— Are you a joyful person in everyday life? - I ask as
Givi laughs and gives his fighter a command to suck his belly in. The fighters
are running around, shelling sounds and explosions are heard outside. The
commander listens to his walky-talky and chain-smokes.
— My people should be asked this, not me.
— What’s your attitude to life? Are you a pessimist or
optimist?
— I am an optimist, always. I always believe the luck
is on our side… The victory and the luck. You know, I am responsible for
people. If I were different, would they serve in this battalion? They respect
me and I respect them in response. I may sometimes tell them well off, that’s
not a secret…
— Oh, yes, I’ve already heard that.
— Well, yes, everything happens. But I am just like
them, ordinary guy just like the rest.
— Does it help at war? I mean the attitude like this,
you quick temper, passion?
— But of course. When my people see everything’s fine
they start believing in themselves and you just support that.
— Okay, so you’re in a battle, you start shooting,
what do you feel?
— It feels right. I want to see the result of our
work. By our work I mean serving the Motherland. When tanks, artillery, people,
small arms are working that’s what I like. And when I know there are big losses
at the enemy’s I am satisfied.
— So when you look through the sight do you see an
enemy or a soldier? Who do you see — a human being or a «cyborg»?
— I see a normal person but I realize he’s an enemy.
Unfortunately he’s an enemy at the moment. Because I did my compulsory military
service at Ukrainian armed forces and everything was fine then, all the
officers and soldiers were normal guys then.
— So you served at the Ukrainian army, how did
everything happen? The war began, war with the people you served with, how did
it begin?
— Since Maidan.
— How did you know your place was hear not there with
them?
— First of all I was deeply affected by what had
happened in Mariupol, Odessa, at Maidan. The «Berkut» guys, those poor guys
being killed and burnt there.
— You told that the conflict in the South-East changed
your attitude to everything. But what did affect you most?
— Loss of my people. It doesn’t mean how many, when I
close their eyes they won’t leave me.
— Please tell about Ilovaysk.
— Ilovaysk was a planned operation, we were following
our mission directive. The task was set by Kononov Vladimir Petrovich, Defence
Minister and the task was to hold Ilovaysk by all means. I did hold the town.
With the help of my soldiers first of all. There were the second, third and the
fourth squadron of Slavyansk, they were backing us. Then Motorola came to help
us. Motorola’s contribution was great.
— Where did you serve before «Somalia»?
— I was commander of the second squadron of Slavyansk battalion.
— And then you decided to create your own battalion?
— Yes. And I became Slavyansk battalion commander, by
Kononov’s order. Then I began to organize the battalion in my own way.
— What’s your vision of your battalion?
— Just like it is today, it’d be great to have more
infantry forces and something three hundred people more would be great. But
today’s level is great. The battalion is motorized, it’s powerful, all our
people were taught by us. My primary military skill is tank officer, direction
layer. So there was nothing difficult.
— Let’s come back to Ilovaysk. Mr. Geletey (Ukrainian
Defence Ministry at that time) claimed they had not more that one hundred
killed. What did you see?
— Four thousand corpses. They buried them with their
own hands. We knew that, we saw that, my intelligence worked there. We’ve seen
them burying those poor boys like pieces of meat.
— It means the corpses were not taken home.
— Exactly! What we took we gave them back. Everything
found by us was sent to the Ukrainian side.
— How many military hardware were lost?
— About one thousand two hundred. Road from Ilovaysk
to Uspenka was completely blocked and stuffed with burnt hardware. It was
impossible to pass, we pulled it away so the people could use this road.
— What about Debaltsevo?
— I have not been there so I can’t tell anything.
— Okay, then let’s speak about you. You said you believed
in people.
— I do, I believe in my people.
— What do you mean by «your people»?
— I mean my battalion.
— What is this faith about?
— I know for sure they stand with me and I stand with
them. I may be mistaken somewhere but I’ve got no doubts in that. I am
absolutely sure my people are going to stand by me till the end, the same about
me.
— Did something change in your attitude to people in
general?
— Yes and no. For instance I became even more attached
to my people. It’s hard to lose them. Even if somebody requests resignation due
to certain family circumstances it is still hard to let them. But we let them
of course, it’s not about concussion. Who wants to be with us he will be with
us. The civilians often show disrespect to the uniformed people. But to some
extent we, I mean «the OTHER fighters» are to blame. Somebody does something
dishonest and people start thinking all the militia fighters are like that. But
when combat starts, when shelling hits hard then everyone hope
"Rostov" and "Somalia' battalion stay hard, then they support us
I think. Apart from that we became enemy No. 1 for them. Well, that’s my
opinion I’m saying what I see.
