Infantryman Taras Varlam: "Mortar shell lands, we hit deck to avoid shrapnel. But my brother-in-arms still gets hit. He yells to me: ’Tarik, my leg’s been blown off!’"
Introducing Taras Varlam, his comrade said he had been caught in heavy "dust-ups" more than once. Unsurprising, as he has been fighting since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion at the most intense sectors of the front — in the Luhansk region and in the Pokrovsk and Northern Slobozhanskyi directions.
He fought in the infantry, although before the full-scale war, he had instructor skills. That is why, with Taras Varlam, a fighter of an operational-purpose battalion of the 35th Sumy Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine, we discussed not only the front, but also the specifics of service in the infantry and the training of civilians who are still awaiting mobilization.
"THE RUSSIANS, ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER ENTERING THE CITY, DRAGGED HUNTERS OUT OF THEIR HOMES."
– How long have you been serving?
– I completed my conscription term and then served another seven years under contract. I left the service in 2019 and worked in construction. When the full-scale invasion began, I rejoined the National Guard.
Our company was sent to Sumy right away because they were short on manpower. Within two weeks, we were already fighting in Sievierodonetsk in the Luhansk region. Then Rubizhne, Lysychansk. We held the Katsaps off for four months.
I remember crossing the Siverskyi Donets by boat, rigging lines across. Quite an experience…
– Why were you crossing the river? Were any assault operations planned?
– It was a defensive mission. The Russians were advancing. We didn’t want to give up our positions, so we used boats to cross and hold a specific area, preventing them from taking Lysychansk. We drove into Lysychansk and from there crossed by boat to our positions.
After a few weeks of fighting, I was wounded during a mortar attack. I was evacuated. Then I underwent treatment and rehabilitation. When I returned to duty, our unit was pulled back from the east. For some time, we served at checkpoints in Trostianets, in the Sumy region.
By that point, the city had already been liberated, but we lived in a dugout at our position, ready to respond if needed.
– Law enforcement officers say the Russians caused a lot of devastation in that city — killing people, shelling houses with tanks. What did you see there?
– The bus station was almost completely destroyed. During the occupation, snipers were stationed there and killed civilians.
Locals also said that the Russians, almost immediately after entering the city, dragged hunters out of their homes, forced them into basements, and executed them there.
– Executed them so they wouldn’t resist? How did they even know who the hunters were?
– Someone must have turned them in. When the Russians were retreating from the city, they also took some men with them as prisoners.
– Was there a lot of destruction in the city?
– Mostly around the outskirts. There’s a monument shaped like a tank there. They thought it was real and destroyed it too.
– Why did they position snipers at the bus station?
– The surrounding villages were occupied. At first, people would come into the city from those villages to buy bread and some groceries. And Russian snipers were waiting for them.
– After the Sumy region, did you return to the front?
– Yes, in the Pokrovsk direction. It was in the summer of last year. We were brought to the position at night; we dug in as much as we could, and in the morning, they came at us.
There were droves of them. They were fighting a war of attrition. From 8 a.m., they would assault, then pull back for a while, then come back and assault for several more hours. Then they’d have lunch and it would start all over again. They kept coming in waves.
We laid down a lot of fire there, but there were so many of them that after four days our positions were heavily battered. We took losses; there were wounded. By the time the guys were evacuated, there were six of us left. We held on. But the enemy outnumbered us several times over. My friend was killed. Two more guys were wounded. Still, we kept holding that position.
– Was it a particular village?
– Yes, Zhelanne. We were positioned in front of the village to keep them from getting in. They were pushing along the railway line, and we were holding it. Beside that railway line, there was a road and the entrance to the village.
They didn’t enter right away; they tried to envelop the village. But they advanced slowly because they were taking heavier losses than we were, even though, as I said, they outnumbered us by a wide margin.
At that time, we were fighting alongside the 47th Brigade. Our battalion was under "Magura" command.
– Were they regular Russian troops or mobilized men?
– Just ordinary people. Most likely mobilized. There wasn’t any special tactics to it; they just kept pressing in mass.
Our armor was working them over, tank. Many of them were killed, but the rest didn’t seem to care.
– Did they use armor?
– They used mortars actively. I got properly concussed then. My team pulled out, and I wandered off into the village.
– Why?
