Terrorist attack in Olenivka colony. Sentenced to death Azov’s Frost. Part 2. VIDEO
A 24-year-old machine gunner of "Azov" with codename "Frost" survived fierce battles in Mariupol, was sentenced to death by occupants, but survived captivity and returned home on exchange.
Interview with Frost was published on Youtube-channel of the main editor of Censor.NЕТ Yuriy Butusov.
In the second part of the conversation, an "Azov" tells how he lost 24 kg during the siege of Mariupol and captivity, how he learned that the occupiers sentenced him to death and what he heard in the colony in Olenivka during and after the explosions.
The first part of Butusov's conversation with Frost can be viewed here.
Learn more about Frost's combat victories from his Telegram channel.
- Tell me about your captivity. After all, you were an unusual prisoner. You were sentenced to death. Tell me, how were you informed that you were doomed? How were you told?
- I just gave my testimony to the investigator, the testimony they, let's say, politely asked me to give. I wrote them a purely formal confession that I was such-and-such, filmed this and that, did this and that. And then...
- They asked about your music video?
- Sure. And it's... It's even more popular there than here, apparently. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I just asked: okay, I just wrote you this, confessed, this, that, what do I get for it? They said: "In general, you were sentenced to death"... I don't know... At that time, believe it or not, I did not react to it in any way. If, being in captivity, you think, you wonder how it can end. I was sitting there, thinking: what should I do, fall on my knees and beg them not to kill me? I said: well, great. So I just answered, and we continued. He said: "Maybe they won't shoot you, maybe they'll give you life, maybe 25 (years in prison. - Ed.), well, we'll decide." That's how they answered, so, in fact, it's hard to say what they were going to do, what they were not going to do. They were constantly saying something different. Sometimes life imprisonment, sometimes 25, sometimes 10 (years in prison. - Ed.), then execution. So, maybe they were pressing so hard on purpose, or maybe they were actually going to do something, but everything went wrong. I do not know. Somehow... They even asked questions, one journalist came and asked such ridiculous questions, like, what would you choose: 10 years or execution? I looked at her like that. Interesting, I think. I wanted to answer as a joke, of course, the shooting. I've already lived, like, 24 years, it's time. No, well, something like that. I answered, of course, that yes, 10 years is better. She said, "Are you ready to serve 10 years?" - Why, is there any choice? I don't know, let's do it, I'll do it for 10 years.
- Were you there in the house in Olenivka when the explosion destroyed the house?
- No, I was not in that building. I was in the detention center. It was the other end of the colony. It was not so much... it was 500 meters away from us. We were in the detention center that night.
- What's a detention center?
- A disciplinary isolator. We were sitting in that disciplinary isolator in the evening, just talking, communicating... The thing is that we were told according to the agreements that there should be a demilitarized zone, 15 km around Olenivka. But they constantly put their artillery literally right under the colony itself. If I say right under the walls, it is literally right under the walls. They were shooting at point blank range from under the walls. And in such a way they provoked, maybe, the fire on themselves. Our guys were really practicing there, and you could hear the shells flying above us: "vshukh-vshukh". But those shells we were happy to see. And, in principle, ours did not touch us. We even saw how they hit their self-propelled artillery, which was standing somewhere near us. That evening they set up "Grads" right under the colony and worked with "Grads". And under the sounds of "Grad", exactly under the sounds of "Grad" there were three explosions. One, two, three. And very loud. We understood that it was somewhere on the territory of the colony. After those explosions everything became quiet at once. No one was shooting anymore. We could hear some screams as if from hell. And then the wounded were brought to us... the heavy wounded were taken to Donetsk, the light ones were brought to the SIZO. They would have provided them with such assistance as bandaging, could have treated the wound, but, for example, a guy's leg was broken. No one put a splint or anything on it. His leg fused to the other side, and he walks like that. In the morning, one fighter, I will not say who he is, from our cell, an Azov fighter, they came to him and said: do you want to save your arms and legs? In fact, they took him for identification of corpses. When he returned, he told the following. When he came there, where the corpses are, you can really see that there are holes from the "arrivals". He says that there were shell fragments everywhere. The fragments were copper. That is, either 120-mm or 150-mm shells. But they were copper. And FSIN officers (employees of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service - Ed.) went and collected this copper. They collected these fragments in a bag and took them somewhere. And then journalists with FSB officers arrived and brought bags with aluminum. And they began to scatter this aluminum there. And they do it in front of him and approach him: "Well, what do you think? You see, they don't give a shit about you, they are shooting at you with American HIMARIS. You, Azov people, are not needed in Ukraine either". Despite the fact that they are scattering debris from these HIMARIS in front of him. Then they filmed some stories there. I did not see them, did not watch them. As far as I know, they said that our HIMARIS hit our own barracks, something like that.
- How was the exchange?
