How the fighting dog Sarmat helped the Russian military in Ukraine
In the Republic of Komi, they are going to erect a monument to the shepherd Sarmat, who died heroically in the zone of the special operation. The dog twice with the owner, a veteran of the patrol service Andrei Mukhin from Syktyvkar, went to the front line. Saved many lives. The dog warned of the approach of the enemy. Heard in the distance flying quadrocopters, rockets and gave a signal. He found mines. The soldiers of the volunteer battalions «Bars-1» and «Bars-14» considered him their talisman. The owner told about the heroic path of Sarmat «MK».
Patrol service veteran Andrey Mukhin with his faithful friend Sarmat in the NVO zone.
About Andrey Mukhin they say «cynologist from God.» He worked for 24 years in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The portrait of his legendary dog named Grom is in the Museum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
— Since 1988, I worked in the patrol service of the Internal Affairs Directorate of Syktyvkar. I always went on all business trips with my dogs: both in the first Chechen campaign and in the second, — says Andrey. “We stood at checkpoints, the dogs performed a security function.
In 2011, Andrey Mukhin retired due to his seniority. But he couldn't live without dogs. Sarmat took the Eastern European Shepherd Dog for himself.
— I brought a puppy from the Kirov region. This was my fifth dog. The previous dog Kazbek, who was 12 years old and with whom I retired, fought a bear not far from the dacha. Clubfoot peeled off his skin. I took care of the dog for a long time. He went on the mend, but then the sheepdog lost its hind legs. I lost Kazbek. Began to look for a puppy on the Internet. Wanted to get an East European Shepherd again. Found a puppy in the village of Fabrichny. He was an unusual color — gray. He arrived, we sat down at the table, the dog came up, put his head on my leg. The owners were surprised: the puppy had never approached anyone else before, barking at everyone. I told him: «Well, my friend, get ready, you will serve.» Then I could not imagine that the Sarmat would not only have to serve, but to fight.
The nickname Sarmat, as Andrei says, came by itself.
— I come from Ossetia, I was born in the city of Ordzhonikidze, now Vladikavkaz. He graduated from high school there, and after the army left for Syktyvkar, where his mother's brother and sister lived. I got attached to this northern city. “Sarmat” is translated from Arabic as “wind”, translated from Ossetian as “bad head”. He was young and bad, we lived in a dacha in the village of Pervomaisky, and the dog constantly ran away to the village school. Calling him was useless. He turned off his hearing. Then he sat on the porch, waiting for the bell to ring, there would be a break to play with the children. He adored the little ones. I knew he would never touch anyone. And everyone knew about it. The children came to our site, asked to let them take a walk with Sarmat. I put a muzzle on him, and they went to play football with him.
When the special operation began, Andrey Mukhin went to the military enlistment office, but heard: “Sorry, you don’t fit us, you are already old …”.
— I went to the Rostov region, I wanted to get to Donetsk, but at the checkpoint, at the border, they turned me around. I'm not used to retreat, I would have ended up on the front lines anyway. But just then, at a meeting with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council, our president agreed with the idea of attracting volunteers who want to join the special operation in Ukraine. I came to the military enlistment office, and on March 23, 2022, Sarmat and I left for the NVO zone. There were four of us from the Komi Republic, later guys from Arkhangelsk joined us. We became part of the first volunteer assault battalion «Bars-1».
Andrey Mukhin and his fighters held the line in the Zaporozhye region.
— I remember Tarasovka, Gogolevka, Tokmak … We were located in forest belts , hangars.
— When the mortar shelling began, everyone jumped out of the hangar into the street, took up positions. I lay down, Sarmat next to me, he tried to play with me, but I told the dog “do not play around” and opened fire. There was a roar all around, there was a battle, they fired from machine guns and machine guns. At some point, I caught the dog's eye. He lay next to me and looked at me in surprise. He was not afraid, did not become hysterical, tear off the leash, did not try to run away. I realized that I have a fighting dog. That he really is a Sarmat — like our powerful ballistic missile.
Sarmat was an excellent watchman.
— If the dog growled, looking into the darkness, we knew that someone was coming towards us, and we were on the alert. On that first trip, we didn't have any night vision devices or thermal imagers, but we did have Sarmat. Even at night, when we spent the night in the forest belts, we did not set up military guards, because we had a dog with us.
