A serviceman of the 10th mountain assault brigade “Edelweiss”, call sign “H.”, told about one of the assaults near Soledar, which he conducted in winter. He spoke with difficulty, as if his every word slipped in thoughts burnt out by hellish stress. Nervously puffing on a cigarette, he shared the details of a military operation that was fatal for dozens of Russian invaders and, unfortunately, took the lives of several of our soldiers.
With which weapon did you go on the assault?
We went to the assault in several groups from different flanks, covering each other. We had assault rifles and two RPK machine guns. The areas along which we were walking were shot through. Daylight was short, but we managed to reach the designated point before it got dark. Intelligence informed us that the trenches and dugouts where we were to entrench ourselves were clean. However, it turned out that the Russians were there. We cautiously approached and knocked them out with grenades and small arms. During the assault, it turned out that not far from this position was a masked Russian machine gunner. He was nowhere to be seen. However, he betrayed himself after the first shots, because fire was coming out of the barrel. We also removed it.
During this assault, did you take Russians prisoner?
When we retaken the position and it got dark, we heard three Russians walking fifteen meters from us and loudly saying: “Adesa!” It was their password word by which they identified their own. Along the way, they simply did not find their way in the dark and got lost. When they approached us, we took aim and shouted: “Surrender!” They refused. A battle ensued. As a result, we killed two Russians, and the third dropped his weapon and ran at us with a knife. One of our men carefully put him down, shooting him in the shoulder. He fell, we tied him up and provided first aid.
Who was this prisoner?
It was a prison. The command of the “Wagner” PMC gave him two options: either to sit in the zone for many, many more years, or to serve his term at the front in the Donetsk region, receiving 30,000 rubles ($400 – ed.) per month. We spoke with him in Ukrainian, but he said that he did not understand our language. So I switched to Russian.
When we first took him, he began to tell us that Donetsk is Russia, and he also admitted that he had killed one of our men. He stayed at the front literally two days after arriving from the zone.
Did the Russians counterattack?
Yes, they crawled on us across the field like snakes. And we zeroed them out with single shots. The settlement that we defended was divided by the Russians into squares, like on a chessboard. And when we listened to their walkie-talkie, we heard how they transmitted landmarks “B1”, “B7”, etc. We also heard the following messages on the radio: “For now, shoot with an iron, and the animal will come later.” This meant that a mortar was working on us for the time being, and a tank would come up later.
Tank fire is one of the worst things that can happen when you are under attack.
The Russians actively bombarded us with shells. The arrivals were literally a few meters from the dugout. When the tank hit the house, it seemed to be lifted into the air and thrown to the ground. It crumbled completely. Our position was arranged behind four houses. In three hours of shelling, not even a pile of bricks remained from these houses. In place of the huts after that, there were only knee-deep sinkholes.
During one of the shellings, I was patrolling and my brother was standing two meters away from me. Suddenly, a tank shell flew between us. I was wearing a cap and helmet, but I felt my ear sting after that. Almost like a burn. It was just a miracle that the projectile did not explode, but ricocheted off the parapet and flew on. It fell somewhere far behind and did not break.
How did you feel during the assault?
I had an absolutely clear understanding that I was going in one direction. I prayed, kissed the cross and went into the unknown. I was shaking from fear, but I gathered all my strength into a fist.
Because of such fear, you often make mistakes and do some absurd things.
We had a fighter in our group whose legs were severely cut by shrapnel. He was in a state of shock, and that’s why he didn’t fall right away but ran. And at the time when everyone ran back – away from the shelling, for some reason he ran to meet the enemy. I shouted to him: “Fool, where are you going?! Back!” And he ran to some trench ahead, fell there and started shouting: “I’m in pain!”. I ran up to it, bent down to pull it out, and at that moment a shell exploded a few meters away. I was so stunned that I don’t remember well what happened after that. Only certain pictures remained in my memory: that I was crawling, that I was making my way through some bushes, that I was falling, that someone was saying something to me. The next day I felt better. And the next night, when it became a little quieter, that boy was taken out by other brothers. However, by that time he had already died from blood loss. The body was already being pulled out.
Did you have losses during the assault?
One of my comrades was near the house during the tank shelling. The tank hit her directly. A large part of the wall fell right on top of the brothers. He was crushed so much that his eyes popped out. After the other boys saw his body, they began to panic. As a result, we could not
take it out.
That fellow, with whom we were standing next to and a tank shell flew between us, was always side by side with me. We were standing together during one of the shifts and very unexpectedly a mine flew in front of us. I was thrown back by the blast wave. And part of his head was cut off by a fragment along with his brain. After that, he continued to breathe for some time. I tried to give him medical attention. However, soon he died in my arms.
Did you manage to get his body out?
A blanket hung at the entrance to the dugout, which he tore off and placed the body on it. This is how we carried the dead comrade from the positions. It was necessary to cross first the field that was under fire, and then also the crossing. The body was heavy. We didn’t sleep or eat for several days, so the four of us couldn’t carry it. Somewhere in the neighboring houses, we found a baby carriage in which we took him to the crossing. The crossing was just planks that lay slightly above the water level. They buckled under our weight and the berets completely went into the water. When we were dragging the body across the crossing, it fell out of our hands and fell into the water. One fighter jumped into the icy water of the river, which was up to his waist, and picked up the body. So we slowly carried him to the other shore, and there the evacuation group already helped us.
Then I saw our armored car and climbed into it. There I realized that I had lost my hearing. The guys were saying something to me, but I didn’t even make out the words. When we left for the rear, the medics put me in an ambulance and took me to the hospital.
What was your diagnosis?
A contusion. They prescribed sleeping pills. I take two pills every night. It is simply impossible to fall asleep without it. And when I fall asleep, I constantly have the same dream – the storming of this village. I see in a dream all these events, about which I have just told. When I wake up, I see that my hands are in a position as if I were holding a machine gun.