White-collar workers at war

“I would never have thought that Kyiv is near Luhansk,” Viktor Khomenko smiled, following three months spent fighting in anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area. He was mobilized in May and assigned to the 12th Territorial Defense Battalion “Kyiv.” Its soldiers were originally promised they would just protect the capital, but following a training course, they were sent to Luhansk region. “Well, needs must. Unless we meet the enemy there, every part of Ukraine will suffer,” Khomenko said.

His father and grandfathers were all career soldiers, while the man himself majored in economics and worked for a bank before the war. The soldier explained: “After my father resigned his commission, he could not afford even to feed his family properly. Our armed forces have broken down over the independence years, so I did not see any point to becoming a career soldier. Having served my time as a conscript, I realized that there was not any point to it, indeed. It is difficult to single out the most important shortcomings of our army, one must experience them. Stupid orders are one of them.”

Khomenko’s military specialty is signaller, he was to run a radio relay station mounted on a ZIL truck. However, his actual frontline duties involved everything except running communications systems: he manned checkpoints, transported wounded and so on. “To get the station working, I would need a clear space, at least 200 meters from the forest, preferably on a hill. It would be a position best suited for suicides, therefore I have never served as a signaller in this war,” Khomenko admitted. For communication, soldiers used radios bought by volunteers, and some equipment was issued by the ATO headquarters as well.

From the Kyiv economist’s experience, learning to fight is easy: here is your body armor, this is your assault gun, don that ‘bucket’ (helmet) on your head and start going! Khomenko’s section was issued helmets of     the 1950s vintage, which were of little use during shelling. Friends bought a top-quality Kevlar helmet for him, and the man shared it with his brothers-in-arms.

Khomenko stresses that the frontline life was not bereft of enjoyable experiences, brought, for example, by presence of a number of interesting personalities in the unit. He shared his impressions with us: “When I did my time as a conscript, we all were greenhorns, just young boys, while the ATO area units include people who have long asserted themselves and know what they want; many are family men, some with children. Civilian occupations vary from driver to company director. One’s civilian job does not matter a bit actually, how well does one do what is needed at the front is the primary concern.”

Viktor’s unit had a veritable menagerie of stray cats and dogs. Soldiers rescued animals, including some wounded ones, nursed them back to health and fed them. Such four-legged comrades have been named accordingly: Hilza (Cartridge Case), Dembel (Demobilization), Patron (Cartridge), or Fugas (Landmine). The frontline soldiers have feasts of their own, and the greatest of them is a quiet day without casualties.

The 12th Territorial Defense Battalion “Kyiv” was lucky in the casualties department. In general, Khomenko observed a lot of boys dying because of the top brass leaking information to the enemy. The soldier gives an example: “We met boys from the Aidar battalion and heard their stories. When they plan an operation without the higher commands knowing it, they conduct it and happily return with minimal losses. When they plan another operation and get the headquarters in the loop, they get ambushed before even reaching their destination.” By the way, Khomenko does not see any difference between volunteer battalions and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Trust in one’s comrades is all-important, though.

The mobilized man has been staying in a Kyiv hospital for the past few weeks, lying on his back all the time because of a broken vertebra. The base camp where Khomenko was at the time of his injury was shelled with cluster bombs by a Smerch rocket launcher. The blast threw the man into a five-meter deep hole, he fell awkwardly and injured his spine. The soldier considers himself lucky, as he had a successful surgery and is projected to return to health in a few months. “My comrades brought a laptop, and volunteers added a stand for it. I have a bed with remote control enabling me to roll into the cart, but the doctor has forbidden me to even roll over on my side for now. I have been lying on my back for almost two weeks already, and it is unbearable,” Khomenko described his living conditions in the hospital.

The soldier is confident that the war brings mental exhaustion far more than physical one. He told us: “The worst thing is my acquaintances asking me why I went to war. It is also strange to see boys who drink beer in a city liberated two weeks ago, poke a finger at you and laugh because you are standing watch in body armor with a gun amid 40 degree (Celsius) heat. However, my inner circle mostly supports me, and the Donbas has various people living there, some even volunteer for our side.”

According to Khomenko, soldiers will need a psychological rehabilitation after the war. The soldier knows several people who have gone insane because of excessive stress. “They are mad now, living just to kill separatists, whether at the front or in the hospital,” he said frankly. Over time, people get used to the war, stop responding to bursts of small-arms fire and start distinguishing what enemy assets are in action at the moment, as mines whistle, and Smerch rockets rustle. However, the peaceful life starts looking alien for them: when Khomenko was home on a leave from the front, he woke at night and asked his wife where his body armor and weapons were.

According to the soldier, it is difficult to understand what is happening in the Donbas if you just watch TV or listen to the radio. “Our media like to show only nice pictures, talk about something interesting, but real issues are silenced. No one tells the story of encircled boys who had nothing to eat for two weeks and drank water from puddles. This information is demoralizing, and, in principle, hiding it is reasonable. However, we lost the information war back in the beginning of the hostilities. It seems that Ukraine did not take part in it at all,” Khomenko shrugged. He points out that it is important to inform the Ukrainians that the Donbas campaign has long ceased to be an ATO and become an undeclared war.

Khomenko has many friends in Europe and informs them about the situation in Ukraine. The man said: “Unfortunately, half of our emigrants do not care about it at all. Some, however, care very much, come together abroad to help Ukraine. A female Ukrainian-American visited me recently and presented me with a magnet with photos of members of the Ukrainian diaspora standing at the White House with American and Ukrainian flags. Our people in America hold festivals as well to raise funds to help our military.”

The wounded soldier has no definite plans for the future so far, as learning to walk again is his most important task for the time being. Khomenko said ponderingly: “The Donbas experience has changed my priorities, I have more appreciation for my family now. My wife will give birth in December, and my main goal is to be able to walk to the maternity hospital and take my first-born home on my own.”