«The earth crunches like glass underfoot because of the number of fragments…»
«There are no atheists in the trenches.» A former consultant of the Moscow Central Department Store, who became a sniper of the Northern Military District, whom MK previously wrote about, told how they come to faith at the front and about the real miracles that happen there. A fighter with the call sign «Cat» shared how he was saved three times by Psalm 90 and a bracelet tied before being sent to the front by his beloved girlfriend.
— On my first business trip, I had a childish attitude towards death. And on the second business trip I came across the book «Bushido» about samurai, which I read at the age of 14. At the front, there is a strong desire for new knowledge — we are in an information vacuum there, and any information is perceived with a bang. So, after rereading this book, I rethought the samurai code as much as possible.
— A samurai is a person who embarked on the path of a warrior. From dusk to dawn, he must remember that he can die at any moment, and he must be ready for this. A huge number of people in the «citizen» do not think about the fact that they can die at any moment. But death is near, and it cannot be predicted. At the front, you understand this well. There you fall asleep with the thought that you might not wake up. We have a saying: “It is better to wake up on arrival than not to wake up on arrival.” The good news is that calmness develops over time. But you always admit the thought that in the morning you drink coffee from the same mug with a friend or you stand on a smoke break, joking, and in the evening you come, and he is already gone …
— everyone is different. But, in general, a person, roughly speaking, is a very hardy beast that adapts to any situation and conditions. A certain time passes, and you, as they say, merge into the topic. Artillery, which at first intimidates, then becomes just an annoying factor rather than intimidating.
— When you are on the verge of death, such a wild thirst for life appears … It's easier to treat everyday trifles, it's true. Of course, there is a global rethinking of values. And you notice this especially when you return to a peaceful life. I’m looking at my friends, peers and thinking: “How can you be dogged and ready to tear each other’s throats because of such nonsense?” Was it really necessary to go to the war, to stay there for almost a year, to get to the bottom of such truths…
— Yes very. Many already there come to faith. For example, I believe much more strongly at the front. In general, I am a baptized person, not to say that a true Christian who observes fasts, goes to church and always takes communion, but there I pray every morning. Even on my first business trip, I made it a rule to read Psalm 90 to myself, and it doesn’t let me go.
— That's what struck me there, so it's a mixture of faith of the most different people, the most different ages. We had Christians, Muslims, two Buddhists in our unit. Such a hodgepodge. It was very funny to watch, especially in the mornings, when you could catch everyone praying: someone reads Orthodox prayers, someone prays. It's so familiar there, and it's so important for you and your comrades. We are going into battle — one has a chevron with a crescent, you have a Christian cross, and the third has a whole bulletproof vest in runes. And nothing. All stand in the same row.
For example, my comrade, and he is a Lak from Dagestan, before going on a mission, the commander always asked if he had done the prayer. I mean, it mattered to him too. By the way, my comrade received the Order of Courage posthumously…
Therefore, yes, there is a special attitude to faith there. There is an old expression: there are no atheists in the foxholes. And this is a perfectly fair statement. No matter how much an atheist you are, the first arrival bursts out of your chest: “Lord Jesus, have mercy, save and save.” The person who shouted that there is no God will be reading the Gospel in patter there.
— When I read Psalm 90 to myself, everything was in order with me. The bullet once flew into the chest plate of the bulletproof vest. Didn't break through. I have two fragments “sitting” in my back plate… That’s how I prayed before going out, and then you sit and look at this plate – and there is a dent, and there is only a bruise on my body… Really, it’s not like God took away. There were also completely inexplicable cases when death literally passed by.
— Before the first business trip, the girl knitted a bracelet for me. And in the battle near Severodonetsk, we were densely «extinguished» by artillery. We just lay under fire for several hours. On the one hand, it’s scary, on the other, it’s interesting — you lie, you think, you listen — what flies to you, what doesn’t fly to you … Then I read Psalm 90 to myself. Suddenly I hear a gap, and such a sound, as if something jagged is flying. Then I see — next to me, a hot fragment dug into the sand. The shard itself is curved, and its edges are razor-sharp. Then I tried it, it really removes hairs. So this fragment flew by, only the bracelet was cut off evenly. Not a scratch on my hand. I didn't even blink, I just heard the sound. It is not clear how…
Still from the category of the inexplicable. Once we went out through the swamp, and it saved us. The boys went out with a prayer. We walk and hear what is flying towards us, and suddenly the “bulk” did not explode, the next one did the same … Of course, it can be explained by the fact that the ground was soft in the swamp and the projectile got stuck and did not work. On the other hand, as my friend likes to say: “The Mother of God loves us.”
— In the Luhansk region, it is as loyal as possible. A large number of people there associate themselves with Russia — someone has relatives in Voronezh, someone in Rostov. These are Russian people. They don't even speak with an accent. Even in the Kuban in the Krasnodar Territory, the locals “shock” and “gek” — but here without an accent. You know, there is such a joke: “How can you confuse a Ukrainian with a Russian?” “Very simply, he may be from Taganrog.”
— Not bread and salt. But with hope. And every day this hope appeared among the local residents more and more.
