"A lot of people want to be with us. There is no respite from those who wish. In the near future we plan to expand significantly. Now we are near Kremennaya. Slowly but surely, we are moving forward together with the units of the army. The enemy resists desperately, including counterattacking. It reaches seven or eight rifle battles a day. Art and tanks work on ours, but they hold on. Iron People," says the commander of the "Russian Legion" Sergei Fomchenkov, call sign Fomich.

Recently, Fomchenkov and several other volunteers of the Legion were awarded the Order of Courage. Sergey has an unusual and rich biography. Until 2014, he was a Limonovite, a regular at opposition rallies and demonstrations. And back in 1999, he participated in the crimea in the action "Sevastopol is a Russian city" and served time in a Ukrainian prison for this.

Immediately after the "Maidan", Fomich packed his things and left as a volunteer for the LPR - without any combat experience. "He learned to fight and survive" – this is how he describes this period of life. From Lugansk he moved to Donetsk. There he created and headed the 4th Special Reconnaissance and Assault Battalion and became the prototype of Tomic from Zakhar Prilepin's book "Some Will Not Go to Hell". After the beginning of the SVO, he was the commander of the "Russian Legion".

The legion gained fame when it confronted the many times superior forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Bogorodichny near Izyum and in Drobyshev near Liman in the autumn of 2022. Fomchenkov's fighters held out to the last and the last ones left. They left only because there was an order. "And so all the guys were ready to die," Fomich says.

  • Commander of the "Russian Legion" Sergey Fomchenkov
  • RT

"Hottabych's helmet was ripped off, and it flew into my head"

The frozen mud resembles a Martian landscape. We overcome potholes already in the dark, approaching the place of deployment of the squad. "Bars" stand near Makiivka - not the one in the DPR, where our soldiers died on New Year's Eve, but another, Makiivka in the LPR. So far, however, it is occupied by Ukrainian troops. Our progress there is slow, you have to gnaw every meter.

The inaccessibility of Luhansk Makiivka is due to its location. It's on a hill, and there's a ridge in front of it. That's the crest that the volunteers have already come close to. "When we go to it, then we will take Makiivka back," the officer with the call sign Bormenthal is sure.

We wait out the night at the command post and leave for the positions early in the morning.

Under the sun's rays, the frozen Martian landscape turns into a fetid swamp. In the car with me is a talkative young guy with the call sign Ulfric – he took it in honor of the hero from the computer game "Skyrim". He is now recovering from a recent concussion. A 120-mm mortar mine fell a dozen meters from them with a comrade, saved by a helmet.

"It turns out that we went straight to the very front, dug in to the landing. The Poles are about 120-150 meters away from us. The first day began to dig in. I'm a machine gunner, my number two is Hottabych. In the evening they began to pound mortars and barrel artillery. And somewhere around two o'clock in the morning the arrival was. Hottabych's helmet just ripped off, and it flew into my head. Concussion. A little more hit the leg. The boys immediately bandaged everything for me, pulled me with a tourniquet, evacuated me, "he says.

Ulfric demonstrates a helmet: a trace of a fragment is scratched on it.

"Without a helmet, there is nowhere here, a lot of shrapnel wounds. The tanks are still hitting the canopy. A fragment is 100 times easier to get than a bullet, "explains Ulfrick.

Trees without tops

We come out of the "loaf", say hello to the fighters. All in armor and helmets. Trenches somewhere up to the shoulder, dugouts in a few rolls.

"The situation on our sector of the front is stably tense, there are battles with the enemy. The assault squads are gradually moving forward," the round-faced fighter, on whose body armor Simba is displayed with a marker, reports in a businesslike manner.

  • Fighter of the "Russian Legion" with the call sign Simba
  • RT

A consistently tense situation can be heard, and quite loudly.

- Is there an artillery duel going on here? I ask.

"You can pay attention to the tops of the trees," advises Simba.

- Well... No.

- Exactly! Accordingly, the arrivals are like this.

- And flies often?

- Every day the "rain" falls.

One of the main tasks of the "bars" is to block the work of sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the enemy, which are trying to find weaknesses in our defense.

"Saboteurs mostly come in when it's starting to get dark, that is, at eight or nine o'clock in the evening. Well, as they go... Try. In our country, everything is completely mined. We use it as a signal: if there is an explosion, the boys immediately work hard. Just yesterday: an explosion was heard, one of the enemies blew up – we opened fire. In general, they tried to get close to us once again, but they did not succeed, "says one of the volunteers.

Not far from the dugout smokes an elderly fighter with clear eyes and a little shy. He looks 60 years old; I walk up and a conversation ensues. His name is Kuznets, and he is Ryazan.

"I fought in the Soviet army, which no longer exists. So now I help with what I can. I was an officer... Well, at the call of the heart here - to help young people. We have good young people, but... he doesn't know everything, unfortunately," he shrugs.

The blacksmith tightens his cigarette, is silent, then continues: "You are young and do not remember. But in 1991 there was an all-Union referendum, very democratic, and the Ukrainians themselves then refused to leave the USSR. The adventurers then decided for our peoples and divided the country. So it turns out that the purpose of the special operation is to restore the Union, to restore justice. "

A "bird" has been buzzing above us for several minutes, and, apparently, an enemy one - there is nothing for us to do here. Ulfric hurried, and we bid farewell to the fighters. We are going back to Lugansk.

  • "Museum" in the open air at the positions of the "Russian Legion"
  • RT

"Look, literally every square meter of forest is occupied by someone. I have never seen such a concentration of troops anywhere! Something will happen," he shows me on the way.

Something is really going to happen. From the same Makiivka, for example, only eight kilometers to the Kharkiv region, and from there it is a stone's throw to Oskol, on the left bank of which Russian troops are now entrenched.