindfold them, and they will perform it in practice. It has to be reflexive. We spend a lot of time on this. We were also trained by instructors from Poland who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of the training was even conducted in a morgue. They gave us a powerful foundation. For the guys, it was extremely informative.
- I know that you also go out on missions with your fighters. How does your interaction with them work in practice?
- Indeed, at that time, the brigade commander became an example for me, one I noticed and remembered. By the way, I still have guys from our first team, those I went out on missions with at the very beginning. We grew and worked together. There are no tasks in which I would not have full confidence in them...
- Is this the kind of situation where you understand each other without words, just through looks?
- Exactly. That’s what we practice when we go out on missions. You can’t have conversations out there like we’re having now. It’s mostly through glances, signals. Especially when we operated in the Serebrianskyi forest, where we approached enemy positions very closely. We learned to understand one another without words.
But when it comes to interaction, it’s important not to cross that fine line: you need to be a friend to your fighters, but without overfamiliarity.
- Does overfamiliarity cause harm?
- Sometimes you have to give people a "cold shower," when they might start thinking they’re entitled to something more. Because then they stop taking you seriously. The danger is that you can lose a fighter’s respect and when you lose that, you lose him as a combat unit. That’s why you must keep that boundary. Make it clear that you’re not there because you’re someone’s buddy, but because you’re carrying out the mission.
- In our off-record conversation, you mentioned that about 80 percent of reconnaissance activities are now carried out with the help of technical means. In what cases can classical reconnaissance be more effective?
- Look, first of all, we do it because we enjoy it. This is tactical-level reconnaissance, meaning we gather information needed to carry out operations. Here we try to prepare our fighters as much as possible, explain everything in detail, and lay it all out clearly.
Secondly, through dense greenery, a drone cannot see enemy positions. In winter, we can afford to fly over, but not now. That’s why you have to go in, observe, and approach. These are all different tasks. Reconnaissance is such a broad concept: it includes reconnaissance search, ambushes, and reconnaissance-patrol actions. Sometimes, for example, to understand the enemy’s intentions, you have to capture someone, bring him in, and figure out what plans they have.
- Tell us about the prisoners that you remember most.
- There was one who actually worked in our favor, he destroyed his own firing position, throwing grenades at it because he got offended at his comrades who hadn’t given him anything sweet. That way, he did half of our job. Then he started coming out, and, as Usyk said: "They came for us, but we were already there", some sort of "sweet party" was about to start, but we were already waiting for him (he smiles. – O.M.).
- How many Russian soldiers did he kill?
- Four. We went in, checked, and took what we needed from the position.
- What did this prisoner tell you?
- That their logistical support had already been reduced to a minimum. Once a week, they would get dropped off a single pack of instant noodles, and that was it. They had nothing to eat.
He also said he was carrying supplies to other positions: he would take a small backpack and go, kind of like a local Glovo (he smiles – O.M.). So he knew the layouts. He even drew me a sketch of the dugouts: here are the rifles, there is the firing point, and so on. That meant we already knew from which side we could throw a grenade and from which side we could enter. Of course, you can’t rely one hundred percent on information obtained from a prisoner. But as it turned out, he showed everything correctly. We went in and engaged with firepower.
- And what cover stories do prisoners give now? Why are they here?
- In 2022, they all claimed they came straight from exercises and got lost. Now they’re all drivers and medics. And then it turns out he’s actually an officer.
- Do you ask them what they’re doing here?
- We’ve been asking that for four years. There’s no point anymore. They’re all "victims of circumstance." Nobody wanted this, they were forced. Or they "ended up here by accident." And then you take their phone and see how cheerfully he was "liberating our land from Nazis," bragging in chats about his "heroics."
- Do they often surrender on their own?
- It varies. But the fact that they surrender is also our work. We work on that beforehand. For example, we cut off their logistics and make sure they have no supplies. They can still scoop up some water from a puddle, but food is a real problem.
It’s funny to see them surrender to drones. There’s this "act": a drone flies up, a Russian raises his hands and follows it.
- In a conversation with a soldier with the callsign Panama, we recalled how our pilots in the Kursk region dropped water and cigarettes to a Russian who had surrendered to a drone. Do you do anything similar?
- There was a case when we saw a wounded man, so we dropped him painkillers and water.
- Another soldier who fought in the Kursk sector said that Koreans who took part in combat on Russia’s side would shoot themselves or cut their veins to avoid being captured. Have you seen anything like that?
- There were no Koreans in our sector. But I saw a video of one who slit his own throat with a concertina wire. He was a "KIA," fell, and couldn’t move. A drone was nearby, so he grabbed the wire and started cutting himself.
As for us, I have repeatedly seen Russians simply step over their "WIA" and move on. That happens often. I can’t understand how that’s possible.
I also noticed that some of them go in without body armor or weapons. We asked prisoners: "Why so?" It turns out their commander told them: "There’s one of ours lying under a bush, a ‘KIA’, take his armor and put it on. Then by the stump, there’s one with a weapon, take that too." So they go out with nothing and pick up armor and weapons along the way.
