Front-line lessons for recruits: how veterans of Donbass train mobilized

At the positions of the international brigade "Pyatnashka" a master class is being held for the mobilized.

This is not a training ground, but a real battle.

In Donbass, a brigade led by DPR hero Akhra Avidzba, alias Abkhaz, has been fighting since 2014.

Pyatnashka veterans look young, but behind them are dozens of the most difficult battles.

It became an international brigade because people from several republics of the former USSR, also Czechs and Slovaks, serve in its ranks, and “Pyatnashka” because there were 15 people in the original squad.

Some of the mobilized for whom today's lesson is arranged arrived at the front just a couple of weeks ago.

The Pyatnashki fighter removes the protective cap from the RPG fuse, throws the grenade launcher over his shoulder with a habitual movement and approaches the edge of the dugout.

The shock wave beats on the eardrums a moment after the cry: "Shot!"

"Get it, *****!"

- Following a high-explosive thermobaric grenade in the direction of Ukrainian positions, an exclamation is flying, not provided for by the charters.

All this happens in just a second.

The fighter rolls back into the trench and runs with a grenade launcher pipe along the trench to a new place.

Dry clicks in the frosty air show that the Ukrainian machine gunner is immediately trying to find in short bursts the point where the "surprise" came from. 

At the next position, the grenade launcher pulls out the pin from the “carrot” (the slang name for the RPG projectile), rises above the parapet.

The camouflage net is inflated with a bubble - the next projectile is sent towards the enemy.

A machine gun immediately sounds nearby, someone from the brigade adds fuss to the Ukrainian “partners”.

• Fighter of the "Pyatnashka" brigade with a hand grenade launcher

• RT

"Contrary to logic and common sense"

“We water them from three trunks at the same time, constantly changing positions.

It is very important!

You can't shoot from one spot.

Khokhols run around the trenches, they don’t even shoot back, they just shout a good obscenity,” already in the dugout, the Pyatnashka fighters Topol, Nemets and Tikhy share their experience with the mobilized.

Poplar caricaturely grabs his head and bends at the waist, showing how the Ukrainian military, who lost their will, desperately rushed through the trenches under heavy fire.

“Keep in mind, they can either cut themselves off there, or overeat something and then go completely stupid.

By the manner of shooting, this immediately becomes clear.

If, say, for two or three hours they stupidly sit in milk, like an apple, without any sense and do not remove their fingers from the triggers, then it means that they have definitely abused something, ”says Nemets.

Many soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, especially from the nationalist battalions, are heavily addicted to drugs, Nemets is sure.

Against logic, common sense and a sense of self-preservation, such people can attack across the field in full growth or leave the trench to talk in front of everyone on a mobile phone.  

“Caution is lost when high.

I somehow look into the greenhouse, well, into the thermal imager: one climbed out, which means that he is sitting on top of the trench on the bags with the phone, he catches the connection.

Under the ground, it catches badly.

We hit him right away.

I even felt a little sorry for him.

They would have killed us without any pity, ”recalls Nemets.

The fighters of "Fifteen" are moving to a serious tone.

“An enemy sniper is often encrypted under a machine gun.

The machine gun distracts and frightens, makes you nervous, reveals where you are.

The sniper keeps track of all this and hits already pointwise.

Therefore, I don’t advise anyone to twitch, lean out during machine-gun fire once again, ”says a fighter with the call sign Quiet.

“One more piece of advice: pay attention to communication, to the broadcast.

Is there contact with everyone?

If people don’t get in touch, it’s immediately an alarm,” Topol continues to instruct.

“So they’ve already killed everyone there.

Just take it that way.

Is the alarm worth it?

“Yes, grenades, light and noise,” list the mobilized tripwires that they put up in dangerous directions on the way to shelter.

• Fighter with the callsign Topol

• RT

“The war does not forgive indifference, laxity, and even with a long stay in position, one cannot slide into apathy,” instructors from Pyatnashka tell their new comrades-in-arms.

Tykhy, using the example of the Ukrainian military standing opposite, explains how the desire to do everything anyhow leads to casualties.

“There, each new shift comes with the idea of ​​sitting out, then dumping it in the rear - and it all burns with a blue flame.

Nobody brings anyone up to date.

They stand in positions that we have already shot at, so every time we almost unmistakably fall into the BC warehouse.

Each new shift begins with them shouting: “How did it happen?”

Quiet raises a finger meaningfully.

“And the last.

It is in a peaceful life that you can say: I can’t take it anymore, I’m sick, I don’t have the strength.

Here, if you want to live, you have to run, shoot and dig in any condition.

Digging is the most important thing.

Wherever you come, dig into the ground so that you don't get killed.

The one who digs deeper will win,” Topol concludes the lesson.

The way to work and back

According to the rotation, the fighters of "Pyatnashka" are replaced, their comrades from the brigade enter the positions.

They hardly talk, do not say goodbye, only hug and shake hands.

"Loaf" - the workhorse of military roads - flies to the rear from the front line.

“To be honest, I wanted to warm up mobs for something.

Maybe even yell at them.

It's useful at the forefront.

Better angry but alive than relaxed and dead.

But there’s no reason, the men are doing everything right, ”Nemets explains his pedagogical method.

The car passes by another pile driver - a structure installed on the surface above the coal mine, where lifting installations are located.

The mine does not work, the pile driver is mutilated by shells, but it still resembles the Eiffel Tower.

“This is where I worked.

Plowed for 15 years.

Now I have to travel to work.

I changed my specialty, ”Tikhiy said phlegmatically.

There are many in the brigade who have retrained from a worker, cook or accountant to a professional soldier or officer and have remained so.

Personnel military with training - units.

They received their training in the brigade in practice.

Already at the entrance to Donetsk, the fighters turn on their phones.

Previously, especially in positions, it was categorically impossible to do this.

Through mobile, the enemy finds the location.

• On the positions of the international brigade "Pyatnashka"

• RT

Mean familiar messages are pouring into chats with relatives and friends that their husband, son or brother left the next battle alive and well in order to rest and then go back to the front line.

On the gadgets of wives, parents and children, the words of good news will again ring or silently pop up: “Honey, I'm almost home”, “Everything is OK”, “I'm here”.

Then everything will repeat itself, as it has been for years, in a circle: departure to the front line, battle, road back, “I'm back” on the smartphone screen.

Now such messages will be sent not only by Pyatnashka volunteers, but also by their mobilized students.