Architector

‘We’ll kick away the enemy and come back home,’ said Andrii, a combatant of the 5^th
Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine with the call sign Architect
or. Architect or has been fighting for two years. He says that every time that he takes a
leave, despite being exhausted, he is looking forward to returning to his brothers-in-arms.

He dreamt of shooting a Javelin – and he hit a russian tank from the first shot. It is said about Andrii, a guardsman of the 5^th Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine with the call sign Architect or. As he himself told the journalists of ‘Pryamyi’
national TV channel, the Javelin was borrowed from Andrii’s brothers-in-arms from another brigade, with whom they were defeating the enemy in Klishchiivka in Donetsk
region.

Banderyk

He evacuates his injured brothers-in-arms from the front line, delivers ammunition and provisions to their emplacements. A guardsman Yurii with a call sign Banderyk defends Ukraine in the 5^th Slobozhanska brigade of Ukraine. For six months Yurii has been riding a quad bike. He told he journalists of ‘Pryamyi’ national TV channel about his combat mission in Klishchiivka and his protective charm.

Sometimes he imagines himself to be a Paris-Dakar rally racer. Over six months spent on the front line he has changed the fourth pair of wheels. There were tyres pierced by reinforcement bars while going off-the-road on the front line as well as detonating a mine.

‘I went to Klishchiivka, took some provisions there and replaced a warrior who was on his combat mission there, and I landed on a PFM-1 mine, or a PMN mine, well, two of my wheels were burst, and that was the way we were going out of there, with two flat tyres,’
Yurii reminisces that mission.

‘Fast and manoeuvrable’, he praises his quad bike. His brothers-in-arms help him upgrade it in a military way – welding on it two cases for ammunition and provision. This way it takes less times to unload it all on emplacement sites when we lack time. In order to steer clear of the enemy drones, Banderyk sets off on combat missions in the late afternoon, when it’s getting darker.

Bur

Recently Andrii, whose call sign is Bur, has returned from training in the UK. According to him, it was a challenge even for the person with some fighting experience.

‘It’s assaulting woods, trenches, marching long distances, it’s not on the plain, it’s mountains and forests, woods, fields, up and down, going up and down, and plus, how can I tell you, the climate zone, the weather conditions, they are very, well, not the same as we are used to, unfavorable – they harden you, and you also go in full combat gear,’ Andrii recalls his training mission in the UK.

European instructors, says Bur, also had a lot to learn from Ukrainian fighters. Now he will use all his skills to defend his native Kharkiv region. As what he wants most of all is to return to peaceful life as soon as possible. To produce gas and raise his children.

Viter

Oleksandr, call sign Viter, volunteered for the army on the third day of the Great War. ‘I had a class, I think it was Thursday. On Friday, I taught a class, and on Saturday I packed my things and mobilized to the unit where I served in 2014,’ Viter recalls. Viter went through the Kharkiv counteroffensive and Kreminna. But, he says, the hottest time was near Klishchiivka. It was there that he and his three brothers-in-arms had to repel their heaviest assault.

Side by side with Oleksandr, infantryman Dmytro fought off those most difficult assaults. He recalls that the russians fired at them so densely near Klishchiivka that they could not even reach their brothers-in-arms’ positions.

Groz

Oleksandr Svystunov, aged 36, is a unit commander of one of the combat battalions of the 5th Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine. He has worked with his hands all his life, and after school he immediately joined the miners. There are not many specialties there, so he mastered the most difficult one and became a GROZ (a mining worker of a cleaning ‘face’).

Oleksandr is a resident of Dnipropetrivsk region, has a wife and two children. He did not hide from the war, but, as he says, he did not rush to the front either. When he received a call-up, he went to serve, and he didn’t think about hiding from the military enlistment officers because it was not manly. And his son is growing up – he needs to set a fatherly example of protecting the family.

First, there was military training, and then the war of his own began – a deployment to the Serebrianka forestry near Kreminna. Constant clashes and shelling, carrying ammunition and digging trenches in the sand that crumbles after each arrival, where you can see the enemy with the naked eye – the orcs’ positions are right across the street, a hundred meters away in a straight line through the ravine.

In Kreminna, on Valentine’s Day, he received a “gift” in the back from the enemy – a piece of a 120mm mine.

