“We won’t let you offend”: a Kaluga resident prepares free meals for the military at the Russian border

“Today I again dreamed of barbecue, shurpa: here I didn’t salt enough, I didn’t pepper it there ...” - 48-year-old businessman Sergey Skripkin watches how meat broth boils in a huge cauldron on a fire.

Over the past five months, he personally cooked about 6 tons of barbecue for the Russian military.

Sergey organized a volunteer project "Restaurant "For Ours" ZVO", which delivers humanitarian aid and homemade food to soldiers.

Now the project's Telegram channel has more than 6,000 subscribers.

"I know this pain"

The idea for the project arose in April, when Sergei and his wife Elena watched a news release about a special operation.

“We talked about how things are going at the front, showed our (military. -

).

I told my wife that I could no longer sit and watch like that, I had to do something.

She just nodded and replied: “Of course, go,” Sergey recalls. 

The next day, the man used personal money - 500 thousand rubles - bought food and cigarettes for the soldiers in the store and went to the Belgorod region, to the border with Ukraine.

At first, he distributed chocolate, tea and hygiene products to the fighters, and then, together with his friends, he decided to fry kebabs and feed the soldiers who were returning to Russia after the battles.

“For the first time, we set up tables by the road, I look - ours are coming from the border.

I went out to the road and let them wave skewers.

We stopped, got out, I said: "Guys, come to the barbecue."

They ask how much it costs.

I say: "Free, come in!"

Sergei smiles.

“They ate a little, they stand, they hesitate: they are waiting, I will demand money from them or not.”

After that, the man handed over the management of the business in Kaluga to his eldest daughter, and began to give assistance to the military all his time.

His wife also joined him.

“What we cook (kebabs, shurpa, pilaf, salads) reminds them of the rest they had in civilian life.

They eat and remember how they went with their family to the country, with friends for fishing.

Well, hot food is good for them, because they are constantly on dry rations, and during an offensive or defense they don’t have time to eat at all: once a day they quickly intercept something, and that’s it.

Our soldiers eat a little: they take three pieces and that’s enough for them, during the service the stomach becomes small, ”says Sergey.

The soldiers, in gratitude for the food and attitude, call Sergei Batya.

He admits that he is pleased with such treatment.

“All the guys who are fighting for us there are someone’s children.

Their mothers and fathers are waiting for them.

I know the pain a parent goes through when they lose their child.

When my son was 14, he was diagnosed with cancer.

We started treatment.

At the age of 15, he left, left in my arms, - says the man.

All these soldiers are like children to me.

You just need to see the eyes of the officer whom we treat to food, and he says: “I am 52 years old, I did not think that at this age I could cry.

Thank you!"

Plov from Ruslan

Gradually, other Russians also learned about Sergey's project, who also wanted to support the soldiers, but did not know how to do it.

Now volunteers from Tula, Stavropol, Moscow, Voronezh, Belgorod, Krasnodar regularly come to the private land plot, which was rented by volunteers to organize a permanent kitchen here.

There are those who, like Sergei, left their jobs and their usual lives and now volunteer all the time.

Ruslan Adzhiakhmetov came here from Stavropol for a couple of weeks, and then returned to the permanent position again - just four days later.

• Volunteer Ruslan Adzhiakhmetov from Stavropol prepares plov and shurpa for 400 Russian fighters

“I lost my job and I got days off.

I thought - I’ll go, at least I’ll support our people a little.

And then I got sucked in,” he smiles.

- I returned home and began to talk with my wife that I wanted to go to the border again.

She only said: “Don’t even think about anything, go there!”

The team just didn’t have enough male hands to cook shurpa and pilaf: physical strength is needed to stir these dishes in huge 110-liter cauldrons.

Every man in a restaurant prepares dishes in his own way.

For example, Sergei likes to fry meat before cooking shurpa, and Ruslan believes that it is better to cook it right away, without pre-treatment.

And there are a lot of such subtleties, Ruslan argues.

He immediately made sure that shurpa and pilaf were halal: they never put pork in the cauldrons where these dishes are prepared.

Now, even Muslims can eat dishes in the restaurant "For Ours".

Ruslan's signature dish is plov.

