Infantrywoman Vyrva: In rear, there should be 6-8 people working for each infantryman. Infantry is beginning and end of everything
On March 12, a Russian assault group attacks a position near Spirne, where fighter Vyrva, soldier Shustryi, and Colombian Pinho are holding the defence. During a fierce battle, the Russians blow up the pit where our fighters are holding their defence. For two days, Vyrva and her wounded comrades had been under the rubble.
Russian soldiers approach them and offer to surrender through the gaps in the rubble. Vyrva refuses. The situation is critical: the ammunition is almost exhausted, there is not enough drinking water, and there is no communication with the command. But despite everything, Vyrva managed to get out and take two of her comrades with her.
Fire: I run to the second radio station, shouting that I have so and so, sh** inside, and by the way, no one can hear me from that radio station, only Vyrva can hear me, she says, who is speaking? I say Zirka, and at that moment Pitbull is loading a machine gun and shooting at the f**gots. She hears these shots, says: who is shooting? She can't understand, nobody can understand anything.
Vyrva: It all started a little bit earlier than 12 March. Zirka fell, Forpost fell, and I already understood that they would put pressure on us. And we were really waiting for it from day to day.
How long did the battle last at that time?
When Shustryi turned off, for about 12-14 minutes. I heard that we had wounded them. They were screaming, they were swearing, they were crawling away, especially when Pinho started throwing grenades.
Journalist: How many days have you been under the rubble?
For two days. On the second day, we started waking up normally.
Do you feel your limits?
This is a difficult question. I have a feeling that there is no limit.
What happened on 12 March?
I was sitting near the exit and heard conversations. They had to come in so that I could hear them well. I report to the radio that I hear the f..ggots, that they are close. I put the radio down, Shustryi turns to me, and we realise that they have come on purpose. Shustryi starts shooting, grenades fly in. I'm behind two barricades of bags, but they have a good effect on Shustryi, the three of us had to shoot back four of them, and from a hole. A very well-trained assault group.
Shustryi was the first to fall out, because he took the most grenades.
One of them, when he was so close, I could see his leg behind the bags, and Pinho was shooting from this side, and he was trying to climb again. So I realised that a little more, and I was already shooting from the sniper's nest, sitting, randomly, because I couldn't hit him, and I didn't want him to come any closer.
I thought a little more and he would jump in. And he would even miss Pinho, but he would definitely kill me. I pulled out the knife, not that I pierced his leg or made a wound, no. I just poked him, it hurt him. He cursed and started to climb upstairs. When he was climbing upstairs, I saw his leg, and I started hit legs. And I heard him roll down the ravine, shouting something, and fall down. But the worst thing is that when they are almost blocked, everything else, and there is a kind of conditional hole, and they drop gases in there. I had a bag on top, I just pressed it with the ground, threw it in there with my foot, it pressed, and the gas just stopped. It was all air, and he was just pressed. I managed to breathe in something, it clogged all my airways, somewhere in the middle, but I didn't have time to breathe into my lungs. I closed my eyes, it burned here, it burned here. But at least I didn't lose consciousness, and it didn't go into the hole.
A drone came and dropped a "zucchini" on us. I just saw a little green flicker, and when I was coming back, I wanted to tell Pinho to lie down, but I flew away, hit my head, and blacked out for about an hour and a half or two. And Pinho, as I understood it, was covered with bags, and since he was sitting shooting, his leg was twisted unnaturally, so he fell on it, and it was covered with bags, and he had a serious leg injury, very serious, he could not stand on it at all. He was also stunned, poisoned and everything else. That is, after the assault, everyone felt basically the same. But not really. And when I switched on some consciousness in my eyes again, how real it was, I was raking Pinho and trying to roll him over, and it was all so hard, I didn't realise how bad it was. And when I had set his leg, and taped it up, and laid it down, I looked at the two guys lying there and thought, "Ooh, how good. I promised to take you out... I did not expect them to come again in the evening. At first, they were talking kindly: come on, surrender, I told them that I was alone in the hole, shell-shocked, wounded, that there was no water, no ammunition, I was buried under stuff, suffocating, I would die here anyway, then he started shouting more, pressing. The commander was speaking, they came together.
