"We've arrived!"
says a heavily built middle-aged man in a camouflage jacket and a striped pom-pom hat.
He hugs a guy in military uniform with a machine gun on his shoulder until a crunch.
The nose, eyes, cheekbones of men are almost the same, which is not surprising, because the video, which has scattered around the network, captures the meeting of the son and father.
24-year-old Artyom (call sign Zina) was born and raised in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region.
His father Victor is engaged in freight transportation, his mother Svetlana works in the field of trade, his younger brother Matvey is a student, and Artyom himself chose the profession of a tractor driver.
“My oldest son is a hard worker.
He grew up in the village, and work on the ground is his element, - says Artyom's dad.
“He has his own tractor, and he dreams of buying more equipment when he gets home.”
Artyom received the summons in the first days of partial mobilization.
At that moment, his father was nearby.
“We are simple people, we don’t know how to hide.
Of course, they were dumbfounded, but what to do - we have to go to defend the Motherland, ”recalls Viktor.
© Photo from personal archive
Colleagues of the young man address him by the call sign Zina, a derivative of his last name.
According to Viktor, the platoon in which the son is located is “incredibly positive”, and the guys themselves are active: “They have no time to be bored and sad.”
In the absence of his son, the father did not sit still.
Viktor joined the humanitarian battalion, a volunteer community that was created back in March 2022 by Artyom’s employer Mikhail Afonkin.
The battalion is engaged in targeted assistance to the military.
At first, only food and warm clothes were brought, but now the fees have increased, so volunteers can also buy copters, medicines, and walkie-talkies.
The scale has grown: if earlier the battalion sorted, packed and transported an average of 1.5 tons of cargo, now it is 10 tons.
“People participate both in spirit and in deed, they help with transport.
We drive in a column of four or five cars, there are 20 people in a team,” explains Pelageya Sterligova, a member of the humanitarian battalion team.
“For a soldier, it is priceless to receive not just help, but a piece of the soul from home.”
Victor has become a link between the relatives of servicemen who want to give them personal packages from home, and volunteers.
“So little by little, in absentia, I learned the call signs of all my son’s comrades,” he says.
© Photo from personal archive
When it became known that the humanitarian battalion was going to get to Zaporozhye, where Artyom is, his dad asked to go along with the volunteers.
Seven days and 1,000 km - this was exactly how much Victor had to overcome to see his son for the first time in three months.
He participated in all processes: loading humanitarian aid, driving a car, repairing it.
“We are the first civilians who went there.
The road was very difficult, we drove the entire front line from and to, and were at the forefront.
We drove through the Swatov Front, Donetsk and the district.
I was there for the first time and did not realize, underestimated all the seriousness, ”Victor shares.
On December 15, the road to the proposed place where Artyom's platoon was located should have taken no more than four hours.
But a blown-up bridge appeared on the way of the column, and not far from it, a thermal power plant was still smoking from a recent arrival, the father of the fighter recalls.
When the volunteers turned around to look for a detour, they saw how KamAZ with Russian servicemen was approaching them - "all the native guys, neighbors, from the same area."
“They took a walkie-talkie, went to the frequencies of the unit, it sounded on the air: “Dad is calling Zina,” Mikhail Afonkin, head of the humanitarian battalion, describes that moment.
“Father has no strength left.
I listened to the rustling of the radio, listened to the words through the distance and saw my father's tears rolling down.
Tears for which you are not ashamed, you should not hide them, others will not condemn them.
© Photo from personal archive
The meeting itself was not as long as Viktor and Artyom would like.
But the father and son managed to hug, exchange the latest news and record a video greeting to Svetlana - her birthday is on December 15th.
According to Victor, his wife did not know that he would see his son - she thought that her husband just went to help volunteers.
So the joint video came as a surprise to her.
“Mom, on this significant day, we congratulate you on your birthday!
Happiness, health - and so that the son returns, ”Victor says with a smile in the video.
Artyom's father is going to come to the NWO zone again to see his child.
“I already understand that it will be worse than the first time, but I’m ready anyway.
And I am sure of my sons.
I am proud of them, I know that they will never frame, sell or betray.
I don’t want to praise myself, but you can’t get genes anywhere, ”he adds.