Posted yesterday at 11:25 p.m.
Diary of a soldier
This is the video diary of Yuri Chalayev, a 23-year-old lieutenant who likes to film all sorts of events in his life with his phone. A video shows him at his home in Russia in early 2022, giving his daughter a bike for her birthday. We see him getting drunk with his friends, celebrating with his almost dead drunk uncle, speeding as fast as possible in a friend’s car… The carefree and banal life of a section of Russian youth.
photo taken from YouTube
Yuri Chalayev, 23-year-old Russian lieutenant
Invasion of Ukraine
The videos take a more dramatic turn on March 3. It was on this date that Yuri Chalayev was sent to the Donbass region to take part in the invasion of Ukraine ordered by the Kremlin. At the controls of an armored car with several wounded companions, he complains of the lack of resources. “We attacked and now we have no more weapons,” he tells the camera, which he uses despite the ban on soldiers using their mobile phones in combat zones. Caught in a Ukrainian counter-attack, Yuri Chalayev continues his narration. “We are pieces of meat because the cannon doesn’t work,” he complains, despite himself giving a voice and a face to the improvisation of the Russian army in Ukraine. A few days later, Yuri Chalayev was arrested and taken prisoner by the Ukrainian army.
Putin’s hands
The contents of this phone came into the hands of Ukrainian journalist Mykhailo Tkach, head of the online newspaper’s investigative unit Ukrainska Pravda. The latter does not want to reveal how he came into possession of the images, but after a discussion with the editorial staff on the correctness and ethics of using them, Mr. Tkach decided to make a mini video documentary on the life of this soldier. “From a human point of view, it was difficult for me to work on this story – nobody has it easy in Ukraine at the moment, explains Mr. Tkach in an interview with The Press. Many of my colleagues were killed during the war, several people I know were killed by Russian troops. But citizens of any country have the right to know which hands Putin used to commit these crimes. Some violent images were blurred during editing.
photo courtesy of Mykhailo Tkach
Mykhailo Tkach, head of the online newspaper’s investigation unit Ukrainska Pravda
3.3 million views
Posted last month, The occupant, which is 24 minutes long and is in Russian with English subtitles, has already been viewed more than 3.3 million times on YouTube. Its author said he hopes his raw video, without music, dramatic artifice or narration, will be popular in Russia. “I want the Russian military to see what they really look like. If more Russian servicemen, after seeing this film, are inclined to refuse to commit crimes against my country and my people by participating in this war, it will be partly because they have been exposed to real information that does not do not exist in the reality invented by Russian television. On this subject, one of the rare characters to have an interesting speech on the screen is an old man from Chechnya who tells his way of thinking to the young Russian lieutenant and, through this documentary, to all his compatriots. who will watch it.
No interview
Asked about his desire to one day interview Yuri Chalayev, whose daily newspaper he now knows, Mr. Tkach indicated that he saw no interest in it. “I don’t think an interview with this person would be interesting. These soldiers don’t know or say they don’t know why they are doing this. Although he claims to be impartial in his work, Mykhailo Tkach is aware that the main subject of the documentary was on a mission to destroy his country and kill its people, tens of thousands of whom have died since February 24. “A Russian missile passed over my father on his way to work. Another hit a mile from my parents’ house. It is important that journalists tell the truth about the war, this crime of Putin, Russia and Russian soldiers – no matter how terrible the truth is. »