On rotation after the hospital, he was trained in assault operations and went to Klishchiivka already prepared and angry. He served in Klishchiivka for the entire duration. Immediately upon his return, he received the medal “For Valor” and changed his shoulder strap to a sergeant’s…

All our hero’s thoughts are about the Victory and returning to normal life, to his family and work, to relaxing in the garage with his car, to a known and predictable tomorrow.

Now Oleksandr is serving on the defensive lines in the Kharkiv sector. The enemy will not pass, because the guardsmen are standing strong. Ordinary guys from working professions have become professional soldiers. But the war is not eternal, there will be a Victory, and after that you can change your uniform for your favorite jeans.

Donbas

Volunteers, Donbas says, were able to hold back the enemy in the Kharkiv region at the beginning of the war. This allowed the regular army to regroup and arm themselves. Today, the soldier is sure that the occupiers’ numerical and armed superiority does not guarantee them the desired results.

‘Fighting is interesting, war is like a game of chess. The fact that one is leading does not mean that he will win the game. And this is our land, we are at home. It always gives you strength. Everything is native here, you know everything. And the enemy is like a flashlight in a dark basement,’ said the officer of the 5th Slobozhanska brigade.

Platoon commander Donbas was awarded the “For Courage” badge and the “For Defense of Ukraine” medal. His wife is waiting for him in Kharkiv. Donbas does not know when he will return to civilian life. He says peace will return to Ukraine when the enemy is destroyed on our land and economic sanctions are imposed on the aggressor.

Yevhen

Yevhen, aged 24, fought in the Kharkiv sector, in the Serebryansky forest near Kreminna. Most of all, he likes repairing equipment and machinery – he can disassemble any military vehicle to the last screw. His personal record is that he has dismantled a caterpillar track in an hour. He got his love for vehicles from his father.

Yevhen is a mechanic and driver with the 5th Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine: ‘I helped my father a little bit, he has a service station back home, and I’ve been working there since I was a kid, turning nuts and so on. It came in handy here, I also learned something here as before the army, before the war, I didn’t know that such equipment existed at all.’ The equipment that comes back from the front is often badly damaged, and his brothers-in-arms ask him to put it back on the track as soon as possible, so he works even at night, says Yevhen.

Kamazist

In civilian life, the guardsman of the 5th Slobozhanska brigade “Skif” with the call sign Kamazist worked as a driver. In the first days of the full-scale war, he volunteered to defend his country. Now the man is a driver of a military ambulance. His main mission is to bring the wounded to the doctors as soon as possible.

During combat missions, there were times when their ambulance team came under fire, he recalls. One vehicle had to be replaced because of this. He cannot recall how many trips he has made and how many people he has taken out since the beginning of the full-scale war. He says the most important thing is to do his job, not to keep count.

Klever

Artillery is math plus adrenaline. That’s the opinion of Ruslan, a mortar platoon commander with the 5th Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, call sign Klever. Slobozhansky guardsmen are currently defending Kharkiv region, holding the line in the Kupiansk sector.

An IT worker in civilian life, a mortar gunner with the call sign Klever says that knowledge of mathematics helps to fire more accurately.

‘You are constantly counting angles, you have to understand what polar coordinates are. Why the aiming point, if it is close, does not work at large angles. You have to calculate the sine or tangent. That’s math! And physics is more for curiosity. Here’s how the mine flies, how high it flies. Yeah – there’s a strong wind there!’ Klever explains to journalists.

Kostiantyn

Kostiantyn has been serving for three years. He says he sent his wife and three children to a safer place and volunteered for the front.

‘I don’t care who joined the ranks when. You realize what kind of person they are when you go with them to the first battle,’ says our fellow soldier.

He says he learned how to hold an assault rifle in combat: ‘In the first battle, I learned how to do it. I analyzed it, talked to former ATO soldiers and somehow learned in the process.’

Kpyvbas and Karpukha

For more than two weeks, the russian occupiers stormed the position of the Slobozhansky guards. Due to the tall grass, Artur, call sign Karpukha, and Dmytro, call sign Kpyvbas, could not see the enemy approaching. The last two days were the hardest, the guys say.

‘At first, two men entered our hole. Without hesitation, I fired the whole magazine at one of them. One of them ran away, throwing a grenade at us. But he did not pull the pin. It didn’t explode, and it came in handy later!’ Kryvbas smiles.

