“When mines flew into our yard and one of them fell very close to our house, I put my two-month-old son on the bottom of the bath, and I lay down on the side to cover him with my body.
Ukrainian troops worked chaotically in all directions, they hit the villages without a break - even the windows were trembling, - recalls April 2014 Sergey Lomov, who then lived near Debaltseve.
“I was so furious that my family was in danger.”
After that, Sergei, who had never served in the army, went to the Kolosok checkpoint and joined the ranks of the DPR militia.
Now a 30-year-old man with the call sign Khyry is the deputy commander of a grenade launcher platoon of the People's Militia of the DPR.
Lost my mother
Sergey Lomov was born in Russia, in the Ivanovo region, but when he was four years old, his mother separated from his father and took his son to his grandmother in the Kharkov region.
“We lived in Izyum, where my younger brother was born.
After school, I trained as an assistant driver and got a job in Debaltsevo, and then in Toretsk,” he says.
In 2013, when the Euromaidan began, Sergei and his wife were expecting their first child.
“I thought they would figure it out.
And then it started,” he sighs.
- I didn’t tell my mother and brother that I went to the militia.
As a result, when she nevertheless found out, she refused me, they say, how can I "kill the Ukrainian army."
Then the grandchildren appeared, she began to somehow communicate with me, she called once every six months, not more often.
However, Lomov adds, perhaps the reason is that his mother did not forgive him for moving to the Donbass.
“I was the eldest son, I worked from the age of 14, at some moments I pulled my family on me.
And then I left, and she was offended.
Relations began to deteriorate even from my wedding, ”he suggests.
© Photo from personal archive
In March 2015, Lomov joined the 7th Brigade of the Chistyakovskaya Division: “Here, for participating in the coldest and most terrible battles, I was awarded the medal “For Debaltseve”.
After that, he ended up in Donetsk, where he received his call sign.
We are so arranged that you cannot invent it yourself.
I was given by my commander with the call sign Wizard, for which I am very grateful to him.
I think it couldn't have been better."
By 2018, Khitry served in two more battalions, received the rank of senior lieutenant and entered the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
At that time, he worked as a guard for judges and members of the judiciary in the Supreme Court of the DPR: “We also took part in the hostilities and, for example, at the request of the head of the republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, we went to Gorlovka as part of a rapid response group.”
During this work, Lomov organized the football club "Empire" in Donetsk.
According to him, he did not pursue fame and top players, but simply wanted to develop children and distract them from the war.
© Photo from personal archive
Brother to brother
On February 20, 2022, all of Khitry’s friends received a summons, he recalls: “I had a reservation, but I went to the draft board and also asked to serve with my comrades.”
Their brigade was moved to positions on March 24th.
They participated in the battles near Volnovakha and Mariupol.
“I love my battalion very much,” says Lomov.
- Here are my friends and very worthy people with whom I stood shoulder to shoulder: my battalion commander with the call sign Sokol, who always went first and did not allow an inexperienced fighter to get to the front, and the company commander, 50-year-old Lyuda.
She and her husband went to fight for their 25-year-old son, who died in 2015.”
At the same time, Sergei's brother, who remained in Ukraine with his mother, is now fighting on the side of the enemy.
“The last time I spoke to my brother was at the beginning of March.
He was in Kharkov, and my mother was in Izyum.
He said that he saw the bombing and then felt how we lived under shelling for eight years, ”says Lomov.
First, the brother and his girlfriend went to Kirovograd, where they hid in the basement, Khyry continues: “As our mutual friends said, the Ukrainian police came for him and took him to serve.
Now we are fighting on opposite sides.
I hope that my brother will be captured, alive, and I will be able to take care of him.
© Photo from personal archive
On June 12, 2022, Khyry came under mortar fire, but due to the fact that he was wearing a bulletproof vest, he escaped with a chest bruise.
Although Sergei was eager to continue the fight, the battalion commander forbade him to go into position and sent him for treatment.
The next day, shells flew into the building where the wounded were.
Lomov is convinced that they were tracked down because his comrades turned on their phones to send text messages to their relatives.
“I don’t write anything to my people and I don’t call.
Better to return alive than to write these messages, ”he adds.
The first blow during that shelling slightly stunned the fighter, but he resisted and ran to the headquarters.
Then came the second projectile.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine fired accurately at civilians.
That shell hit the building, a woman and a child were killed, and a fragment pierced my leg.
She was all broken, like rubber, ”recalls Lomov.
- I crawled to the guys, they saw that I was wounded, they gave me a tourniquet.
I remember telling the commander that I didn't want to die.
I bandaged myself, they loaded me into a car and took me to the nearest medical center.”
Found a father
Tricky changed several hospitals and underwent seven operations.
The eighth almost became fatal for him.
“During the operation, I developed an allergy to some drug and, as the doctors say, I died for three minutes.
But they are handsome, they pulled me out of the other world.
Thank you so much,” says Sergey.
© Photo from personal archive
Lomov met his 30th birthday in October in a hospital bed.
Mom called him via messenger, but instead of congratulations, Sergey again heard reproaches.
“I said again that I was killing the Ukrainian army, that I didn’t come for it when the NWO began.
I replied that doctors have been collecting my leg since June.
And she didn’t even ask how I was, how the grandchildren are, ”he says bitterly.
Having lost contact with his mother, Tricky unexpectedly reunited with his father, whom he had not seen for almost a quarter of a century: “When I got to the hospital, I wrote to my sister - we have one dad, but different mothers.
She gave him his phone number and we made a video call.
Unfortunately, it’s not yet possible to see each other in person: after the treatment, I will immediately have to go to the unit, and now he cannot come to me. ”
According to the man, although he would like to improve relations with his father, there is no special closeness with him yet, “after all, I haven’t seen him all my life.”
For all relatives - both "old" and "new" - he is very worried.
“The eldest son heard the shelling from infancy, I distracted him as best I could.
He is a patriot, proud of me, knows that I am wounded.
While I was in the hospital, I received the medal "For the Liberation of Mariupol" and the Order of the Military Military District instead of me.
The youngest is two years old, he’s just a karateka and a boxer, ”says Sergey, smiling.
Awards and commemorative signs of Sergey Lomov
© Photo from personal archive
According to Sly, the best thing he can do while he heals the wound is to help his comrades who are now on the front lines.
He contacted Boris Korchevnikov, one of the trustees of the Svoyi charity project, and with his battalion commander, found out what the soldiers needed, and coordinated the transfer of the necessary.
Sergei does not forget the guys from the football club: two of them are also on the front line, and one is serving in Russia.
Lomov himself, according to him, is unlikely to return to the combat zone because of his injury: “The more actively I knock on closed doors and ask for my boys who are behind the ribbon.”