“On February 24, at 5 a.m., I left Dnipro for Zaporizhzhia. My college and I were scheduled to fly to Kyiv from there. We were approaching Zaporizhzhia when my colleague’s wife wrote to him about the explosions in Dnipro. I turned the car around and drove back to Dnipro. As I approached, I saw explosions and fire about 3-5 km from my house, where my pregnant wife and two children were.

I took my family to our countryside house and called my friends who had been fighting as volunteer fighters since 2016. I joined them, and in the first days of the war, we went to Mariupol to carry out tasks.

Now we are engaged in reconnaissance activities and somewhat resemble sabotage and reconnaissance groups. We have already received certain modern weapons, although even earlier we seized enemy equipment and did not fight empty-handed. Our goal is to conduct reconnaissance, cover the enemy with fire, and then move forward and clear one village after another.

After all, this war is not a war of machine guns, but a war of intellects and advanced equipment. Artillery is its god

I have put the business aside. To be honest, I don’t care about it now. My partners help but for me, our actions in the war are much more important. When we liberate a village, when women come out and beg us in tears not to give them back I can’t think of the business. And now we plan only where to get more modern weapons from and how to learn to use them as soon as possible.

After all, this war is not a war of machine guns, but a war of intellects and advanced equipment. Artillery is its god.

For the last month, we have been constantly moving, so I have met a lot of new people, successful and cool ones. And they are everywhere! In early April, I wrote a post on Facebook about fundraising for lelekas (“storks”), and in three days I received UAH 2 million. People transferred from UAH 70 to a million. Every penny is important because for someone UAH 70 is the same amount like a million for someone else.

In war, people reveal themselves differently. I feel an incredible brotherhood in our group. And I have also learned what the Cossack spirit is about. We are surrounded by many different teams: the Armed Forces, volunteer battalions, reconnaissance, the National Guard, and we all seem to be competing with each other to destroy more enemies. Now I know what the Wild Fields are.”