After year of going AWOL – back to front: Story of "mayor of forest"
A soldier of the 33rd Separate Assault Regiment, after serving in reconnaissance, spending a year AWOL and returning to the military, was deployed to the Huliaipole sector, where he and his comrades captured a Russian dugout and held the position for more than a month under continuous enemy attacks.
In this interview, we discuss close-quarters combat with the Russians, the importance of fortifications, leadership on the front line, working with drones, and the price of survival in war.
You have quite an extraordinary story, I would say. Truly, a person who goes AWOL and then returns to an assault regiment. Please tell us a little about yourself. How did the full-scale war begin for you? Where were you?
I was in my hometown. Just living my life. I had wanted to go to war for a long time, but they would not take me. In short, they would not take me, would not take me, and then somehow I managed to trick them, or something, in reconnaissance. In the 42nd Brigade. And, in short, they took me there. In 2022. Late 2022. And, f#ck, I went to war. Then I did not quite get along with the command there, in short, and went AWOL.
Why do people go AWOL?
That is hard to answer. Because when I went AWOL, I regretted it like hell. That year, while I was AWOL, I felt f#cking awful that I had left the brigade, because I had worked with it for a year and six months. I mean, it was hard to leave the guys behind.
What combat tasks did you perform in the 42nd Brigade?
Guide work, securing positions, and assaults. I had to do all kinds of things, in short. Reconnaissance.
So you already had combat experience, direct small-arms contact with the enemy?
I did, I did. Near Klishchiivka.
That was in 2023, right?
Yes. In Serebrianka, a lot of our guys were killed, in short, but I never once saw those b#stards. Not a single one, in short. But near Klishchiivka, we did have to exchange fire with them.
During that year AWOL, what were you doing?
I was trying to go back and fight. I heard about the 33rd Assault Regiment. I liked a couple of their videos. The guys were assaulting properly. So I decided to come here.
How did your return to the ranks of the Armed Forces happen?
I came to the Military Law Enforcement Service in Ivano-Frankivsk and said, well, I am AWOL, I want to fight. I came to the war. They said, in short, look, the deployment will be tomorrow. If you want, you can spend the night somewhere. Since I had come from Horodenka to Ivano-Frankivsk. And he said, like, if you want, you can stay overnight somewhere in a hotel and come to us in the morning, like, for deployment. I was like, fine, I will walk around the city a bit more, in short, for a couple of hours. But then he said, no, no, come back in. So I came back in, in short, and went here with those guys. More precisely, first to training, again. I went through basic combined arms training.
Tell us about your combat mission: how it happened, what the task was, and where it took place.
Our task was to come in, assault a dugout, and secure the position.
This is the Huliaipole sector. A very difficult section of the front. The enemy is concentrating three combined-arms armies there, and naval infantry as well, by the way.
Rubicon. What I feared most was that those pilots could work miracles. But f#ck, it turned out I had been fighting against them and did not even know it. Only toward the end did they tell me it had been Rubicon.
So the position you and your comrades entered was a position of drone operators, right?
Yes. Most likely, it was Rubicon. Apparently. Well, most likely.
Please tell us how the entry took place, how the whole assault operation unfolded.
In short, it was night, yes. It was evening, and it turned out that we knew roughly where the dugout was. Roughly. But we had never been in that forest before, f#ck knows where that dugout was. And it turned out that we dropped right into it, straight into that dugout. The roof there had been taken apart by our drone operators. They help us before an assault, like, they do their job. And, in short, it turned out that we fell right into the dugout. But on combat missions, everyone was already ready to f#cking shoot — whether he fell, sank under water, who gives a f#ck, the f#cking finger was always on the trigger. And we killed two b#stards. Their rifles were standing off to the side, and there they stayed. The way they were sitting, in short, they sat with us for a month. We did not carry the bodies out, because the drones were f#cking us up there, because, f#ck, you could not climb out and throw a body away. While it was cold, in short, they spent the nights there with us. There were documents. One of them was a cop. A young one.
How did you understand that he was a police officer?
There were documents. There were documents, and the documents said he was an officer, f#ck. We built our defense in such a way that some of them were destroyed by the drone operators. That is, the enemies who ran from us, who heard us starting to work and ran away from us, were caught up with by the drone operators, who did their job. And those who came in to us stayed there.
In your personal estimate, how many Russians were killed in small-arms combat at that position?
F#ck, I stopped counting after 30. Well, that forest is covered with them there. Why did we stay there for so long? Because if we got close, we would take his body inside, drag it quickly into the dugout. There, we would strip him, he would jump out of his gear, and we would throw it into the forest. That is, the b#stards could not understand where their worms were disappearing.
To identify them, right?
Yes. And where they were being eliminated from, and where they were disappearing to, in short, no one could understand.
You did not just enter the position; there was also an instruction to fortify and expand it.
We expanded it, fortified it with sandbags. Inside the dugout, you built another dugout. That is why you survived. This is important. You have to fortify and dig in constantly.
Whose initiative was that?
To dig in? Mine.
How do you explain to people why they need to dig? You are on a position under constant enemy pressure, and on top of that, you still have to do hard physical work?
