Dmytro, like other Ukrainian volunteers, is preparing to leave his battalion in kyiv on Wednesday April 20, to join the Kharkiv region in Ukraine, hit in recent days by several Russian missiles, while Vladimir Putin’s army pursues the “release plan” from “republics” pro-Russian separatists from Donetsk and Lugansk, in the words of the Russian Defense Minister.
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In military fatigues, with tired eyes, this man in his forties is enjoying the last hours of his three days of rest in the Ukrainian capital. In civilian life, Dmytro is a truck driver. After a few hours of training, he took up arms and, today, going back to fight in the East is, he says, a necessity: “We have always been and always will be a free nation, he indicates. And freedom is always acquired in blood.”
“No one can just receive freedom, you have to earn it, fight for it. That’s exactly what we do.”
“We”, there are several hundred men and a few women from the Karpatska Sitch battalion, created in 2014 at the time of the first Russian offensive on the Donbass. Since the beginning of the war, the unit has deplored around ten deaths, the last of which occurred three days ago. “It’s just your job, mechanically underlines Dmytro. If one of us is injured, you must apply a bandage and make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, take him to the hospital as soon as possible to save his life. If he is dead, you evacuate him, so that his family can bury him with dignity.”
Death does not frighten Dmytro, yet husband and father, but certain of the victory of the Ukrainians in Donbass. “Putin is putting all his forces into this battle, to destroy our country, push back our lines, he concludes. But that won’t happen. We will, of course, win. We will rise up, and Ukraine will be free. I have already been there myself, in this region. I saw with my own eyes how we all fight. Putin and Russia don’t stand a chance.” Dmytro slowly gets up, thanks for the international help and leaves. The night is short, the departure is in a few hours.
“Putin and Russia have no chance”: report by Faustine Calmel and Jérémy Tuil
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