𝑳𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒏𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒖𝒔 - 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓 “𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒉”
𝑳𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒏𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒖𝒔 - 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓 “𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒉” - Victor, “The Blacksmith”, served in the 130th Territorial Defense Battalion, 241st Territorial Defense Brigade and other units.
When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th, 2022, Victor was in his hometown Uman in Cherkasy Oblast working at a forge.
“I, like most, couldn’t believe it was happening. We were really all in a constant state of stress and adrenaline. I couldn’t join the military right away for family reasons.”
“When I could I didn’t know anything about the units, I just went and enlisted in the first unit that would take me and put me at the front quickest, I wanted to fight.”
Within 1-2 weeks Victor was deployed to the Severodonetsk, shortly after that we rotated to Lysychansk in the Luhansk Oblast. The Battle of Lysychansk is where Victor would “see the dead, the wounded, artillery, tanks for the first time and truly understand war.”
“We came in on tanks but entered on foot, it was also my first time seeing the horizon burning.”
Victor said that what he needed most was intuition and knowledge but that without the will to survive neither of those things mean anything. Over the 2 years he has been in various battles such as Kharkiv, Bakhmut, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
“My last deployment was in Bakhmut, in fact we couldn’t even deploy for the mission as we got hit by Russian drones before stepping off. The drone came in, exploded and my leg was hit by shrapnel, I had to get a MEDEVAC.”
Victor is currently healing but is eager to return to his unit. Similar to most soldiers, they don’t want to be stuck in the rear as their brothers in their unit are forward fighting.
When asked how the war has changed him he replied; “I haven’t changed, at least not who I am, I have only matured, though I may be more callus.”
When asked if anything in particular sticks out to him from the past two years, he said this; “All events are key, nothing is small, you see I try to remember everything I see and give great importance to it. Just as memories seem to become key or important that lessens more and more over time, as something more ridiculous or funner or sadder happens, these events simply merge.”
When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th, 2022, Victor was in his hometown Uman in Cherkasy Oblast working at a forge.
“I, like most, couldn’t believe it was happening. We were really all in a constant state of stress and adrenaline. I couldn’t join the military right away for family reasons.”
“When I could I didn’t know anything about the units, I just went and enlisted in the first unit that would take me and put me at the front quickest, I wanted to fight.”
Within 1-2 weeks Victor was deployed to the Severodonetsk, shortly after that we rotated to Lysychansk in the Luhansk Oblast. The Battle of Lysychansk is where Victor would “see the dead, the wounded, artillery, tanks for the first time and truly understand war.”
“We came in on tanks but entered on foot, it was also my first time seeing the horizon burning.”
Victor said that what he needed most was intuition and knowledge but that without the will to survive neither of those things mean anything. Over the 2 years he has been in various battles such as Kharkiv, Bakhmut, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
“My last deployment was in Bakhmut, in fact we couldn’t even deploy for the mission as we got hit by Russian drones before stepping off. The drone came in, exploded and my leg was hit by shrapnel, I had to get a MEDEVAC.”
Victor is currently healing but is eager to return to his unit. Similar to most soldiers, they don’t want to be stuck in the rear as their brothers in their unit are forward fighting.
When asked how the war has changed him he replied; “I haven’t changed, at least not who I am, I have only matured, though I may be more callus.”
When asked if anything in particular sticks out to him from the past two years, he said this; “All events are key, nothing is small, you see I try to remember everything I see and give great importance to it. Just as memories seem to become key or important that lessens more and more over time, as something more ridiculous or funner or sadder happens, these events simply merge.”