๐ณ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐ ๐๐ - ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ - ฮฮฮฮฉฮ ฮฮฮฮ
๐ณ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐
๐๐ - ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ - ฮฮฮฮฉฮ ฮฮฮฮ
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Denys, a veteran of the Ukrainian military who has a severely damaged right hand from his time fighting in the Donbas fought for five years before the Russian invasion in 2022.
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In 2014 he fought in a volunteer battalion in and near Slovyansk. โPropaganda can be more dangerous than a weapon.โ He saw what he felt was Russian and Separatist propaganda trying to pit Ukrainian against Ukrainian.
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He spent time in Slovyansk patrolling the city, searching for and engaging Russian Separatists but was not exclusively restricted to this area, he operated around the Donbas Region as a whole in various missions.
He would later be wounded in action by the blast of a Russian Separatist recoilless rifle fired on his fighting position.
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In 2018 heโd leave the Ukrainian Armed Forces and move to Poland before then entering the world of private security.
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In 2019 he would work as a Guardian Angel on Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, watching over US contractors who were part of a joint training mission to spin Afghan pilots up on their helicopter platforms.
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He was also there during the withdrawal. โThere was propaganda being pushed at the time saying we, the Ukrainians, had been left behind. This wasnโt true though, we had gotten out, but Russian propaganda tried to say that our government and the Americans left us behind. It wasnโt true.โ
The situation on the ground however was grim indeed. Coalition nations were scrambling to get their interpreters, soldiers and their families out of Afghanistan as the Taliban steam rolled over ANA/ANP positions and entered the capital of Kabul entirely unchecked and unchallenged.
"The Taliban was right outside the perimeter, they were shooting all of the time and of course there was commotion and chaos on the other side of the airport. We saw that breach on the flightline and it looked like something out of a movie. I said to the guys 'If one of us gets stuck here, we all stay.' We didn't know what would happen but we would fight to the end if need be."
"Eventually the government sent a plane and we all got out of there."
He returned home in late 2021 as the world took notice of the Russian buildup on the Ukrainian border. He recalls being with friends and drinking beer; "I told them a big war was coming. You know some of them didn't believe me. I knew it was coming though. I thought who knows what will come next."
"The Russians were surprised by the fighting. A lot of those guys in the helicopters, the VDV, they were expecting an easy insert. Imagine yourself in the back of one of those helicopters and next thing you know, the one next to you goes down, shot out of the sky. We have all seen those videos of the helicopters getting shot down. They weren't expecting Ukrainian resistance."
When asked what he would say to the world he said; "How would you feel if California was invaded, if tanks were landing in California? We are not asking for your troops, we have troops. We need weapons, ammunition, artillery, rockets. I've lost my father and 20 friends. We've taken a toll from this war and we just need the support we know you have and can give."
Denys now has a company called PSD.Info which we uses to help train Ukrainian soldiers and civilians on weapons, tactics, combat casualty care and more. "It's not just a company, it's also a veteran community and community overall."
Denys' heart and mind remain dedicated to the mission of protecting his people and his nation. Despite his losses he continues to persevere as many Ukrainians do.