I explain to them: "Do you see me? I came out without a single scratch after spending three months in that f#cking forest. Because I dug in. Do you want to survive? Listen to me.
Did people at the position not ask why this had to be done?
They did ask, they argued back, they did not want to. But they did it through "I can’t."
It is interesting what arguments you use, how you talk to them.
One of the arguments was this: there was a man sitting there who did not want to do f#ck all. I have fortified myself, and I am sitting behind a wall, he thought. They came to assault us, and a bullet went clean through his arm. He shouts, "I’m wounded." Then I explained to him why he was wounded. Here I am sitting behind sandbags, so why did a bullet hit you? Because you did not give a f#ck about digging. And the man started digging.
Everyone else saw it and also started doing something. To keep it from getting to that point, you have to listen.
That is a very interesting illustration.
We are f#cking fighting, and I hear him shouting from the side, "I’m wounded," you know. I turn around and say, what, where? He says, in the arm. I looked sideways like that and said, where? He says, here. I say, well, it went right through. But, I say, it taught you a lesson. I said a few words to him about that. He says, "Yes, I understand now that we have to dig, to dig in". Then he f#cking annoyed me with the shovel. He kept banging and banging; all night he was banging, all day he was banging. I said that is enough digging already. No, he says, we have to, we have to.
You were the commander at that position, right? Or did it just happen that everyone followed your orders?
It just happened that everyone followed my orders.
And why did that happen?
I realized I had ended up with inexperienced people. I had a bit of experience. And it worked out that I could lead them. I had to.
You took the initiative, right?
Yes. Because I realized that if not me, then no one.
How important is it to show leadership qualities in such conditions?
F#cking important. You have to show them one hundred percent.
So if there is no proactive person there at that moment who can take command...
The defense line, everything falls apart. That is it. All that sh#t. There has to be someone with a brain.
Weapon-handling culture when you spend 90 days at a position, with constant assault operations. How do you look after your weapon so that it is always combat-ready and does not fail you at the critical moment?
I cleaned it constantly. I even reported to the command that we were cleaning weapons. When we are cleaning weapons, a drone operator can fly around us and watch to make sure there is no contact. Of course, someone is on watch. But still, if two men are there and one is cleaning his weapon, and if a crowd comes at that moment, they can take them down. While the weapon is disassembled. That could not happen with me, because I had weapons from all over the forest. I had dragged weapons in.
What was your personal weapon?
I had a CZ, but I gave preference to the RPK. The Kalashnikov light machine gun. I took it. Our command shoved ammunition at us, and I started working with it. F#cking awesome weapon. I liked it. The b#stards were trying to bypass us; one of them hit a tripwire and was wounded. They pulled back to the three o’clock position in the forest, a little farther from my dugout. But I could not see them visually, I could not spot them, because everything was green. Then our commander got a UAV up, the battalion commander, and said, look, Hosha, take the machine gun, move out toward the three o’clock direction, about 50 meters. I climb out, and he says, whoa, no, no, wait, wait a little. He says, a third one is crawling up. So I wait, and he says, ready. Ready? I say, ready. He says, f#cking hit them. I f#cking hit them and dropped all three of them, imagine that. Fifty meters, I cannot see them visually at all, and all of them went down there. That was my final f#cking chord, toward the end.
That was with the RPK, right?
With the RPK, yes.
Were you working purely by sector?
Strictly into the sector in the three o’clock direction.
The Mavic corrected you, and you worked by sector?
Yes, specifically the commander was watching, the commander was guiding me, and then he says, three are down, well done.
That is impressive, really. Clear adjustment from headquarters.
Right on target, exactly. The battalion commander even nicknamed me, in short, the mayor of the forest. In short, there was this thing, yes. He says, your call sign, he says, is mayor of the forest. He said it over the radio, yes. That was just when, in short, the forest came under our control. Because we had driven the b#stards out, as it turned out.
Was it hard to return, given that you had been with your family for a whole year? Despite that, you still decided to return to the war.
I decided to, because what, the b#stards will come there, f#ck, and it will be a f#cking disaster. They have to be stopped, those f#cking routes have to be cut off, f#ck.
How old are your children?
Fourteen and nine. The girl is 14, the boy is 9.
How do you communicate with your children?
Normally. Although, to be honest, there were three months when there was no word from me at all. But otherwise everything is fine.
Did you see your family after you got out?
I saw them right away. Though, to be honest, it would have been better if the battalion commander had said, stay here a little longer, then you will go, I will let you go anyway. But I was like, no, to the children, f#ck. Well, you know, right after those firefights, going there, it somehow turned out that I did not understand, in short, where I had been.
How did you spend time with your children? What did you do?
Great. Fishing, rest.
How did the command assess your actions at the position? What did they tell you?
After I got out, they gave me the rank of junior sergeant and an award for the assault, for my iron fighting spirit.
What now? What are you doing now?
Now I train others. I am now the commander of the eighth platoon. Well, I go out to the training ground with the guys, advise them, explain things, run around, explain so that, f#ck, the guys come back to me alive. They are good guys, they listen well, in short.
What is important to you as a commander?
That the guys come back alive.
