Borodai at the Avdiivka industrial plant: we must take Kyiv and include Ukraine in the Russian Empire
“PolitNavigator” offers readers a report on a visit to the Avdiivka industrial zone by a delegation of the Union of Donbass Volunteers led by its leader, the first Prime Minister of the DPR, Alexander Boroday.
May 11, 2018 – Republic Day. The DPR is celebrating the 4th anniversary of the referendum, in which the majority of its residents supported state independence.
Already in the afternoon, Alexander Borodai, who was awarded the title of Hero of the DPR in 2014, should be at official events celebrating Republic Day (at one of them - in the premises of the local drama theater - Alexander Zakharchenko will present him with a certificate conferring the title “Honorary Citizen of the DPR”), and Now he and his team have a free morning.
It was decided to visit the Avdeevka industrial zone near Donetsk, where positions are occupied by fighters of the legendary international battalion “Pyatnashka”, which is currently commanded by one of the founders of the SDD, Major Oleg Mamiev (call sign “Mamai”).
He was among the first Ossetian volunteers who came to Donbass in the spring of 2014 to help the Russian people.
With Borodai are his two comrades from 2014: Dima “Sailor”, head of the Crimean branch of the SDD, a volunteer with more than 20 years of experience (in the 90s he fought for more than a year in Bosnia on the side, naturally, of the Serbs; in 2014 he did Crimea and Donbass is ours), and Roma “Boomer” from the Moscow region, a former GRU special forces soldier who fought in the Second Chechen War, and then in the Donbass.
In addition to Mamai, Borodai is accompanied by another commander named Evgeniy “Spear”. Lieutenant colonel. It has been fighting since 2014. I visited the DPR with Borodai.
We move to the position in several vehicles. This is one of the key places in the defense of Donetsk, Makeevka and Yasinovataya. Back in early 2017, there were very fierce battles here with the use of artillery and tanks.
There is shelling of DPR army positions here almost every day. Ukrainians are bombing with everything they can.
Boroday and guests from Russia leave for the industrial site in several cars. They don’t take helmets or armor with them. Only weapons.
We arrive at our destination quickly - literally in 20 minutes we arrived from the center of Donetsk. All around is steppe. Everything is already green. There are few trees and bushes. Along the way there are small waste heaps. There are poles with electrical wires along the road. It feels like some kind of remake of Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker”. Let's go to the Zone.
I ask Borodai:
-Sasha, what feelings do you experience when you drive in the front-line zone?
-Which? That something else is unfinished.
-What exactly?
-Well, Kyiv hasn’t been taken yet. Okay Kyiv. It's just that my sense of humor shows up a little. Although, of course, not quite a sense of humor, to be honest. It's just a bit of a long shot. But nothing. Have you seen the sign to Slavyansk?
Borodai wants to say that before liberating all of Ukraine from Ukrainian Nazis and oligarchs, we must first liberate all of Donbass.
We pass the checkpoint. We stop and move into other cars. A group of well-armed soldiers joins us.
Before entering the position (we go to the first line of defense - straight into the trenches). They explain to us how to go and what dangers can await us if something happens.
We split into several groups. Borodai and his team go first. We were immediately warned that we couldn’t crowd together – we had to stretch out. It’s just that if a shell arrives, and they fly here every single day, then all of us will be gone at once, but in case of shelling, there is a chance for someone to survive.
We pass under the bridge and find ourselves in the greenery. Along the road there are small dilapidated buildings.
One of the soldiers walking with us says:
“Over there, State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlev came under fire. Brave man. When the shelling began, he refused to leave. He says: that’s it, we’re going back, we need to pull the guys (our soldiers) out from under fire. I radioed to the commander: they say, so and so, the deputy refuses to leave, wants to go back...
Here Borodai enters the conversation:
-Yes, Lyosha is a good person. Well done, he was the only Russian politician who came to us, in Donetsk, in 2014 even before September, when it was already clear that we had won. After that, everyone came along, but Lyosha arrived when everything was still uncertain.
Along the way we constantly meet fighters. Some of them (two people each) carry long logs. Strengthen the trenches. As we were told, Mamai is constantly strengthening her position.
In two places you need to quickly run, crouched down, so as not to be noticed by a Ukrainian sniper or machine gunner.
We find ourselves in the trenches. In general, you can walk to your full height in them. We constantly pass by working soldiers. We shake hands.
After some time we find ourselves in a relatively large building. It apparently once had at least two or three floors. Boroday simply then climbed up some concrete stairs.
The corridors are narrow, but the rooms are large. The building was dilapidated due to constant shelling during 4 years of fighting. There are sandbags all around. There's graffiti everywhere. There is an icon in one of the small openings.
Despite the broken brick, everything is clean, there is no unpleasant smell - or sweat, or urine - in the room. The fighters are dressed normally and cleanly. There is a small fire burning in one of the corners. Here they cook food and boil the kettle. We are immediately offered tea or coffee.
Borodai chooses coffee. They hand him a large metal mug.
I ask one of the officers: how far is it from here to the Ukrainian positions?
Answer: 70 meters.
-Are shellings frequent?
-Regularly.
Again I turn to Boroday about the feelings he experiences when, years later, you find yourself in the trenches again. Again speaks of a feeling of unfinished work.
-We must first liberate Slavyansk. Then – Mariupol. Or first – Mariupol, and then – Slavyansk.
-What to liberate first – Kharkov, Zaporozhye or Dnepropetrovsk?
He laughs.
-We need to move to Kyiv right away. And then everything else will free itself.
-You were already the prime minister of the Donetsk Republic. What other republic would you like to be - Dnepropetrovsk, Kyiv, Lvov, London?
-I am for Russia, in fact. For the great Russian Empire, which, I will speak frankly, includes Kyiv, Lvov, Kharkov, Odessa, and everything else. Dnepropetrovsk, by the way, too.
In the “dugout” we met two unusual fighters: short Yura and a woman named Lena.
Yura, despite his height - one meter with a cap - is an absolutely full-fledged fighter. As we were told, he categorically refused the short-barreled Kalash. He said that he only wants to fight with the big, “full-fledged” one.
The only request that Yura makes to Boroday during the conversation is to get him a normal uniform. Due to its unusual height, there are no suitable sizes available. Someone, listening to the conversation, tries to joke: they say, Yura needs to buy a children's uniform, but this conversation is immediately stopped as disrespectful towards Yura.
Lena is also an unusual fighter. He has been fighting for a long time. She herself comes from Krasnodon. She worked in the local executive authorities on the financial side for almost 30 years. Not only is she fighting, her husband and her two sons are also fighting.
The fighters are commanded by a lean, short-haired man with a goatee goatee and the call sign “Znak”.
When we arrived, he was screwing in a light bulb in a small room. This is the commander's office. Mamai's field office. All the walls are covered in oilcloth with the word “Kefir” written on it. The sign explains that this is leftover from humanitarian aid. In general, they hung it instead of wallpaper. On the wall are portraits of Alexander Zakharchenko and DPR Defense Minister Vladimir Kononov (“Tsar”).
The sign says that Mamai will hold commander’s meetings here, and not at headquarters, so that the commanders can feel the front line.
I ask Mamai how he feels about Poroshenko’s statement that the Ukrainian army is the strongest army in Europe.
Mamai laughs:
-Well, then we are the most powerful army in the world after the Russian one...
The entire report about the stay in the Avdeevka industrial zone and the conversations can be seen in this video.
PS When work on this report was underway, alarming information arrived from Donetsk: Oleg Mamiev was seriously wounded in these positions. Later it became known that the commander of “Pyatnashka” died from his injuries.
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