Andrei says that three times a day he and Sarmat examined the road — two kilometers in one direction and two in the other. One day the dog stopped at a turn and began sniffing. I took out a bayonet-knife, cleared this place a little, I look — a mine. Sarmat was prepared for patrol service. No one trained him to search for explosives. But he smelled a mine. Maybe the smell of a person remained on it, maybe his hands were in something greasy. Our fighters drove past on the BTEer, I stopped them, I said: «Guys, there is a mine.» They took her away. Sarmat saved someone's life.
The soldiers considered Sarmat to be their talisman.
The soldiers considered the shepherd dog to be their talisman.
< p>Everyone loved Sarmat; when the shelling started, our guys didn’t get into the car until Sarmat jumped into it. He climbed into the body, followed by me, only then the personnel were loaded. The dog was protected. The last bottle of water was always for him.
Andrei had food for the Sarmat, but some of it remained untouched.
“At first, there was a field kitchen next to us. The foreman came up and asked: “Did you feed the dog?” I pointed to the full bowl of food that the dog had. He insisted: «It's already stale, go get a new portion.» The Sarmatian ate everything. He loved dry rations, he was not hungry.
— When we first came in, we came across columns with refugees. The cars were entirely without windows, with holes from bullets and shrapnel. Women baptized us, brushed away tears. In the settlements that we then passed, someone greeted us, and someone showed us six fingers three times — the sign of the devil. Some thanked, said: «Thank you for coming to protect us.» And others asked: “Why are you here? We lived so well.» When I was interested in what their pension was, I heard: “That one is small.” He asked: “Is there gas?” They said: «Nemae gas.»
The last two weeks, Andrei and Sarmat guarded the headquarters.
— I went out with the dog for a walk on the road. And there was a village nearby. Sometimes I talked to the villagers. When I told them that since 2014, children and civilians have been dying in the Donbas due to shelling from the Ukrainian side, they answered: “That’s nonsense, propaganda, no one touches them there, no one bombs them.” They seemed to be fighting everything Soviet. But what surprised me was that all the monuments to those who fell in the Great Patriotic War were well-groomed, painted and whitewashed, the grass was cut. Maybe these were villages that are located further away from Kiev?
Andrey and Sarmat returned from their first business trip on May 10th. And in July they again went to the zone of the special operation.
— Six of us have already left from the Komi Republic. We arrived in the Rostov region. A conflict arose at the Kadamovsky training ground. The head of the range, seeing Sarmat, told me to take the dog over the fence and shoot him. We had a big fight. As a result, they put me out of the gate. As it turned out, people came here with trained dogs — both mine-detecting dogs and orderly dogs. And the head of the landfill sent all of them home. How many human lives could they save? We were returned with Sarmat after the intervention of our military registration and enlistment office, the Northern Fleet and the leadership from Moscow. Then the head of the landfill asked: “How is your dog, have you already fed it?”
The volunteers crossed the border in the Belgorod direction. They joined the «Bars-14», which stood for «special combat army reserve».
— We went to the front on July 29, our positions were in the vicinity of Izyum. We stood in the so-called «Sherwood Forest». (This toponym of the forest, where the recreation area and guest houses in the style of castle architecture were located, was invented by local residents. — Auth.). The guys were mostly not fired. Combat experience was with me and our company commander — Zhenya from Donetsk. Unfortunately, in the first battle he was wounded, a bullet hit him in the jaw, but, thank God, he survived.
That night, as Andrey says, there was a severe thunderstorm, it was raining, thunder was thundering, a squally wind was blowing.
— Behind our strong point is a primer, and then again a forest wall. With a flash of lightning, one of the fighters saw enemy reconnaissance three meters away. They didn't know about our positions, they didn't know how many of us there were. A fight ensued. We destroyed two, screams with a characteristic accent were heard in our direction. We realized that the Poles were in front of us. In the morning we did not find the dead. They were snatched from under our noses. I set Sarmat on the trail, but then called him back. I thought they might have planted mines there. He showed our reconnaissance the direction where they had gone.
After that night, when the thunder rumbled, everything around was noisy, it was raining like a wall, the Ukrainians no longer approached them.
“The Sarmatian didn’t let them get close anymore. Digging trenches, we found half-decomposed grenades and cartridges. We realized that we were standing in positions where there were battles in the Great Patriotic War. A hundred kilometers from Izyum, in the village of Kiseli, Kharkov region, my grandfather, who died in 1942, was buried. After 80 years, I returned to the same places, to the same trenches where he fought.
The forest stretched along the road that led from Izyum to Slavyansk. Every day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the forest with Gradov, HIMARS and mortars.