— No, that's not the point. Here comes a Russian soldier, and every day there are fewer and fewer shellings. At some point, the shelling stops altogether. And then suddenly you start to hear from the locals: “sons, it’s thanks to you.” When we managed to push the Armed Forces towards Seversk, I remember there was silence. We were leaving for Lisichansk from Severodonetsk, a column of civilian cars with Moscow and St. Petersburg numbers was walking towards us. We also traveled from the Stavropol Territory, Rostov, Voronezh.
— It goes without saying that there is such a thing — no one has canceled the DRG, sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the SBU. It `s naturally. In my memory, something similar happened to us only once. Even before Lisichansk, we cleared the quarter, stopped in the school building. The Veseushniks left, and only civilians remained. So, about two hours later, near the entrance, someone found a bottle of cognac thrown up. The cork was drilled, a hole was slightly punched. When we opened the bottle, we felt a sharp smell of almonds. It smells like potassium cyanide. Someone deliberately, seeing the location of the military, threw a bottle. Who? A mystery shrouded in darkness. In my memory, the only case of an extremely negative attitude. And so, all the locals were quite loyal. Yes, and we constantly tried to find contact with them.
— They brought us a lot of food. And we shipped canned food to local residents. We shared gasoline. Then in Severodonetsk there was a strain with water. The water pump, where the people went, was constantly under fire. They often flew to the pumping station and many civilians did not return from there. Here is such a walk for water … At the same time, water was brought to us in five-liter bottles, so we had no problems with water. Well, of course, we also helped the locals with water.
— After the battle in the Borovsky direction, we had many wounded. We returned to the location tired, exhausted. Here they saw two prisoners. They had water, Snickers, cigarettes… And we spent seven hours without a sip of water. The commander was shell-shocked, me too — he was walking nearby, staggering … The commander, when he saw this picture, understood everything and removed the machine gun from the fuse, pulled the shutter. But he was immediately stopped and told: “If at least one hair falls from their head, then it won’t be good.”
The same attitude towards the prisoners and then. Us what? Let them take them to the chief of staff, and then it’s not at all interesting what will happen to them …
— Also negative. On the one hand, it is a great joy when our children return to their families. On the other hand, our guys returned home after captivity mutilated, crippled, with severe psychological trauma. There were already precedents… And we gave the prisoners healed, fed… And now they are returning to normal conditions and will soon become a combat unit again. And this is already a problem. If they give up, you can take it. But, to save life, so that the enemy then gets up again in the ranks … Sorry. There is a war, and either you or you. You run into the trench, and there is a Veseushnik with his hands up: «Do not kill.» And next to him, the machine gun is still smoking, with which he shot someone.
— I came across. They tried to re-educate. Again, then you begin to relate to everything with a certain degree of understanding. Each case must be analyzed separately. Because indeed, there are people who have not calculated their strength. And only when they found themselves in those conditions did they realize that they could not take it out. But even with such people, you can compromise.
Here the expression “there is a black sheep in the family” is inapplicable, but rather, the expression “everyone can be useful” is suitable. Let's say there is a «five hundredth» (who refused to comply with the order. — «MK»). What to do? Yes, we do not have a person who will go to the front line and carry out tasks. But then we have a man on the farm who can cook dinner. In fact, this is a great worldly joy when you come from a combat mission to the location, and this person has prepared water, you can immediately wash yourself, prepared a pot of food, and you can eat right away …
— Life in the war is very important. Understand when a person says directly: “I will not fight, I went to wash the floors.” It's called «five hundred». But it’s another matter when he honestly rode, honestly wanted, tried, but some fight broke his psyche. Everyone understands this very well. And such a person will not dare to call the “five hundredth”. Because he doesn’t write a “rejection letter” to leave, complaints, slander to the rear, doesn’t shoot himself in the foot — he stays with you and continues to do something for the benefit of the unit.
< p>No, I haven't come across any of those. Even in Soviet times, the word «sabotage» was coined for such cases, when it was about intentional self-harm. I believe that in the current situation it is necessary to apply the same penalties as they were then. This is life.
— Shell hunger was very strongly experienced by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in June 2022. At that time, we were dealing with American 155 mm M777 towed howitzers, which were popularly called «three axes». Then it was a super-weapon, which supposedly was supposed to «unwind» our army to smithereens. But in the end, they did not succeed.
Then the APU had a very small consumption of ammunition. Conventionally, they could fire a maximum of six mines at us. True, then they did not have a shortage of shells, and everything that could fly at us flew. Daily and nightly. Then it became quieter again, the arrivals were regular, but with a reduced intensity.
— It's quiet now. In view of the weather situation, the conflict escalated into a trench positional phase. «Crushes» — clashes, if they occur, are insignificant and in «hot areas». Basically, the calculation is based on the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine, allegedly, have nothing. But if the need arises, then they have everything. They save, they don't spend.
— I think so. Accumulate strength. Why just waste it? What's the point?
— This spring, they can only go back… In general, in order to be able to predict the course of some historical events, you need to look into the past. The essence of war never changes, remains the same. Only the way it is done is changing. You can find many historical parallels with any battle and battle, offensive and counter-offensive. Therefore, apparently, the active phase will be in the summer. And the active phase, most likely, will involve our breakthrough to the south.
