Zombie apocalypse in Russian

At that time, his and Borysovych's units were in approximately the same configuration as they are now, i.e. next to each other. On that day, there were plus or minus thirty soldiers at the position, and the Russians threw up to two hundred "Wagnerians" into the assault. The battle lasted throughout the daylight, that is, almost 10 hours.

— If you have seen the movie "World War. "Zet", in principle, you can roughly imagine how this battle took place - it was very similar, - Andrii assures. — It seems that the Russian leaders liked this tape and, following it, chose the "zet" as their symbol, and the generals introduced "zombie tactics" into the combat statutes of the Soviet Union. Now their soldiers fight like zombies. They just swarm us, completely unprofessionally, with some kind of insect-like insistence. I admit, it's a bit scary picture. If you don't see it with your own eyes, it's hard to believe it.

It would be difficult to repulse this zombie attack with only small arms, so the infantry was actively supported by "arta", time and time again hitting the provided coordinates and mowing down the enemy in whole groups. "Wagnerivtsi" also advanced with fire support.

- They were well packed with small arms - submachine guns, machine guns, and scattered grenades in all directions. Their long-range artillery worked - "arrivals" were good. Their mortar was still firing. "Several of our compatriots were injured, of course, but this is war," says Borysovych.

Our defenders also noticed that during the assault actions, the "Wagnerians" did not behave quite adequately: they went on the attack without even bending down. They did not hide and did not retreat despite the dense fire from Ukrainian positions and "friendly fire" from their "arty" and "mortar". Sometimes they lay down and rested in the funnels, and then went forward again.

- It was a very strange sight, it is obvious that even the animal instinct of self-preservation did not work there, these creatures were definitely poisoned by drugs and alcohol, - reflects Borysovych.

"I think there was no alcohol there, Borisovych," Andriy disagrees, apparently continuing an old discussion. - Because a person's coordination is lost due to alcohol, and they were normally coordinated, and they moved forward smoothly, although absolutely "without brakes." But yes, it looked like they didn't have even an iota of the same "instinct for self-preservation." 

Ten hours of non-stop shooting combat, sometimes at close range, is difficult for even experienced veterans to endure. But the Ukrainian soldiers-defenders stood and shot, killed and maimed the enemy, sincerely pouring fire on the battlefield. The weapons did not hold up: red-hot automatics and machine guns seemed to "bake" and refused to work.

- No matter what you say, the Wagnerites, like cannon fodder, effectively perform their main function - to exhaust the enemy. If you shoot all day, then, first of all, the automatic machine constantly overheats and needs to be changed. Therefore, each of our shooters had two or three spare automatic weapons, using them in turn. Secondly, unlike weapons, there was no one to replace us, so we fought beyond our strength, and after the battle, everyone simply "knocked out," Andrii recalls.

The vicissitudes of such an atypical way of fighting are still discussed by the fighters among themselves. They analyze their own and the enemy's actions, recall some details and important points. "And what emotions did you feel then, was there fear?", we ask the commanders.

"Now if you tell me to go into such a battle, it will be scary," Andriy says frankly. - When you start to fight, the fear goes away. I don't know, maybe the adrenaline is doing its job. During the battle, fear disappears, you even get a little high from the battle. 

"A kind of desperation is flooding in," adds Borysovych. - You have one desire - to kill as many enemies as possible.

Actually, during the battle, neither Borisovych nor his colleague, of course, did not count the number of enemies. They established these data "by eye" at night, after the battle (in a few days the headquarters confirmed this figure).

— As far as I understood from the interceptions, there were about 200 Wagnerites, and we destroyed or wounded 140 of them. And this is in ten hours, Andrii notes.

The veracity of these data was also confirmed by one of the "Wagnerians" captured in this battle. In fact, it was from him that our boys learned who the Russian command threw at their positions that day.

