Upheaval in Ukraine: An Unintentional Soldier’s Story
This is Part One of a series of articles featuring a Ukrainian Territorial Guard’s experience in the Russian-Ukrainian War.
“The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country” ~ George S. Patton, Jr.
Oleg
The first time I heard Oleg’s name was in a conversation with my husband about RC cars in 2021. My husband, David, a band director and former motorcycle enthusiast, decided it was time to take up a new (and safer) pastime: RC cars.
While our family teased him about his “toy cars,” David found himself sharing his knowledge with others and accepting a position as co-moderator of a Facebook RC car page. That’s how he met Oleg, an avid RC car fan. That’s how we established a personal connection with the Russian-Ukrainian War.
A friendship between Oleg and David soon developed, and, later, when the Russian invasion occurred, Oleg opened up about the hardships of war, making a conflict a half-world away feel as immediate as if it were happening in our own neighborhood.
Oleg takes a quick selfie with his Kalashnikov during training exercises, 2022.
A Day in the Life
A 34-year old native of Kyiv, Oleg trained for a career in economics, spent some time on assignment in Bangkok, and up until last February, worked for a major trading company in Ukraine. Now, he’s rented out both of his apartments and works raising rabbits, chickens, goats, and quails, and making cheese, in addition to serving with the Territorial Guard.
“I never was a soldier and never thought about a military career, but when things happened, from the very first day, I started to serve at a roadblock, then I got a contract as a military volunteer.” An “accidental” soldier, Oleg had no idea he would one day be a Territorial Guard, protecting 17 villages from invading Russian forces.
His days are different from anything he could have imagined before the war.
If it’s quiet, Oleg starts his day working on the family farm, feeding and watering the livestock. Then the reality of war sets in and he must meet with the Territorial Guard ( his “guys”) to plan the day and assign duties.
“We patrol with police in police vehicles or in our own cars or together with Ukrainian Army in their military vehicles. We don’t have any military vehicles or tanks of our own, but Ukrainian Army forces work together, which means helping them to do the job,” Oleg said.
When the night comes, Oleg usually goes to patrol “the most possible dangerous direction, using a drone with thermal vision. We have a big territory, so usually I come home when it’s dawn.”
The War Machine
Oleg likens Ukraine’s current situation to the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1970s and 1980s. He describes the aggressors as the “Russian War Machine” and says that they keep annexing land, taking what they want. They keep rolling, sending their missiles and drones to attack Ukraine, “kamikaze-like.”
Too frequently, the “Orcs” (Oleg’s term for the Russians, a nod to J.R.R. Tolkien’s creatures of the same name), who “look like people, walk like people, but aren’t people,” attack Kyiv and surrounding areas. Oleg unfailingly says of the attacks that they are “without any successful results, like always.”
Oleg concedes, though, that “without Western support, it’s almost impossible to resist Russian aggression.” His desire is for “people around the world to know and understand what’s happening here.”
Oleg pauses for a photo during night patrol.
“Where there is courage, there is happiness.” - Ukrainian proverb
Based on the reports he’s heard about Russian activity in Belarus, Oleg is convinced that “something is coming”
“But all of us will never surrender, no matter what dirty things they gonna do! Many people already lose everything and even more, but no one is broken. The spirit is strong!”
His optimism is infectious, his bravery, admirable.
Oleg and I talk a lot about getting his story out. After all, his story is Ukraine’s story. It’s a story of humanity and our struggle for freedom from oppression. It’s a story of hope.
