Lyubysh-Kirdey Ivan and Tykhyy Heorhiy.
So, what, we were filming with the battalion “Myrotvorets” in Dzerzhyns’k, at the base
A rumor started spreading in the battalion that they’re headed for Ilovaisk. And we were going with them.
We were escorting them, and we didn’t know where we were going.
We thought we’d go in for half a day and finish filming.
And it turned out that we actually entered a trap that was closing.
Because right behind us, on the same day, it was Independence Day, August 24th
Right after us, the window closed.
The feeling that you were entering a real war was absent. Absolutely.
At 2am – in the school – I was awoken by the explosion of a projectile, which, obviously, hit the schoolyard, and sand started falling onto our heads. The entire school shook, just kept shaking.
It was at that moment that I felt that this is really is a rotten war, with real potential consequences.
I remember, very well, the advice Filin [Commander of Battalion Donbas – Ed.] gave:
“Remember, you should always feel fear. Always. This fear will disappear at some point, and that will be the most dangerous time.”
The uneaten canned meat, crumbs of bread, a sleeping mat, someone sleeping nearby, the shots of a sniper, no one reacting—it was surreal.
I’ll tell you honestly; in the cellar of the school, there were a group of soldiers were spreading panic.
“That’s it, we’re dead! We’ll be executed here. We’ll never get out,” and so forth.
Reality and the cinema sometimes cannot be differentiated. It’s incredible.
Scorching August heat, flies buzzing because of the understandable filth, and a tense silence hanging over the place.
One of the soldiers, I don’t recall his name, picked up a cardboard box with something heavy, in the other corner. He kept moving that box, and moving it, and moving it.
It was a worn box and the underside suddenly came apart and out dropped a porcelain plate. And shattered.
In the new silence…ba-bang! Everyone jumps, an abrupt sound, we all thought it was shooting. Then we see it’s just a plate.
And I remember looking at the scene and jokingly saying: “Oh, what luck!” and everyone goes: “hahahaha.”
30 seconds pass and a particularly fierce attack starts. We didn’t have time to get into the closet.
We were carrying a bag through the school in some… And we’re thinking, what’s in this bag. “These are Mega’s things. He’s gone. He died.” (Mega, volunteer of Battalion Donbas – ed.)
And it was literally, just before that, that we had been interviewing him near the KRAZ [Kremenchuk Auto Factory – Ed.]. He was standing, bragging like: “What encirclement? I’m not scared of anything.”
We were out of batteries, really, we needed to get out of Ilovaisk. We were waiting for a column of retreating wounded. We thought we’d tag along as non-combatants.
I remember this scene: tanks stopped right in front of us and starts jerking and starting abruptly.
This opened to an endless field. Our windows were closed in the vehicle, the engine was screaming because we were moving so fast, there was no sound from the outside.
But I notice the scene and turn my head to the right, towards the window. It was an apocalyptic scene: without sound, you couldn’t hear the explosions, but the field was being totally blown apart.
As far as you can see towards the horizon, everywhere clods of earth flying skyward from the explosions.
I remember a very surreal Mise-en-scène, when we were using the GPS navigator. Terrible fire from every angle, we squeeze in under some machinery.
Total shit all round, and above it all you hear: “In 300 meters, turn right. Straight ahead…”
When ahead of us a tank or armored personnel carrier, gets hit by a projectile, right in the gun turret. And the turret starts turning in our direction.
And such smoke started pouring out of it, we just drove into the black smoke.
I thought that something would hit the vehicle, and it will be the end – we’ll meet our Maker.