Kudryavyi

Our interlocutor is one of those who jokingly claims that he made his first assault at the beginning of a large-scale war, but as a civilian. It was a special assault – for the right to defend his family. Back then, military recruitment officers were hiding from volunteers. Serhii experienced that anxious state when the enemy is close and you are told, ‘Wait, we’ll call you with a draft notice.’

Today he is 47 years old, promoted to junior sergeant in 2024, and is a squad leader. He served in Kupiansk, Kreminna and Klishchiivka.
He says he met the Great War at work. He left everything and came from another city to his family in Kharkiv. When his wife and young daughter were safe, he went to storm the military registration and enlistment office. Serhii was able to join the ranks of the guards only in August, and in early September he was already serving in Kupiansk. Surprisingly enough, being under artillery fire was calmer for him than sitting around waiting for a call from the military conscription office, because he knew he was already doing something, ready to counteract.

We heard about “Kudryavyi” – this is the call sign of our hero – from one of our previous interlocutors. So we came to visit him at the position where our brothers-in-arms are currently serving in the defense of Kharkiv. Our hero looks his age and gives the impression of a man with a strong inner core. He is not hulking, his build is average, even a little thin, but his eyes… They hide a secret that is not for prying ears, and over it shines the determination to do his best, as it has been many times in his military life.

Orion

Before the Great War, Yaroslav worked as a loader at Nova Poshta. Now he has been piloting attack and reconnaissance drones for two years. To successfully perform combat missions, the National Guard member says he has to learn new things every week. He appreciates the advice of his brothers-in-arms, follows trusted sources on the Internet, and remembers the instructions of his first instructor.

‘On combat missions in Klishchiivka, I took a bulletproof vest, a rifle, a helmet and the drone itself. It came with an antenna, wires, and a battle scale of ammunition. That is, 25-30 kg, depending on how many units you take with you,’ Orion explains.

With such a load, Yaroslav walked six kilometers with his injured leg and completed his combat mission. The guardsman believes that endurance and the ability to notice details are important during reconnaissance flights. Yaroslav, call sign Orion, does not count the number of destroyed enemy positions or lost drones.

Palych

Born in russia, he can only say two phrases in Ukrainian: ‘Thank you’ and ‘Bon appetit’. But it was our Palych who volunteered to join the National Guard from the first days of the large-scale war and has been destroying the russian invaders all this time because he feels like a Ukrainian, defending his family, granddaughter, and home. Our hero’s brothers-in-arms say Palych is a true friend and a brave warrior.

‘Palych proved himself near Klishchiivka. We repelled an enemy attack, a couple of drones flew in with dumps, they ran to a neighboring hole, fired back, threw more mines, ran to another hole, and found three radio stations left by the invaders. And thanks to these radios, we began to understand whether the orcs were storming or not,’ recalls a brigade officer Oleksandr, call sign Bur.

Destroying the occupiers in different parts of the front, our Palych dreams of completing his house in Kharkiv. Two-storey and comfortable for a family. And so that his daughter and grandson could return there from evacuation and feel safe again.

Polkovnyk

Viacheslav, call sign Polkovnyk, is 48 years old. He has completed conscript service. He joined the army at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

‘I have lived in Kharkiv for 20 years, so I already consider Kharkiv my home. When the attack on Kharkiv began, I decided that it was too much. I had to defend my home, my city,’ said the National Guard member.

During the two years of war, Polkovnyk took part in battles in Kharkiv and Luhansk regions. However, he says he remembers the most memorable battle in Serebryanske forestry at the end of his second rotation. Back then, the russians stormed Ukrainian positions for nine hours.

Prapor

Oleksandr has been serving with the National Guard of Ukraine for over two years. Before the full-scale invasion he worked in one of the detention facilities. After the beginning of the active hostilities he joined the territorial defence forces and later on became our brother-in-arms, a member of the National Guard.

Then there was the Kharkiv counter-offensive and tough battles in Kreminna in Lugansk region, where Prapor was badly injured.

Amputation of part of the lower limb, long-term treatment, rehabilitation. And despite everything – return to his own unit.

Stolyar

Saved one of his brothers-in-arms while being wounded himself: the story of a Slobozhansky guardsman.

He saved his brother-in-arms while being wounded himself. With his legs bandaged, he made a shelter out of sandbags in a dilapidated house and held out for two days until they were evacuated. The story of our fellow soldier with the call sign Stolyar is in the material of ‘Inter’ national TV channel.