— The prisoner admitted that he was a "Wagnerian" and told interesting things about their order there. For example, he confirmed that the Soviet Union of the Russian Federation uses "blocking units", although he did not see them, but many of his "colleagues" witnessed their "work". He also told how "Wagnerian" commanders demonstratively cut off the fingers of their subordinates for guilt or "reset them to zero"... Some kind of Middle Ages. I think that in this way they motivate their "meat" to engage in such senseless attacks - if you don't go, they will just kill you, - Andriy explains and somehow, as if "off topic", he adds. - In our country, people come to the front with a normal, human motivation - to protect their country from this evil.

- I derived the following theoretical reasoning from that battle: if a person's life could be measured in units, then the value of the life of one Ukrainian would weigh 100 times more than that of a "Wagnerian", - adds Borysovych.

Here, Andriy shares another pertinent observation:

- In another direction, we fought with regular troops, and there was a slightly different story - unlike the "Wagnerians", their Russian generals use more sparingly. Not much more than the "Wagners", but the difference is noticeable - both in the density of fire support, and in the level of training, and even in clothing.

Retelling the story of the captured "Wagnerian", the boys say that he arrived on the territory of Ukraine a few days before the battle that was fatal for him (in view of the enemy's losses, it was rather a lucky one). When asked if he expected to get into real carnage, he said no, and it wasn't until the first battle, when he was the only survivor of the assault group, that he realized it. After that, "the understanding came to him that they were brought to Ukraine to die", that they are "meat", doomed to die here, and there is a chance to survive only in one case - if you get wounded, and even then under the condition that " they will not throw their own, but will take them out of the battlefield.

- Those who lead them have no pity for their people. The senseless obedience of the Russians themselves is also surprising: we kill them by the hundreds every day, and they continue to go to war without resistance, they say "they have no choice," says Borisovych. - It looks a little idiotic: nowadays, when there is television and the Internet, you can find out about everything in the world, draw the right conclusions and take measures to save life. Read, think, act in such a way as to avoid the threat of death, and do not enter a foreign country with a weapon, where they can be killed.

In the twilight of the dugout candle (a cool thing, the commanders praise, and the light gives and warms well), the conversation imperceptibly turns from specifically "military" topics to global problems, and from them to slightly pathetic, personal and philosophical, but completely sincere and appropriate in this dugout

- Everyone is responsible for himself and for how he lived the years given to him, - Andrii begins. — Yes, I, as a person, am a drop in the ocean, and Borisovych is a drop, and so are my brothers. But it is these drops that make up our Ukrainian ocean. We Ukrainians must value and support each other, just as we do here in the unit. Here, every soldier is personally "ours", we are responsible for everyone. Let's consider a hypothetical situation - I'm leaving here now, I'll say I'm sick, or something else, and then some kind of trouble will happen to one of my people. I won't be able to live the rest of my life knowing that I let myself down and didn't save someone!

Borisovych supports and further develops the opinion of his brother:

- Now someone is sitting at home, enjoying the warmth in front of the TV thanks to the fact that we are here right now. They have this opportunity only because we are here. I'm not saying that it's bad, but I urge those who are still weighing their strength, thinking about whether or not to take up arms, to put aside their fears. It's time to grow up and understand - our Ukraine is unique, no one will give us another, we must all together defend it here and now, and throw the invaders out of our land.

"There is no doubt that we will defeat Russia, it's just a matter of time," Borisovych continues. — How long we will have to fight largely depends, first of all, on the support of the international community, in particular, on the pace of supplying Ukraine with modern weapons. Secondly, from the endurance of Ukrainians, from our desire to win. Therefore, it is important that Ukrainian society does not relax, the war is not over yet. Not everyone who is capable of fighting will join the army, but I believe that every Ukrainian must prepare to take up arms. Those who are unable to fight must work for the approach of joint victory in another direction, or at least volunteer.

Borisovych himself is an artist-architect by profession, as an example he tells about his hesitations on the first day of the invasion of the Soviet Union of the Russian Federation: "On February 24, I debated for two hours whether or not to go to the Military Commissariat. These were the most difficult hours of my life. When he dared and left, all the arguments that made him doubt disappeared at once. And already at the Military Commissariat, I clearly realized that I had made the only correct decision, that I had to protect my father and mother, wife, daughter and Ukraine. If not me, then who?"