— If the mines can still be heard when they come out of the mortar and fly with a lingering whistle, and there is time to run to the trenches, then it is impossible to hear the flight of MLRS missiles, the same HIMARS arrive almost without noise at all. And you can't run away anymore. And Sarmat somehow heard them and knew that there would be a roar. We were sitting near the fire, and if we saw that the Sarmat ran into the trench, into the shelter, we were blown away from the clearing as if by the wind. And then the shelling began.
Andrei says that the dog felt the direction of the mines. Sometimes, when the shelling began, he remained calm. And the owner was sitting by the fire, continuing to drink tea.
— When the mortar shelling was already beginning to move, Sarmat went into cover, I followed him. The dog was alert. Not a single spotter, not a single scout could come close to us. Sarmat gave a signal, and we opened fire. We didn't have a single death. Not a single shell, not a single mine hit us in the trench. And at other strongholds there were losses, the guys were taken out. We could afford to take a nap during the night while on duty.
I heard a dog and flying quadrocopters in the distance.
— Sarmat raised his head, began to turn his head. Everything — we knew that they were already flying. They stood and waited. As soon as they noticed the drones, they started shooting. As a result, they spat on the other side, stopped sending quadcopters to us.
According to Andrei, the dog was in constant tension 24 hours a day. It is clear that the dog was tired.
— At night, while on duty, Sarmat sometimes slept without hind legs. By that time, we were given a «night light» — a night vision device. I saw a fox running past us. Sarmat did not react to her. In front of him lay a box with the remnants of dry rations, the mice climbed into it, began to rustle — the dog did not even lead with his ear. But as soon as a branch crackled somewhere, he immediately raised his head. I looked at Sarmat: if he lowered his head, then everything is fine. If the dog sat down, began to sniff the air, that's it — you had to take a machine gun and shoot.
It was hot in summer. There were problems with water, the fighters were given 1.5 liters of water per person. They didn’t give anything for the dog.
— And they didn’t give him a dry ration, although I said that the dog was fighting with us. And no matter how hard it was for us with water, we did not deprive Sarmat. They thought it would be better if we didn’t put the pot of tea on the fire, but we would pour water for the dog. Because everyone knew that our safety depended on the ears and nose of the Sarmatian.
On September 7, Andrei's unit covered the dugout. They had one blunt ax and one saw. They felled oaks and ash trees. The soldiers carried logs. So that the dog would not interfere, the owner untied Sarmat.
— He sniffed something, ran not forward — to where the enemy was, but to the rear. And he ran into a stretch, a fragment hit Sarmat in the back. At first, we also put stretch marks in front of us, and then the commander said: “Take it off, you never know where the Sarmat will run.” And we removed all the stretch marks in front of us. Take care of the dog. I found Sarmat still alive. We immediately put him on a stretcher, carried him for two kilometers to the evacuation point. They called a car. But on the way the dog died.
The soldiers wanted to bury Sarmat in the forest, but Andrei suggested choosing a place on the edge.
— He loved nature, loved freedom, loved to run. When Sarmat was carried on a stretcher to the place of burial, everyone who was free came out. The boys walked with their hats off. Saying goodbye to him as a friend. Sarmat was buried like a warrior, like a soldier, wrapped in an army cape. And then 12 gun salvos were fired. Healthy men stood over his grave and could not hold back their tears.
Sarmat was interred 30 kilometers from Izyum. There are exact coordinates where he is buried. A branch was stuck into the grave mound and a collar was hung. Then, when Andrei began to look at the photos, he noticed that Sarmat's collar had folded into a heart shape.
Sarmat's combat cap was donated to the school museum.
Warhound did not live to see the end of the business trip for three days, and before his second birthday — a month.
“He saved dozens of lives. On the same stretch, one of us could be blown up, but the Sarmat laid down his head, giving someone life.
The soldiers believed that even after his death the dog protected them.
— When Sarmat was gone, we were evacuated, we left the encirclement, left Izyum. And they fell into a tank ambush. Our column was fired upon, exactly half of the fighters survived. Everyone who was at the stronghold with Sarmat survived. They were wounded, but survived. Before the New Year, I went to Moscow, met with our company commander, who was wounded, I helped him. Recalling how we came under tank fire, he said: “Sarmat covered and protected us even after his death.”