— Tell about something unforgettable, some story No. 1
here, in your life as a commander.
— There was plenty of, but the hardest I believe was
the period when my fighters had neither bulletproof vests nor helmets. And then
when they arrived there was another problem — to make people wear them. I’ve
got one soldier, here he is sitting in front of you [Givi nods to his side of a
young guy of about 25, he gets embarrassed and looks down]. And that was
the problem.
— What was the problem?
— He did not want! When somebody told him I was on my
way here he put everything on. That was a real problem to make people wear what
was necessary. I told a lot of times that was for safety reasons, to protect
from bullets, from fragments, from everything. Sure the vests cannot resist 125
mm caliber but the fragments! That cost me quite a lot of nerves to be honest.
I had to teach them sometimes with my belt.
— Have you been between life and death?
— Yes, in Ilovaysk, Yampol, Semyonovka and in
Slavyansk. Once again — in Ilovaysk we were totally exposed, at the airport as
well when we assaulted the old terminal, sometime later Motorola and I were
commanding the storm. Motorola and I were together there, were storming like
the others. I was wounded by a sniper in Ilovaysk, it was a near miss — I got
lucky, it was a light gutter head wound.
— Were you scared?
— No, it was offending to be almost shot.
— So you were not afraid to die?
— What’s the point in being afraid to die? The point
is to meet beautiful death. There was a moment when we were resting [between
combats] and I felt bad, I called doctor on duty. She came and my first thought
was: why are you so unbeautiful? The girl herself was pretty but she came all
disheveled, in some reefing jacket with tonometer hanging aside and the main
thing — her eyes were wild. I looked at her — oh, dear, why it came so ugly!
— Did you say it aloud?
— I did! She asked if she was ugly. I said that I was
talking not about her but about death. I say — the main thing is to meet
beautiful death all the rest is unimportant. And I know for sure — I won’t
yield as a prisoner, never.
— What do you mean by «beautiful»? What is the woman
of your dream?
— I have no woman of my dream. All women are beautiful
in some way. There is a beauty in every woman you just need to see it.
— Are you planning to marry?
— No, I am not. Who would want to live with me? I am a
walking hurricane, I am never at home, don’t sleep at nights. My battalion is
my family. But it’s big!
— Tell about the dreams, what are your dreams?
— There are no dreams at war. You don’t sleep at all
at war. No matter how long you sleep it’s never enough and you never get a good
sleep. I’ve said it million times before and I’m saying it once again.
— Does it happen to you when you want to be alone?
— Sure it happens.
— What do you think about when you’re alone?
— About war.
— Not about peace?
— When we have peace then we’ll think about peace.
— What’s your vision of peace?
— Calm, quiet so the children are not afraid to walk
in the streets, that’s the main thing. So that a pregnant woman is not afraid
to walk the streets, every man and woman, the elderly could just walk without
fear. Let them work for the benefit of our Motherland. Everybody makes some
contribution I think. Trust me — everything ruined will be restored. I really believe
that even the airport will be restored soon. Well, the best way of restoring
the airport is to tear all the rest down and then construct again.
— I see that the metal constructions from the airport
are being taken away very actively.
— The metal constructions are taken away by the
production companies of Donetsk. Everybody thinks that we’re stealing them.
— You wanted to say about the God.
— Yeah, God… I am absolutely sure that ninety percent
of my people never attended church, may be on some big church holidays. We
appeal to God when it’s very hard and I’m not hiding it, I ask: please God help
us, please save my guys.
— Is it a gift? - I ask him about the bracelet consisting
of small icons on his wrist.
— Yes, from my mother.
— What does your mother say about all this?
— My poor mum, she’s worried. Both mum and dad are
worried, they’re safe thanks God, I’ve sent them away.
— Do you have siblings?
— I have a sister, she’s been living and working in
Russia for a long time.
— Are you planning to go to Russia?
— Why? What for? I am not going to anywhere until I
finish everything here. I will have a vacation when I’m finished here. I’ve
been invited to Altay.
— It’s great.
— Yes, it is. I have a guy from Altay fighting in my battalion.
— What is love for you?
— Love is everything. It’s the most pure feeling in
the world. But I don’t know it.
— Why?
— Because I am not familiar with it, I do not have a soul
mate, do you understand?
— Do you accept love only in a «man and woman» way?
— Yes. Well it depends what love we are talking about.
One may love Motherland, may love relatives and kids — it’s one thing. But
relationships between man and woman is completely another thing. It is the
highest feeling of all if it is pure and sincere.
