At 1 point, he stopped counting comrades in arms who died from Russian drones And bullets whose bodies were punctured with shrapnel or virtually torn to shreds. any were known only by sight, others became close friends for respective years. War strengthens bonds — and hardens, primarily internally.
The 41-year-old we meet in the area of Kiev has the nickname Junah. He's from Berlin, he's been fighting for Ukraine for 3 yearsand for more than 2 years in global ‘Azov’ battalions, an elite military unit.
— At the beginning of the war, I was collecting donations for drones in Germany, says a erstwhile soldier Bundeswehrs in a conversation with Die Welt. “ But I rapidly realized that I had to do more,” he adds. Junah already has dozens of combat missions behind him and has advanced to the rank of commander of the battalion company: training recruits, teaching them to shoot at a distance of up to 100 m and tactical behaviour on the front.
Now he's kneeling between a Frenchman and a Canadian. “ Smokey opens fire — and you take over erstwhile he misses — he instructs 2 men lying next to him on dusty ground. Then there are shots fired, 8 times, only 1 of them misses by a fewer centimeters. — I am arrogant to belong to The most effective and strongest combat unit in Ukraine “ Junah says.
“I have no scruples”
W international battalions dozens of nationalities are represented, mainly from North America and Europe. There are respective militants from Germany. A man named Shiny is only 21. He comes from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, previously worked as a logistics engineer, and here, in Ukraine, For the first time in his life, he holds a firearm in his hand. He has been undergoing basic military training in the battalion for 2 months.
To ask if he's ready to kill, he answers without hesitation. - Yeah. I know what the Russians do to Ukrainians; I have no scruples to pull the trigger, he says. For his family, the planet collapsed erstwhile he told them he was going to war.
In particular, his parent kept saying the same question: “Why?” Shiny says he just wants to do something good. Defend Ukraine, defend freedomand. Is he afraid of dying? Definitely. He was trying to imagine the worst. That his full unit will be liquidated or that he will be badly injured, left to himself, abandoned by his comrades of arms. “ These thoughts made tears come to my eyes and I had to cry, but in this way I prepared myself mentally,” she says.
International soldiers receive the equivalent of EUR 2.6 1000 (PLN 11,000) per month, the same as their Ukrainian comrades. Nobody gets rich. But that's not the point of these men. Junah says he needs to see homes and hospitals hit all day by rockets and drones, kindergartens and supermarkets on fire, dying civilians and soldiers. He had a fewer vacations and was home in Germany. But he didn't feel at home.
Under the cover of the night
— I kept reasoning about my boyfriends. I wanted to go back to the front,” he says. The word “family” frequently falls, another soldiers are called brothers. Soldiers spend 24 hours a day in tight spaces, on the front but besides in a base north of Kiev. During training, meals, sleep. They're all accommodated in the basement of an old residential building, they call it a bunker.
Two-story bunk beds stand close to each other, respective metallic shelves, in 1 of the rooms is stretched a line to dry clothes, on the level lie dogs. There's no privacy. “ No Putin,” says a sticker glued to the fan and next to it crossed over to the red face of the president of Russia. Everyone knows precisely what they are fighting for and what they are fighting against — it besides strengthens their bonds.
A week later Shini's company goes to the front. Always east, almost 800 km, the journey lasts over 12 hours. The goal is 1 of the most hard sections of the front in Ukraine, Donetsk, the exact location was not given at the request of the soldiers. The mission is simple and hard at the same time: to halt the Russians from breaking defensive lines and occupying further territories of Ukraine.
Shiny experiences what he expected: artillery fire, drone attacks. Nights don't end. “The Russians attack mainly under cover of night, frequently at dusk and at dawn,” he reports. “They come tiny groups, on motorcycles and effort to get behind our lines. This maneuver makes it hard for us to destruct our attackers.
Every morning, the General Staff of Ukraine publishes a study on the situation. “There were 11 attacks of aggressors in this direction,” said 1 of the notes on where the soldiers of “Azov” were fighting. The next day: "The enemy dropped respective bombs; 13 attempts to break the line were reported". Soldiers have almost no breakEven if the days are a small quieter than the nights. The thunder of artillery, both its own and Russian, is practically omnipresent.
Dmytro Smolientko / AFPProceedings of Ukrainian soldiers on the front (photo)
The worst are drones.
For a fewer days, “Die Welt” has no contact with Shiny, after which 21-year-old Germany recommissions: “I am sorry, the last 72 hours have been truly hard”. He doesn't want to talk about whether he killed him. He's just saying the fights are very intense. The worst are unmanned. Powerful Shahides, kamikaze drones of Iranian construction, are real destruction machines, carry more than 50 kg of explosives, can be recognized by the roaring sound they make during flight.
Small FPV drones They can be equally deadly. In the past it was possible to find GPS-equipped missiles and shoot them down with disruptors, present almost exclusively utilized fibre optic drones. Invisible killers.
— Fear plays a immense function here on the front,” Shiny admits. “It can be over any second,” he adds. The decision to go to war voluntarily, risking our lives not for ourselves, but for another country – was right, without any “but”. — Ukraine is the shield of Europe. I do not regret anything, says Germany.
These are words that make Junah proud, due to the fact that the step from training to real fighting, from simulation of war to reality, is huge. These are his recruits, his men, whom he prepared for many months not only in military terms, but besides in intellectual terms: killing and not getting killed. He did his best, says the instructor.
The 41-year-old again found himself in a place that soldiers call the base, office and training center in the area of Kiev. In his house. Of course, he wondered what his future would be like. How long can he, how long does he want to fight? He didn't set a deadline for his graduation. He'll stay. As long as the war lasts. Or, as he put it, "until the task is finished."
Months or years don't matter. There's something else that keeps him here. He found large love, he has a Ukrainian girlfriend. They are already making plans for the future — the day erstwhile peace will come.