— The Armed Forces of Ukraine can get overwhelmed and still try to close the «Crimean corridor». They will try to hold back the onslaught from Donetsk and move through Energodar in order to go down and close the group in the Kherson region into a huge cauldron. Then block the Crimean isthmus and further — to the Crimea. Now they have long-range weapons and resources precisely for a deep opening of the defense line and further advancement. The question is, will they have enough human resources? And will these human resources have enough fighting spirit?
— On an extreme business trip, I managed to visit the hottest points of the front. And it was very hard there, there was a real «thrash». In some areas, instead of groves, «stubs» of trees are just a lunar landscape. The ground crunches underfoot like glass because of the fragments. Such a working environment, from which it simply «lashes with optimism»…
At the same time, there is information that in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, those on the line of contact are allegedly paid 100 thousand hryvnia (about 200-250 thousand rubles). We have about the same. So, our intelligence guys brought printouts of radio intercepts. Judging by them, opponents are seriously underpaid. There was talk that even 60,000 hryvnias (about 120,000 rubles) could not be obtained. Everything is fine with the logistics of delivering ammunition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but not so much with food.
— We «ate» with the 53rd separate mechanized brigade of the ground forces of Ukraine — very strong, competent. The Aidar battalion (recognized as a terrorist and extremist organization and banned on Russian territory.) was also opposite us. They butted tightly with them and got them hard. It can be seen that they are very well prepared.
— It won't change anything. A real hysteria was raised around Western tanks and supplies. And those people who will never go to this conflict. The main mistake is that Western tanks began to be compared with ours. You can't do that.
— I have never encountered tank duels at the front. The tank must not destroy other tanks. To destroy tanks there is aviation, crews of anti-tank missile systems, grenade launchers. A tank is a means of supporting infantry. But the tank should have good security. German Leopard tanks have a problem with this. And the tanks of the Soviet school of tank building have perfectly balanced all-round armor in all projections — both side, frontal, roof and turret protection. Leopard tanks can easily make their way along the entire line of sides, stern from our old ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, which have been in service since 1952 … Just lightly. That is, Western tanks already have big problems with armor…
— Let's take an objective look at what is happening now. There are combined arms battles, «rubilovo». What is required of the tank at this time? We turn to experience and remember the best tank of the Second World War — the T-34. It has perfect maintainability. Through the soldier's «strong word», with a wrench and a crowbar, it could be repaired in a bare field. While the German tanks were leaving for the factory…
Tanks of the Soviet school of tank building are unpretentious, maintainable and, importantly, have «immunity» to fuel. The T-90M «Breakthrough» tank has a multi-diesel engine — it can run on gasoline, diesel fuel, and kerosene. And here we can again recall the Leopard tank, which «eats» only gasoline of a certain brand and nothing else. At the same time, he simply has a crazy consumption — about 500-600 liters per 100 kilometers. Where can you get so much fuel?
In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are now sending a whole «zoo» — American Abrams, M13, English Challenger, German Leopard. I represent the last nerve cell of a field mechanic who will have to understand and keep in order all this crazy variety, while everything is simple with our “mechanic Vasya”. Here he has an MT-LB, a tractor of 1965, rusty, but still alive, here is the «six» «Lada», here is the T-72 tank, and the fuel manifold, plus or minus, is the same for everyone. He doesn’t care, he can assemble a machine gun from a lighter, because everything is relatively replaceable. And there all the equipment is completely different in terms of performance. A reasonable question arises: will you be able to use all this and unlock the potential of all this goodness at least 15%?
— A lot of ifs. A positive scenario: if none of the NATO countries enters into a direct confrontation, does not introduce peacekeeping forces, then this will drag on for another year and a half. Here I agree with Yevgeny Prigozhin, who says that the maximum program of the CBO is two to three years. But there is such a fear that Poland may be drawn into this conflict, violating the border of Belarus, entering into a war with it. And there — as the card falls, the ways of the Lord are inscrutable.
— I don't think so. But for us, this is an extremely profitable springboard. This is an excellent strategic place from which you can strike, send aircraft, coordinate actions, train troops there and then transfer them to the desired areas.
— Now at the forefront in the majority of the people who have already been there. They come, they work, they leave, they rest, they come back. And among the mobilized there are many who were already there before the mobilization. There is a certain percentage of sane people with real experience. Weed out the “pseudo-contractors” who joined the army because “dad wanted it that way” or because they give a free apartment on a military mortgage …
In general, CBO for a lot of people and a huge number of things has become like a litmus test piece of paper. Such a general cleaning in the minds. It is gratifying to see when something changes, bitter — if it does not change at all. Returning to the rethinking of the idea of Bushido — «the samurai has no goal, only a path», we can say that NWO also has a path to follow.
— I am a patriot of my country, I love it and want to continue living in it. I am really interested in having all the best in my camp, so that I would like to live in it, so that there are no thoughts that somewhere there, they say, there are opportunities, but not here. I do not want to leave here anywhere, and I am interested in my Motherland becoming a country in which others really want to live, and that this is a sincere desire.