“You can’t even call it a wound, I got a burn, but the wound healed for a very long time. On that day, I was resting, I gave my machine gun to a fellow machine gunner, who went to the rear for food and water. I was sitting barefoot. It was hot. The Sarmat suddenly barked, and a shooting battle began. I took a machine gun, jumped into the berets, opened fire. Mines started falling on us. One of the fragments flew at the end right into my shoe, burned my leg. And the burn did not heal for a long time, because all the time I had to move. I treated the wound with ointment, bandaged it. It was impossible to allow dirt to get in and infection began. The burn healed a month later, when I returned home.
On February 22, at a festive concert that took place in Syktyvkar, Corporal Andrey Mukhin was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree. In the award sheet, it was noted that during reconnaissance of the area, Andrei Mukhin discovered a mined area. Retreating after the successful completion of the task, he destroyed several opponents, preventing the loss of personnel.
— We found these mines together with Sarmat. I even have pictures of them. I believe that this is our common medal. She got me a very expensive price. She is watered with the blood of Sarmat, my sweat.
Andrey says that when they gathered with the guys on February 23 to celebrate Defender of the Fatherland Day, they raised a toast to Sarmat.
— He's all beat up. Recently, at the Council of Veterans, I dialed the phone number of my company commander so that the audience would listen not only to my opinion. I asked him to tell about Sarmat. There was silence, followed by a heavy sigh. The commander admitted: «You brought me to tears with your question.» The guys really loved Sarmat very much.
In memory of Sarmat, Andrey had a leash that was with him on the front line, a gas mask bag in which the dog carried his simple belongings …
Andrei could not live without a dog. Being from a veteran organization in a sanatorium in Saki, in the Crimea, I looked after a puppy for myself.
This is an East European Shepherd. He called the puppy Circassian, which means «warrior» in translation. On March 15 he will be 7 months old. A good, kind dog, but not as energetic as Sarmat. He was generally crazy, a hurricane. Circassian is more calm. I teach him to search on the trail and the “guard” command. He is smart, grasps everything on the fly. Shows the features of a good guard, growls at strangers. I am gradually accustoming Circassian to noise and the smell of explosives, let him have these skills.
Taking Circassian with him, Andrey went to visit the owners of Sarmat, Alexei and Tatyana Tarabrin, in the Kirov region.
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— I constantly sent them photos of Sarmat, videos with him. They saw how the dog grew, how he changed, how he fought later. When I wrote that Sarmat was dead, Tatyana sobbed for three days, she could not calm down. In memory of Sarmat, I gave them a St. George ribbon. When we just entered the special operation zone, guys from Yakutia tied it to the Sarmat harness. St. George's ribbon was all shabby, dirty, but in it — the warmth of our dog, his heroic path.
Andrey Mukhin is often invited to schools. He comes, tells the guys about Sarmat. Shows his personal belongings.
— The kids are starting to try on my body armor, helmet, cape. Children have a great interest in rural schools. I come — there the school is closed on the heck, all classes gather, the guys listen carefully, ask questions. They are very different from city children.
In the village of Pervomaisky, Sysolsky district, near the school where Sarmat loved to run to the children, they are going to erect a monument to him.
— At the solemn line, my friend and I handed over to this rural school our battle flag, under which we entered the territory of Ukraine. It hung in our position, it was all dirty, sooty, a real Russian combat tricolor. They donated Sarmat's harness and his soldier's cap to the school museum for eternal storage.
Money for the monument to Sarmat was raised by veterans of the Bars-1 and Bars-14 volunteer battalions, as well as simply caring people.
— The project was drawn by Nadezhda from Moscow, who works as a teacher at a children's art school. It remains to find a sculptor. The monument is planned to be erected by May 9th. It will be made of marble chips, and then we want to paint it in the color of bronze. Sarmat will be depicted in full size.
The inhabitants of Syktyvkar were so imbued with the history of the dog-hero Sarmat that they decided to erect a second monument to him at the intersection of Kirov and Kommunisticheskaya streets.
— This initiative was made by my former boss Pavel Valentinovich Potashov, who for many years headed the kennel of service dogs of the Republican Ministry of Internal Affairs.
On the Day of the dog handler, June 21, enthusiasts plan to lay a stone with a sign that a monument to Sarmat will be erected at this place. And the monument itself will be opened on September 7, on the day of the death of the heroic dog.
— It is also planned to hold international cynological competitions dedicated to the memory of Sarmat, which will unite all law enforcement agencies: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the National Guard.
Andrey Mukhin with the grown-up Circassian is going to go to the special operation zone again.
— I won't stay at home. I always believed, both when the NWO began and now, that young guys who have their whole lives ahead of them should not fight and die, and healthy, still full of strength men should stay at home. It is not right. You can’t live on past merits.