Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“You sleep three hours a day maximum, one hour at a time, until a shell explosion wakes you up. The trench becomes your home. The morale is good. We chille, we laugh at the Russian artillery that misses us all the time”, launches Speedy, a Quebec volunteer fighter who has just spent a few weeks under fire.
Having left for Ukraine four months ago to provide assistance, he is preparing to return to the country with the feeling of accomplishment. He even wants to return to the front as soon as he has taken a little rest.
It’s fucked to say, but I like danger, I like adrenaline. At the front, we’re all scared, but that’s part of the war, you have to learn to live with that. I want to keep fighting.
Speedy, Canadian volunteer fighter in Ukraine
The Press agreed to identify Speedy by his nom de guerre only in order to protect his identity and that of those close to him.
During his deployment in the northeast of the country with a battalion called Carpathian Sich, he mainly participated in defense missions in trenches dug in thin strips of forest to prevent the advance of the Russians.
He and his three companions – American volunteers – were constantly bombarded by enemy mortars and tanks. The drones flew over their positions constantly to spot them and adjust the fire. They generally stayed there for 24 hours, before being relieved. “You get used to the sound of explosions. It becomes your routine, ”says the fighter.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SPEEDY
Speedy mainly participated with his companions in defense missions.
On June 19, the commander of the Carpathian Sich, Oleh Kutsin, was killed in an airstrike. From then on, the logistical organization within the battalion became more chaotic, believes Speedy. He and his unit stayed for 10 days in their trench, to the point of running out of water. “We ended up fetching water from a shell crater in the middle of an open field. We were four guys all alone, against tanks, rocket launchers and lots of soldiers. It was the best way to get shot by a sniper, but we had no choice. It was that or die dehydrated. »
White phosphorus bombs
As evening fell, the Russians repeatedly dropped white phosphorus bombs on their positions. “It fell 200 meters from us. If it hits you, it goes through your bones, down to the ground,” Speedy says. Considered incendiary weapons, these extremely destructive bombs are not clearly prohibited for use against soldiers, but using them against civilians constitutes a war crime.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SPEEDY
White phosphorus attack, a few hundred yards from the trench where Speedy and his American brothers in arms were
Speedy says he was not paid for his participation in the war effort. His journey of about four months even cost him between $20,000 and $30,000, he calculates.
I paid for groceries for civilians who had run out of money. I provided military equipment to soldiers. I ate into all my savings, but I don’t regret a thing. I am like that, I have a big heart… it comes to me from my family.
Speedy, Canadian volunteer fighter in Ukraine
Narval, a Canadian who is also about to return home, was a little luckier: he enlisted in a battalion that paid him around US$4,000 a month, the same salary as Ukrainian soldiers.
Missing ammunition and worn barrels
The experienced fighter, who has also spent a lot of time in the trenches in a defensive position, describes the Ukrainian army as an organization stuck in the era of the First World War: “The officers are the only ones who know the details of the operations. They share little information,” he laments.
Where he was, in Donbass, the Ukrainian artillery was running out of ammunition. Its guns, worn by the intensive use of the last months, were less precise.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SPEEDY
Anti-tank weapons
” It’s the war. There are things that we expect, others that are simply shocking, ”says Narval, citing among other things that the sights of Western-supplied Javelin anti-tank weapons run out of batteries and become unusable “after four minutes”. Many weapons supplied by the West also tend to disappear “overnight” due to corruption, he argues.
People don’t talk about it because it’s seen as unpatriotic, but the problem is very present within the Ukrainian army.
Narval, Canadian volunteer fighter in Ukraine
With his small detachment of volunteer foreign fighters, he made pipe bombs to be dropped by DIY commercial drones. “We did about 60 of them, but we had to give them to another unit because we never managed to get a suitable drone to drop them effectively,” says Narval.
“It’s hard on the nerves, but I’m extremely proud of what I’ve accomplished,” said Narval, who is currently back on the front line for one last mission before returning to Canada.
Same for Speedy “All the soldiers are going to say they would have liked to do more, but at the end of the day, I’m really, really proud of what I’ve done. I have absolutely no regrets,” he says.