- What was your toughest mission during all your time in reconnaissance? For example, when you thought: this is it…
- The realization that "this is it" comes only after you’ve returned to base, taken off your gear, and the adrenaline wears off. Then suddenly your hand starts shaking and you think: "Whoa!" Afterwards, you laugh about it, talk it over with everyone, and that’s it. But in the field, you don’t really have that clear understanding. You simply can’t afford to reflect on it then. There were episodic moments here in the Kharkiv sector. I went out with Dixon (senior sergeant – O.M.) on a recon-patrol mission, we dug in, and then we heard the guided aerial bombs (GABs) coming. That sound can’t be mistaken for anything else. It’s like some giant gulping down water. Very loud! I was lying on my back. My first thought: I need to roll over to save my face (he smiles – O.M.). The GAB hit, but everything was fine. It only blew away my fighter’s camouflage netting and branches from the firing position he had set up. We had to start from scratch again. But such moments really motivate you to dig deeper. Today that’s a top priority. If you don’t hear a UAV buzzing above you — dig. Because it’s about to appear.
You know, sometimes I even hear that buzzing in my head. Especially in total silence. I think every fighter has a similar story. Because there are just so many drones around.
- What was the most dangerous mission? From what you can share.
- We were on a trench line that was blocked by a fallen tree. We had to check if the enemy had entered it and eliminate them if they had (and they had by then). You move forward, and with every turn, there’s the unknown. When you go first, you act as a kind of shield. Of course, the guys will react and engage the contact, but for you, it’s a matter of luck. You might end up on an unscheduled leave (he smiles – O.M.).
- Did everything go fine?
Yes, it went fine. Overall, every mission is dangerous in its own way, but also interesting.
- What is the level of Russian reconnaissance?
- Their aerial reconnaissance is fairly professional. The enemy is constantly learning. Sometimes a unit arrives that tries to change the course of combat operations. We recognize this and try to counter it. As for the infantry component, they have training bases at home where they can rehearse everything. They can, for example, go out to Siberia and openly train personnel there, using equipment. For us it’s harder, because we don’t have the opportunity to just go out into a field and train, so we have to look for alternatives.
- What else works in their favor?
- The fact that they are constantly at war — the Caucasus, Syria, Africa. All their elite units, reconnaissance, FSB elements, naval infantry, private military companies, carried out missions there.
- You mentioned PMCs, and I immediately thought of Wagner fighters who were pushing in Bakhmut. Our soldiers defending the city often told me: the elite part of the unit fought professionally, while the convicts were thrown in as "meat." Many of them were intoxicated or even under the influence of drugs...
- Yes, we even found syringes on enemy positions in the Kharkiv sector. And they were not filled with medicine.
As for manpower, they have a huge resource. They can afford to expend it. We, on the other hand, due to certain limitations in forces and means, have learned to be as effective as possible.
- Now, as you pointed out, there are very many of their drones. Pilots from all sectors tell me the Russians are using them in large numbers, sparing no expense...
- Remember how they laughed when we first started using drones, saying they were children’s toys. And now the enemy truly has them in great numbers.
- By the way, do you fly?
- Every one of our fighters can fly. If needed during a mission, anyone in the group can pull a drone out of their backpack, launch it, and take a look. And the battalion flies on everything we’ve got. We’re waiting for F-16s (he smiles – O.M.).
- We are recording this interview on the eve of the Trump–Putin meeting in Alaska. A separate topic of discussion is that these are negotiations about Ukraine without us and without Europe, of which we are a part. Do you follow these events at all?
- I’d prefer not to know about it, but I have to follow, because my fighters are interested in these questions. Do you remember back in May, when they announced an Easter ceasefire? I heard my men talking then, saying it could all end soon. That was a worrying signal. I explained: "It’s nothing like that! While we’re not firing, they are carrying out massive regrouping and resupply." I understand that people have an enormous need for this all to end already. The enemy made that "dump" and is successfully conducting information-psychological operations, playing on those desires. They are good at it. So I tell my fighters: "We continue to carry out our tasks. When our command says pack your things and go home, then we will. Until then, as a friendly unit of ours says: ‘Ready for any scenario.’"
(he smiles. - O.M.).
- In general, Trump and Putin can meet anywhere and talk about whatever they want, but we have our own tasks and duties. We have our own leader. And you’re right to point out that meetings where the war in Ukraine is discussed are impossible without us.
- There’s also an important point here: Russia is not giving up on its demands, in particular regarding Crimea and the four regions of Ukraine that, by the way, are not even fully occupied, including your native Donbas. I assume that triggers you personally…
- Exactly! Yes, I’m fighting for the entire country. But I very much want to return home, where my memories, important moments of my life, and my motorcycle remain (he smiles – O.M.).
- And the house?
- It’s gone. But what hits me more now is not the material, but the emotional: here I used to go fishing, there I used to meet with friends. So what, I’ll never be able to do that again? How is that possible?! What drives me is the belief that I will return. Everything will be!
Olha Moskaliuk, Censor.NET
Photo courtesy of Shturman