- We did not know what was happening at all. We thought that there would be some stage. We did not know who was going, who was what. We just see, we see that a lot of people are taken from the barracks. They took a couple of people from the jail. An hour had already passed, and then my name was announced in the pre-trial detention center: let's get ready very quickly, run, all your things, everything, get out of here. I was taken there, the last one, everyone had already been searched there. They searched me separately. They searched my things, in fact, everything I was wearing. I had nothing. KAMAZ trucks arrived. They called us by name, one by one. You come up. They put a bag over your eyes, tied it with tape, wrapped your hands with ties and stacked them like sardines, you know how... you spread your legs, sit down like that, and the next one, the next one, the next one. So we were all mosaicked together. Your legs are locked. You can't move. It hurts so much. You can't breathe. Because then those who were behind us threw our own things, bags, backpacks at us. We heard that we were going for a very long time. We left at five o'clock in the evening. We stopped, I think, in Donetsk, they took more guys to the detention center, to some other places, and then we went to Taganrog. We thought it was Taganrog, because I had already turned this thing a little bit, even if it was dark, no one could see it. I see that the runway is standing, there is light around. So, there is no war here. This is not Ukraine and not the front line anyway. So, we are somewhere in Taganrog. And we also think: damn, is it an exchange or what is it, to Moscow? Then a plane arrives. We are all thrown into the plane, put there. We start discussing, and who heard something. Someone is already starting rumors that there are some agreements with this president of Turkey. And we are like, that's it, we are flying to Turkey, exchange. We are flying for a very long time. By the way, it was my first flight by plane. In general, I thought I would fly to Italy in the spring. No, I flew to Russia for an exchange.
- A professional soldier. The first flight in life was exclusively for exchange. Impressive, actually.
- We're arriving somewhere. The gangway opens. We're all strapped in. And the icy air comes in. We understand that we are not in Turkey. Well, guys, I say, we are either in Moscow or in Siberia. Well, we understood that we are either in Moscow or near Moscow, because someone spied there, they also said that there are many huge planes there, that there is a large airport. Someone was taken out of the plane, someone was brought in. Volyna (soldier) was taken out, as I understand it. Volyna flew to Turkey later. And Volyna was sitting with us in Olenivka all this time. And they brought us Taurus and Gandalf. We stood there for a couple of hours. I will omit the details that we were traveling for two days, that they did not ask us anything, did not feed us, did not even let us go to the toilet. There were already problems with that. Let's leave it out. And then we fly on. An hour and a half passes. We're like, oh, we flew less. So we're getting close. I said, oh, guys, we're probably already in Zhuliany, we're going to land now. We saw that the girls on the second floor were looking out the window and smiling. We were like: yes, we are in Kyiv, we are in Zhulyany. She says: guys, we are in Belarus. We are like: f#ck, where else, what? Belarus? And finally, we realized that it would be an exchange, when the FSB officers, or whoever it was, talked to each other: "Well, what is it? The border has arrived". Well, we understand that the border guards. They are going to change us now. We were all calmly taken to the bus. The Belarusians were very tactful and loyal. I thank them for that. And that's all. We were brought to the territory. We still do not understand where we are, what we are. A man sits behind the fence and says: yes, this one has to leave, that one has to leave. I was sitting like that... I honestly did not think about water, toilet or food. I was thinking, when will they take this shit off me. It's already been a while, I had such marks from the ties here on my head, we all carried that mark with us. The mark was bloody from the tape. I said, can at least this bandage be changed or cut off, I do not know. He says, in Ukrainian: yes, take it the fuck off. I'm like, "Oh my God, we're home. And they wrapped it so well that they couldn't cut it off with a knife right away. They cut the tape. I come out, for real, I'm so fucking happy. I remember that we were dressed, we went to our territory. I remember that the guys were in the habit: head down, hands behind their backs. I hit them on the hands: guys, relax, we are at home. And there that guy says: yes, put it aside, head up, back straightened, hands relaxed. That's it, we came, it was a buzz, really. I did not think that we would be met like that. We were just surrounded by such hyper-care, hyper-attention. Immediately: here you guys can eat, here you can call the phone, here we are all happy for you. They are taking pictures of all of us, filming. It was really cool and awesome. I think their prisoners were not met like that.
- Did you think how you would be met, how you imagined it?
- Honestly, somehow I imagined it.
- Now, when you go somewhere in the city, do people recognize you?
- Yeah. Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes they do. Even the other day, my friend and I had lunch in a restaurant called "Japanese Hello". We had a very tasty lunch there. It's not a cheap restaurant, I'll tell you that. And we ask for the bill. And they tell us that you have no bill today. I ask: why is that? They say it's the least we can do for you. "Thank you very much." "No, thank you." Shit, and really, somehow it's even a little bit embarrassing, like, shit... came here, ate, did not pay. But, damn, it's nice that people recognize and treat us like that.
- The War of Independence, which, as you said, created the nation.
- Yeah, it did. In reality, the country, even at such a price, has changed for the better. We did not appreciate the independence that we got in 91 for nothing, nobody appreciated it. Now, I think, after everything that happened, everyone understood the price of it.
- Thank you, my friend, for your feat. Thank you for the video you left. Because now it is one of the main documents that we have on video, on photo - this is exactly what you did. And thank you for this story, which, I think, cannot leave anyone indifferent. These are very touching words. All this was not in vain. Thank you.
- Thank you.
- My friend Frost. "Azov". Mariupol.
