My name is Pivtoratskyy Oleksandr Mykolayovych. Codename Pekar
I worked at a factory as a 3rd grade confectioner.
I served in the army, in the Special Forces. I have experience.
It they annexed the Crimea then, they’ll come here, to do the same in Dnipro. And they’ll drive around in their vehicles, brandishing their weapons, wreaking havoc.
I thought it would be better to stop them there. I thought they needed to be shown, and to help the leadership of our country. And to show them that we are able, that we can fight too.
As soon as they annexed Crimea, I went the next day to submit my documents. I quit the same, and joined the ranks of Dnipro-1.
Wife: I’m from Dnipro, I came to Mariupol in an embroidered shirt. On the way back I also went by bus, and a lorry carrying our dead was entering at the city.
You can say that from that moment, occasionally I would feel a deep chill from inside.
At 8:05am he called me. Just as the morning news was ending. In the news they had reported that aviation had arrived.
Tons of reinforcements. I said: “What’s going on?” He replied: “We’re going to retreat, yes, we’re retreating. If not we’ll try to break through by sneaking through the fields.”
Oleksandr: “We were still driving, imagine, and I see these idiots are standing. I had to ask who they were.
And they just kept standing, smiling, wagging their fingers, and waving. It was hard to believe they were pointing out the “green corridor.”
Because, how else could this be possible, I thought. How inhuman can people actually be? You know you will soon execute these people, and yet you smile at them, wave at them, greet them.
In about 20 meters they were waiting in their positions in the vegetation, until the tail of our column entirely entered the field, then we heard them cock their weapons before opening fire on us from the edge of the corridor.
I remember hanging on a pontoon bridge and sunflowers breaking between my legs. It felt like they were pounding me, and I snapped out of my daze from the pain of breaking the sunflowers with my legs.
I looked back, the boys were running across the field and being torn into shreds.
Wife: “When they finally put him on a bed, he started coming round. He was talking so clearly that we thought he had come to his senses.”
I close my eyes and see him lying there. He said: “God, save me, I want to live. I want there to be peace.”
I stand there and a chill passes through me.