Soldier Oleh, whose call sign is Stolyar, and his brother-in-arms had not reached their positions in Klishchiivkaa by a few meters when they were attacked by drones. In that attack both soldiers were wounded by VOG grenade fragments. Oleh first rushed to save his fellow soldier.

Tibet

In Klishchiivka in the Donetsk sector, an FPV drone flew into the dugout of five National Guard soldiers, all of whom were wounded and three had to be evacuated. Tibet and another soldier stayed behind to cover their brothers-in-arms and hold the line. Later, they got out on their own, and the Kharkiv resident will always remember that journey.

At the beginning of the war, Tibet made a promise to himself that he keeps sticking to: as many of his soldiers went to the positions, as many should return. All of Tibet’s men are alive, and he was nominated for the National Guard of Ukraine’s departmental award “For Courage”. Despite his age, the chief sergeant continues to defend Ukraine and is already making plans for the future – he dreams of seeing the Indian Ocean, where he hopes to meet blue whales.

Tur

As many people you bring to the position, as many you have to withdraw. Officer Tur’s third year of war. A combat officer of the 5th Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine told ‘Hromada Group’ news agency about his combat mascot from Kreminna, his trench shovel and his ‘nose for the enemy.’ National Guard officer Andrii, call sign Tur, has been fighting with a trophy assault rifle for over a year. He uses it as a combat mascot.

‘During the summer in Kreminna, one of my brothers-in-arms brought me a trophy, and when I saw the number of the assault rifle was 888 (I was born on the eighth of July) and the year of its manufacture was 1992 (the same year as my wife was born), I asked him to give it to me,‘ Tur says.

In the current war, Andrii trusts the trench shovel and his intuition more. His fellow soldiers in the brigade claim that Tur has a special ‘nose for the enemy.’

Chicago

Call sign Chicago – an officer of a new generation who is ready to stay in service after the Victory.

A frank conversation about male shame and the modesty of a true guardsman. There is not a single cloud in the sky. It is hard to breathe, there is little shade and it does not help from the heat. We are on our way to an interview with a fellow soldier from one of our brigade’s combat battalions. We talked a little bit on the phone beforehand – the man is not the most talkative. His answers to the questions are military precise and short, nothing unnecessary, not a word more than needed. Kharkiv is behind us, and now we are driving on the ground – a dirt road to the border with russia, a forest. In the shade of the trees, the effect of a greenhouse appears – it’s even hotter and harder to breathe here than in the city.

We are greeted by Chicago, a call sign or nickname, as they say now. We greet each other and go under the roof of the dugout, away from the sun, flies and mosquitoes, which are a must-have addition to the “romance of nature” and everyday companions of the soldiers on the ground.

Andrii, aged 54, is a Slobozhansky guardsman, a senior lieutenant and company commander of a combat battalion. He voluntarily took up arms in May 2022. Before the Great War, he served conscript service in Kyiv, graduated from the Kharkiv Aviation Institute, joined the police as a civilian, and after leaving the police force, he worked in construction. At the age of 29, he added Jiu-Jitsu to his hockey hobby – he holds a 2nd dan in this martial art and even participated in competitions in Ukraine. But russia’s attack on our country changed Andrii’s life.

Sheva

The three of them held a position near Klishchiivka in Donetsk region, being surrounded for almost 1.5 months.

‘There were three of us. The three of us went out. It took us two or three hours to get to the position, and it took us four days to get out. The distance was the same, but the way out was different – you can’t go along the path… Either you live there or you don’t,’ says Junior Sergeant Yurii, call sign Sheva, from the 5th Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, who has been at the front since the first days of the full-scale russian invasion.

In that unequal confrontation, Yurii damaged an enemy armored personnel carrier with its crew using a grenade launcher.

Shum

‘It is always scary to take the first step. Then you realize it, make a decision, and it’s not scary anymore,’ says the fighter from the 5th Slobozhanska brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, call sign Shum.

After hospitalization and rehabilitation, the guardsman is back in action. Together with his brothers-in-arms, he is bringing the Victory closer, dreaming of returning to his peaceful profession – feeding people with delicious sausages. And also about restoring his pre-war passion for books and fantasy, which he now not only has no time for, but does not feel like reading.