– It wasn’t a conscious decision. We had no water, severe dehydration. Summer, extreme heat. It was hard to bear. They dropped us water from a drone, one 0.5-liter bottle for four men. We’d sip it by the mouthful.
On top of that, I’d been badly concussed. Our tank was firing along the rail line, and it kicked back these loud, nasty "dzhen-dzhen" clangs. Plus, an FPV drone went off nearby.
They told the group to evacuate; the guys left and couldn’t find me. I blacked out for about an hour. It was around ten, getting dark. I came to, completely disoriented. I grabbed my rifle and the rifle of a dead katsap. I went into the village to look for water. I saw the first house was on fire. I went to the second, there was a well. I finally had a drink, left the village, and made it back to my own.
– Why did your brothers-in-arms leave on their own? Did they think you’d been killed?
– I don’t remember how I left our tree line or how I ended up in the village. They said they tried to stop me, but I went anyway. Whether it was the concussion or sheer thirst, I don’t remember.
– So they lost track of you?
– Yes, they counted me as missing in action. That night, after leaving the village, I reached a neighboring unit. They took me in. I sat down in a small trench with two soldiers and blacked out. In the morning, I went to their senior NCO and said I was supposed to be evacuated. He goes, "Buddy, what evacuation? The Katsaps are pushing! A group is coming our way." We barely finished talking when the fight kicked off. One of the men who’d let me into the trench at night was wounded. He was older, almost a granddad. He’d taken a penetrating chest wound. We slapped on an occlusive dressing and started dragging him for evac. The Katsaps kept advancing. We repelled the assault and dragged him again. But they kept pressing. We fell back, dug in on new positions.
We ended up in a close-range firefight with Katsaps, about ten meters out...
– Did you beat them back?
– Yes. But we had another "WIA." A brother-in-arms was wounded. I got in touch with my unit then. They thought I’d been killed.
They told me to move out for evacuation with the wounded man. We set off. Rain, munition drops from drones… We moved while hiding from the drones.
Over the radio, they said there’d be an evacuation around 11–12 p.m., that we were lucky, a group was coming in and told us where to link up. We reached the point, sat down, waited. We heard something pulling up, but it turned out we’d strayed and were sitting about 30 meters from the actual pickup spot.
Then the 120s started coming in. The vehicle was on the move; a drone spotted it and directed the mortar crews. We ran under fire; a soldier in a Bradley asked where we were. We told them to hold and kept running. A mortar round landed, we hit the deck to avoid shrapnel. But my brother-in-arms still gets hit. He yelled, "Tarik, my leg’s been blown off!" He’d already taken a hit to the arm. I tried to drag him, but he’d gone pale…
The Bradley didn’t want to swing over to us, rounds were coming in and they didn’t want to risk the vehicle. The soldier inside said they’d circle back, and I told him, "Hold on — I’m running." My brother-in-arms, sadly, died. I was on my own.
– Did you make it?
– Yes. That was my first really hard withdrawal from positions. Back in 2022, when we fought in the Luhansk region, there were drones, but no FPV drones.
– What happened next?
– I pulled myself together and went back to a position, but in a different area. We were attached to Azov then and fought with them in the Serebrianskyi Forest. The Russians weren’t pushing hard there, mostly reconnaissance. There were strike drones, artillery, and their sniper at work. The main thing was to get onto the position and get out alive.
Then came the fighting for New York. Everything there was very intense. The enemy’s tactics had shifted a bit: they approached in small groups, trying to get around us from the rear. We dropped quite a few of them there. For each of ours killed, there were three of theirs.
A few weeks later, we were redeployed to the Kharkiv region and joined the Spartan Brigade. After that, fighting along the border.
The Russians came at us in mass on APCs. We burned eight APCs…
There was everything you could think of, helicopters, heavy armor, enemy artillery, hitting without letup.
"THE RUSSIANS WERE ADVANCING, THINKING NO ONE WAS THERE, AND THEN THERE WE WERE: ‘GOOD AFTERNOON! SURRENDER!’"
– How many concussions have you had over these nearly four years because of such intense shelling?
– Plenty that were never recorded. Only one is officially documented. That was already in the Sumy region, when we’d returned there. My buddy and I were riding to a range for live fire. Along with us were a senior NCO and the driver. It was closer to the border. The KamAZ was driving along when a "Molniya" drone slammed into it. When it blew, we didn’t even grasp at first what it was. I jumped out of the truck, it was torn up and shouted to my brother-in-arms to run, but he didn’t respond. The driver, who’d also bailed after the blast, and I jumped back into the KamAZ; my buddy was lying there. I tried to pull him out, and something inside detonated, it threw me over him and out of the vehicle. The KamAZ caught fire and, unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get him out.