It's good that the enemy didn't have any mining equipment.
They left afterwards. At first they went somewhere. Then after 30-40 minutes, something made a noise, where there was a sniper's nest, it collapsed, I flew away again, hit my head, from what I understand it was an anti-tank mine. I blacked out again.
During the night, in order to stay awake, I cleaned the magazines, gave Shustryi something to drink and painkillers to Pinho.
On the second day, we got in touch, we were told to leave in the morning, to break out, to the neighbouring Zholudi.
There was an order to leave, but how do you get out of a hole that's blocked?
It took two and a half hours to break out.
Were you the first to get out?
Of course, I was the first. If I took responsibility, if I was the first to lead, then I'm the first to get out. That's why they started shooting at me first. I did not expect them to be alive, I did not expect us to shoot. Moreover, I am deaf. I'm contused, deaf, and this is a big problem. I could only see these red things flying by, a kind of draught. I think what's up, some kind of red wind. I realise that they are shooting at me, I fall down. I take the assault rifle, I think, God, at least it would work. I cleaned it, put it together as best I could. But I definitely did not have time to check in the hole whether it was firing or not. But I was lucky that I was a little bit higher up behind a piece of wood, and he was a little bit lower, and that saved me. I just hit him in the head the fourth time. It was flying by him, he was crouching down a little bit, and the fourth time I hit him. Oh, that's it, I thought, that's it. And I just got up - on the other hand, there was the former observation point. I was like, what is this, where do they come from? For some reason, at first I thought they were some new people who came to meet us in the morning, to say good morning again. And then, when I was already passing, I realised that they were the same ones. This is the guy whose legs I hit, who fell into the ravine, and the other one, who was hit by grenades on top, and he could still lift his torso, and he still started shooting. And it was easier with him, because he was shooting from behind cover, and he was uncomfortable. I saw which side the legs were, crawled three metres away, and I just set it to automatic and did it. That was it, I think, for sure.
How far did you have to move to your position?
About 300-400 metres, but it was a ravine. And in such a state, when you have hallucinations of light, noise, when your head is spinning, when you have no strength, when you are dehydrated, gassed, all these things, these 400 metres seem like 400 kilometres.
How long did you spend at the position?
I stayed at Zholudi for two more days. Together with the guys. Unfortunately, we left Pinho behind, we couldn't take him with his injured leg. He stayed there for a while, then he was taken to another position, and then he and the guys came out. But while he was there, they dropped medicines, I fixed his leg, anaesthetised it, so he received all the treatment from the drones. He was lying there, no one was loading him, even if there were some assaults in the neighbouring positions, he could not help in any way. So he was laying there and hoped that these guys would repel the assault and he would be alive.
Did you keep in touch with Pinho after these events?
Yes, I messaged him a few times, not much.
He broke the contract, right?
Yes, he came and broke the contract.
He went home. He has his own country, his own life, and plus, I think, after all this, everyone has a certain limit, and he has reached that limit. I looked at him later and realised that he couldn't do it anymore. A young guy who came, tried, did something, but realised that he wanted to live, and he was able to do it, he did it, and he can't go on.
Tell me, please, do you feel your limits? Do you have one?
Oh, this is a difficult question. I have a feeling that there is no limit. I have one. If I'm given something, I'll turn around, go and do what I have to do. Not being aware, maybe not being aware how to do something, relying on myself, on God and on my brothers. Maybe it is somewhere, but I have not reached it yet. And when people tell me, oh, the drone war is the first battle there, robots, all this other stuff. All this is great, my friends. But if the infantry doesn't go and do their job, then nothing will work. In general, everything that works there, flying, exploding, everything has to work for the infantry, everything has to revolve around the infantry. If not, that's it. And in the rear, there should be 6-8 people working for each infantryman. For each infantryman. I understand this. And let them work, let them go as drivers, as rear support, logistics, drones, whatever. But don't forget that you are going the infantry to move the landings, the infantry to move the villages, the infantry to hold the cities. It's all infantry. If you don't understand that it's all infantry, then that's it. That is why I love the infantry, because it is the beginning of everything and the end of everything. That's the infantry. This is the most important thing.
