Three years ago, Vladimir was a Russian patriot living in Moscow. On February 24, 2022, he was drafted into the Ukrainian army.
The 44-year-old loved his new homeland so much that when Vladimir Putin launched his invasion a year ago, he immediately offered to join the country’s defense. Three days later he served at the front.
He serves as an artillery sergeant and fights against his president and his own people – for “freedom,” as he puts it. I.
“I thought Putin was a very smart, cunning and rich man,” says Vladimir, who ran a restaurant business in Kyiv before the war. “I never thought he would start a war.”
Vladimir compares Putin’s mentality before the invasion with the mentality of the protagonist in The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, a fairy tale in verse by the 19th-century Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, about a fisherman who manages to catch a goldfish that promises to grant his every wish in exchange for freedom. But in the end, he and his wife ask too much when she demands to be the ruler of the sea and the fish refuses, leaving the fisherman and his wife as poor as they were at the beginning of the story.
“Putin did it The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish. He did not want to be a queen, he chose to be the mistress of the sea,” he says. In the end, he “overestimated his strength and underestimated the Ukrainian people.”
Despite his love for Russia, Vladimir knew what he would do if Russian tanks, troops and missiles rained down on Kyiv a year ago.
“From the first days of the war, I knew it was about freedom or death,” he says. “Ordinary people heard the cry of their hearts and were ready to die for the freedom of Ukraine.
“Little boys and grown men, they left their families, their children and their wives to defend Kyiv despite the very strong Russian army.
“Ukrainians have the highest motivation to defend the freedom and independence of their beloved Ukraine. I understood this from the first minutes of the war and knew what I had to do.”
When Volodymyr, who now uses his first name in the Ukrainian spelling but cannot give his last name for security reasons, volunteered to fight off the invaders, his nationality was at first suspicious. Was he one of thousands of “Russian agents” trying to wreak havoc? Can he be trusted to protect the land he has taken over?
“I am Russian, so at first it was difficult in the unit,” he says. “But I had a very serious conversation with the commander. I am very grateful to him. He believed that I sincerely want to help the Ukrainian people.”
Helping the Russians withdraw from the cities around Kyiv, Vladimir spent several months on the Eastern Front before being transferred to Bakhmut last summer. A small town of ordinary military importance, Bakhmut quickly became the center of fierce fighting, and since Ukraine began to reclaim territories in the south, it has become something of a totem. Its tactical value far outweighs its symbolism for both sides.
For Vladimir, Bakhmut has almost finished his story.
“I was wounded near Bakhmut on August 5,” he says casually, as if it were a minor abrasion. It was anything but this.
Vladimir’s left arm was almost completely torn off his body during the Russian attack. Hanging on the skin and tendons, he lost a lot of blood, and only the ambulance of his comrades at the front saved his life. None of them now doubts his commitment to the freedom of Ukraine.
Although his life was no longer in immediate danger, it seemed certain that he would lose his arm. However, the tenacity of Ukrainians is manifested not only on the battlefield. Even in the most difficult circumstances, doctors can work wonders.
“I had six operations, and very cool military doctors saved my arm after it was almost torn off,” says Vladimir. She’s here, working. I am eternally grateful.”
He continues his recovery at the Kiev City Clinical Hospital for War Veterans, but hopes to return to the front lines as soon as possible, despite knowing that his left hand will never be the same again. He shoots with his right hand and it works well.
A year after Putin’s second invasion of Ukraine began – no one in the country forgets the annexation of Crimea in 2014, even if the world turns a blind eye – Russia has seen little of it.
Both sides are believed to have suffered more than 100,000 military casualties, and Putin’s confidence that he will install his puppet regime in Kyiv within weeks cannot be more misguided.
“The Russian army did not win a single victory at all,” says Vladimir. “They destroyed peaceful cities, wiping them off the face of the earth. Tens of thousands of civilians died, families were destroyed, the Ukrainian people suffered terribly, but Russia’s goals were not achieved.
“Putin managed to mislead the Russian people with propaganda and lies about Ukraine as a fascist state. There are no fascists in Ukraine. I speak Russian like half of Kyiv. Like half of Ukraine. During the three years of my stay in Ukraine, I have never faced harassment from the Russian speakers.”
Vladimir is also convinced that although he and his colleagues in the army did much better than expected when the war began, without the help of the West they will not be able to fight back against their enemy.
“Evil should not win in the 21st century, otherwise there will be complete injustice,” he says. “We need to help Ukraine cope with this. Democratic countries cannot stand by and watch the Ukrainian people being killed, raped and wiped off the face of the earth. We are immensely grateful to all democratic countries for not leaving Ukraine alone in the struggle.
“Putin has no chance of winning. I believe that if we unite with the whole world, we will be able to resist Putin’s criminal regime.”
Like almost every Ukrainian, Volodymyr is not going to give up an inch of land in order to reach a peace deal with the Kremlin, although Crimea and some eastern regions seem to be on the negotiating table of some Western countries.
“What kind of peace settlement can we talk about when criminals break into your house?” He says. “How can you negotiate with them? The world pledged to guarantee the integrity of Ukraine’s borders by surrendering nuclear weapons at all levels of the Russian Federation in exchange for the integrity of Ukraine’s borders.
“Ukraine must be free and all occupied territories must be returned. Russian troops must leave the territory of Ukraine. After the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, peace negotiations can take place.”
However, Vladimir does not believe that the negotiations will end the war this year. He finds himself in a “long struggle for freedom”.
“I want to believe in the victory of good over evil,” he says. “But the boss understands that the conflict will not end in 2023. Putin’s criminal regime is very strong. There is a human source. Opposing the fascist regime of the 21st century is not so easy. Unfortunately, the winnings will be very expensive and certainly not this year.
As for his own future, Vladimir’s world has changed beyond recognition, as it has for many of his fellow Ukrainian defenders.
“My whole life has changed,” he says. “I was at war. In other words, hell. Every day of my life on this earth, I must live now to stop this madness. There is nothing worse than war in this world. This must be stopped and stopped.
Although Vladimir left Russia only three years ago, he has now earned the right to be called a Ukrainian hero.
Source: I News
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.