— I’ve been told people of your battalion wed and have
kids.
— Oh yes! It’s fun here. I visited a wedding recently,
one of my soldiers got married and it turned out that there was no groomsman.
He asked me and I could not refuse, it was his wedding day after all. And then
you find yourself serving Champaign to your soldier! But it was beautiful and
fun, I liked it. Life goes on. War does not stop these thing, you know? To fall
in love, to marry, make children it’s good.
— Some say people at war become real. Do you think
it’s true?
— On one hand — yes, one can see to what extent you
are man. And it’s not always about «hard balls» excuse my language. Man should
remain man till the end. Starting from peacetime till the war. Man is the one
who protects his land, his home, family, country, his interests. I am disliked
by the many for sticking to my own opinion and not surrendering. If I believe
something to be right I will stand till the end.
— Have you always been like that?
— Even my mum says — I remain as stubborn as I’ve
always been. When I decided to go to Slavyansk, she didn’t even try to talk me
out of that because she knew she could not do this. That’s what I am, stubborn.
You know, kind of «when I see goal I see no obstacles», but there is always an
obstacle. You need either crash it or go round.
— Are you tactician or strategist?
— Sometimes you need to act like Chapayev. To throw
away the scabbard and go. Sometimes you need to escape certain thing and then
tactics works. Sometimes you need a plan, sometimes improvisation, sometimes
you just need to play the fox.
— How do you see your future?
— I can’t tell anything. My future is now, I mean the
nearest 24 hours and I can’t be absolutely sure even about that. I am trying to
plan something but most of the time is spent on the frontline with my people,
all the time. My people are experienced but when I see something with my own
eyes I make more global, large-scale decisions. Of course I am teaching them to
think global, to talk and reason global, to act global, but you know…
— Have you learnt something?
— Sure. Even those failures in Slavyansk, Yampol,
Semyonovka they’ve also taught us something. Each situation bears positive and
negative — one may make certain conclusions.
— Who was you childhood hero? Is there a hero for you
today?
— As a child I liked Chapayev, now my heroes are my
people. My soldiers are heroes, all of them, real heroes.
— What heroic can you think of?
— Oh, plenty of. The last thing heroic was when my
tanks jumped to Maryinka and saved our guys, protected with armor. Seven people
were saved. That was a heroic deed. But trust me just holding the current
positions is already heroic. And they’ve been holding them not for some 24
hours but for three months. They are getting smashed there but they are holding
and not going to surrender. If I order to retreat they will retreat. But until
that they will remain steadfast to the last.
— What’s the task in the airport?
— Our task is to hold the airport by all means. When
we get an order to attack — from corps commander, commander in chief or Defence
Minister — we’ll attack. And trust me: we’ll crash everything on our way.
Because the main thing is to coordinate the attack correctly. Counterattack or
attack needs to be coordinated correctly. You know, not to get euphoric when
you take town after town and don’t see anything around you. The main thing is
to stay realistic, to take towns with minimum damage. We are at war with «Right
Sector»*.
— Do you mean it is «Right Sector» there?
— They are deployed in Opytnoye. I believe «Right
Sector» should not be part of Ukrainian Defence Ministry. «Right Sector» is a
powerful organization with good commanders and they will not obey stupid orders
from Defence Ministry, just trust me. Many of their commanders are very clever,
I’ve already given an example — Cherniy, from Podol. They are smart men. I’ve
talked with one RS guy in Ilovaysk, he remembers me and I remember him. But we
swore to each other not to torture each other if get captured, just shoot right
away.
— Is ceasefire order observed?
— We do observe it. But mortar fire is going on, they
are trying to regain every patch of land as they did before the order. Kiev is
telling everybody they had nothing in Maryinka but there was plenty of
artillery, they were preparing this attack. They just didn’t expect a
counterattack.
— What did they want?
— They wanted to get to Aleksandrovka after Maryinka
and then go straight to Donetsk. That was the plan, they did not expect counterattack
and massive answer. Well the main thing is that our people endured.
— Saakashvili is appointed governor of Odessa.
— It’s his business what he’s doing but they are the
best mates since maidan, he supported them, do you remember? So it understandable.
Givi shifts his attention to TV screen. Oil terminal
fire near Kiev is shown.
— This is Kiev burning. Kiev is burning. It’s shown
all the time. You know they are provoking Russia to war. Russia showed its
power during parade. I am sure Vladimir Vladimirovich has plenty of aces in his
pockets. How can you wage a war with the strongest country in the world?
* "Right Sector" is far-right neo nazi
organization prohibited in Russian Federation
Source Russian Spring 21-06-2015