It can be very different: there is pilaf for wedding, morning, memorial, on the occasion of the birth of a child, with raisins and chickpeas, says the volunteer.

In one cauldron, he cooks 100 kg of pilaf - enough to feed about 400 people.

Ruslan has never worked as a cook, he is a zoo engineer by training, but he does an excellent job in the kitchen: his wife often asks him to cook “something tasty” on the weekend.

“I cook for the soul.

We were two brothers in the family, I was the eldest.

Mom went to work and gave me instructions on what and how to cook.

That's how I learned.

Then my friends and I often went to the mountains in our native Karachay-Cherkessia.

Of course, I didn’t cook in such huge quantities before, I had to learn a little, because there are also subtleties here, ”Ruslan says, while laying out the letter Z from pepper and cumin on a patriotic pilaf.

"Brothers must return"

Now the restaurant not only feeds the soldiers who return to Russia after the battles, but also gives food to the military on the front line

and also collects the necessary things for them, gifts and letters from the Russians.

It was possible to increase the amount of assistance thanks to the Telegram channel, where volunteers talk about their activities and announce fees for the necessary things: this is how residents of the whole country can support the soldiers.

A journalist from Krasnodar, Ksenia Kovtunova-Sulimenko, suggested creating a group in social networks to Sergey.

The girl met Sergey Skripkin by phone when she decided to make a publication about his project.

• Ksenia Kovtunova-Sulimenko from Krasnodar quit her job and became a volunteer.

“We talked via video link, Sergey showed me how they meet the soldiers, how they are fed.

And I realized: he does what each or many of us would like to do, but lack the courage or opportunity, some kind of push, ”recalls Ksyusha.

The girl invited her husband to volunteer, and he supported her.

Ksyusha quit her job and moved with her husband to the Belgorod region. 

“I am in the right place at the right time right now.

If we don’t support our people here now, then there may not be work in the near future, our country may not exist,” says Ksyusha.

She, like Sergei, knows what it is to lose a loved one.

In 2011, while serving under a contract in Chechnya, her second cousin died.

He was 21 years old. 

“I know that I will never be able to forget this grief.

I want each of our boys - I always call them so affectionately - to return home, to his family, to a place where he is loved and expected.

They are brothers for me who should return, ”the girl says.

Now the restaurant's Telegram channel has more than 6,000 subscribers.

According to Ksyusha, not only people from Russia donate, but also from the USA, Japan, Spain, Italy and Ukraine.

“This helps us a lot to quickly raise funds for the things necessary for the soldiers.

We give them things that wear out or run out quickly, but can keep them healthy.

We buy raincoats, additional camouflage suits, underwear, socks, blankets, hygiene products, batteries.

As a rule, all this is purchased by our girl volunteers at the wholesale markets in Moscow.

Sergey agrees on the best price.

For example, in the summer we took sneakers for children for 240 rubles per pair.

All this is brought to us by "gazelles".

By the way, since May, we have never paid for delivery - the owners of cars provide them to us for free.

These are the Russians we have,” says Ksenia.

The girl sorts through the boxes where the gifts are: from watches and shoes to notes with good wishes.

“When we bring such things to the soldiers, they ask ten times how much it costs.

We are already laughing at this question, explaining that it is transmitted by people from all over the country.

And we do not just give parcels, but also communicate with them, hug them.

It is very important!

So the guys feel that we love them.

Sometimes you meet a soldier once or twice, and he already becomes your family.

You worry about him, you ask how he is, ”says Ksyusha.

• Volunteer of the restaurant "For Ours" ZVO together with a Russian fighter

• © Personal archive

Volunteers say the most important thing for soldiers when they return to the rear is to find out that they are supported at home.

It is important for them to know whether we are for them or not.

And when they feel that we support them, they understand for whom they are fighting.”

Sometimes soldiers send letters to volunteers thanking them and other Russians for their support.

“We have such a friendly and united people, I am so proud of you.

And there is such an incentive to move forward, because you are behind us.

And we won't let anyone hurt you.

We love you very much.

Not even for things and food, but for support, for smiles, for diligence.

Thank you very much.

Ready to bow at your feet, kiss your hands,” Ksyusha reads a letter from an officer of the Russian army.