– You were both riding in the cargo bed?
– Yes, the two of us were in the bed. But he was sitting closer to the tailgate, and I was up front.
– Did that drone drop something on you?
– No, these drones are set up to hit vehicles, they ram straight into them. So it struck from the rear, and my brother-in-arms was killed because he was sitting close to the impact point.
– Did the other two guys survive?
– Yes. The driver, like me, sustained a shell-shock. Luckily, we didn’t catch shrapnel, just a few tiny bits that scorched my fleece.
– What are you receiving treatment for now?
– I broke my leg. All these multiple shell-shocks are taking their toll.
– How did you break it?
– The guys went off to formation; I stayed at the house where we were temporarily living and started tidying up the yard. I got dizzy, blacked out, and fell onto the concrete. I broke my leg in the fall.
– Was it badly broken?
– It broke in two. I’ve already had surgery; they put in a titanium rod. I’m undergoing rehabilitation now. I think in another month I’ll be back to service.
– Have you taken Russians prisoner?
– Yes, in the Kharkiv region. The Russians were advancing, thought no one was there, and then there we were: "Good afternoon! Surrender!" (he smiles - ed.).
– What do they say? Do they admit they went to war knowingly?
– One said he went for the money, knowingly signed a contract. A big, strapping guy. Said he was from St. Petersburg.
– Nearly four years in the infantry — how do you endure it physically? There’s a lot of marching and running. It’s no pleasant stroll through the woods.
– We ran seven kilometers. You come back from a position, rest three days, and head out running again for five or six.
– For those still awaiting mobilization, should they start training now to handle the load and survive? For example, run daily?
– You should maintain your physical fitness — run regularly and keep up with sports.
– One of my acquaintances, an American who does mountaineering, said that during training he puts on a 35-kilogram rucksack and climbs stairs.
– At the front you’re also carrying no less than 30 kilos for about five kilometers, sometimes more. Body armor, ammo, "single-use launchers".
– What are "single-use launchers"?
– Those are Polish grenade launchers.
– Are they heavy?
– Up to three kilos each. And you take two. Plus your rifle and a rucksack.
– And with all that you head to the position?
– No, you don’t just walk, you thread your way under fire and drones.
– Do you need to learn how to hit the deck properly when something’s incoming?
– Preferably. And learn not to get "spotted". My buddy got himself "spotted", and a drone started hunting him. He dove into the shrub, the drone after him. He got lucky, it didn’t catch him climbing out of the brush and running. That’s how he made it.
In general, you hide where there’s thicker foliage and freeze. Then there’s a chance it won’t pick you up.
– They can’t detect heat, can they?
– They can. That’s why we’d cover ourselves with anti-drone cloaks, and the drones couldn’t find us.
– What’s the hardest part of the war for you?
– Going a long time without seeing your family. You miss home. This damned war has worn me out. Given the leg situation, I might try to transfer to the K9 unit to serve at checkpoints, I can’t run like before.
– Do you have the skills? Were you a canine handler during your contract service?
– Yes. I progressed from squad leader to instructor.
– And these nearly four years you fought as a rank-and-file infantryman?
– Yes, in the infantry. Constantly digging foxholes. If you want to live, you dig!
– Volunteers say fundraising is moving very slowly now. On the one hand, the front is edging closer to rear-area towns; on the other, some people somehow think that what’s happening there doesn’t concern them. Do you sense that kind of indifference too?
– Yes. There are people who just live their lives, deal with their own issues, and don’t care about what’s happening at the front. For them, the war is only on the news; at home, they’d rather not notice it. A missile hits, they talk about it for two or three days and forget.
But there are people who do help, and we’re grateful for that support. Folks from my village help one of the brigades with food, drones, and pickups.
– Do you follow public statements by political leaders in different countries about possible talks to end the war?
– I didn’t follow them at the front. You know you have a task and you have to carry it out. That’s what you focus on.
During treatment, I had more free time, so I followed it then. But I don’t believe this war will end quickly. It’s going to go on and on.
Tetiana Bodnia, Censor.NET
