The Belarusian volunteer, who goes by the call sign Mark, made the difficult choice to travel to Ukraine in early 2022 and join a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) made up of other Belarusian volunteers.of Kastus Kalinovsky regimentunder the command of the Main Intelligence Service (HUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Kyiv Post Office We spoke to Mark in an exclusive interview to find out more about his experiences with this unique regiment, and why he ended up risking everything to protect a country that wasn’t his own. .
Photos from personal archives
Mark, 43, said he had never been politically active until an incident in 2020 when his native Belarus was engulfed in mass protests after the self-styled leader became president. Alexander Lukashenko.
The soldier explained: “With bandits, you can only speak in the language of force, but Lukashenko and his government are just bandits. They can only be motivated to make changes from fear.”
“I was a supporter of armed protests. And when the full-scale war in Ukraine began, I said, this is our chance, firstly to support Ukraine, secondly. “I realized that there was a real opportunity to contribute as much as possible to the destruction of Russia, and thirdly, to liberate Ukraine, my country,” Mark said.
So, in early March 2022, Mark found himself in Ukraine without any combat experience, as his pregnant wife remained at home in Belarus. The situation was dangerous, with all relatives of soldiers fighting for Ukraine being persecuted and threatened with imprisonment by Lukashenko’s special mission.
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“My wife was pregnant there and we brought her here when she was eight months pregnant. [to Ukraine] “It’s too dangerous for her to stay here,” he said.
Mark is already a father. Although his son was born in Ukraine and is growing up here, Mark rarely gets to see his family.
“Video communication is fine. Thanks to Elon Musk, you can even call your family and friends from that position,” Mark said.
He emphasized that his wife has always supported his decisions.
“When you support your family in every way, and your family supports you in everything…you find that you can actually live like that,” he said.
Before Russia officially invaded sovereign Ukraine, Mark ran his own auto body repair business, and his disdain for the self-styled Lukashenko regime only grew stronger. This is because the government was constantly putting pressure on domestic small and medium-sized enterprises.
Mark has extensive experience driving different types of vehicles, so he became the driver of a Kozak armored vehicle in the first weeks of his arrival in Ukraine.
After learning the basics of combat training and medicine, by April and May 2022, Mark was already on the front line in the Mykolaiv direction. The Belarusian initially complained that there was hardly enough ammunition, but “basically we had enough to hold down what we needed. Then help came and we were able to use SCAR I received a rifle,” he said, referring to the Belgian-made gas-powered automatic rifle that became more popular among Ukrainian soldiers over the course of the war.
“I remember at that time a mine or shell was exploding every 12 seconds.”
He said troops there were assigned areas with little regard for specific targets or valuable nearby assets, and simply cleared one zone at a time in a methodical and precise manner. It is said that
“They need an open space.” [of land], it doesn’t matter if there is a house or no house, if there is a trench or not, just cover it and move on to the next square. They worked in the square,” he said.
Photos from personal archives
Mark stayed in the Mykolaiv region for more than three months before the rotation began. “It doesn’t mean we spent all three months in the trenches. We just had enough people to rotate.”
After Mykolaiv, Belarusian fighters were sent to the Severodonetsk and Lishchansk regions of the Luhansk region of Ukraine. This was one of the most difficult areas for him, as Russian artillery was constantly bombarding Ukrainian forces. In addition, their positions extended beyond the Siversky Donetsk River, and this added to the difficulty, since soon after the city’s defense began, Russian troops destroyed all three bridges between the two banks. .
“Then, when we abandoned the city, we had to run a cable across the river so that we could quickly cross it by hand. If more than one person is crossing, the pace becomes very fast. . We had to drive around looking for another boat, more boats,” Mark recalled.
Later, soldiers were also on the Zaporizhia front and near Bakhmut. Mark gained new experiences every day and never stopped learning new things, he said.
“You learn something from each task, you learn something new, so it becomes easier to keep going. It’s very important not to fall into the mindset that you’re just getting used to war,” he says.
Photos from personal archives
A man with the call sign Mark speaks very simply and clearly about his current daily life and plans for the future.
“I wake up in the morning and set myself the tasks for the day. And before I go to bed at night, I need to clearly understand that I have completed 10 out of 10 tasks. This is what I can throw into this war. That’s the maximum,” said the volunteer.
“I don’t want to dream about what I’ll do when the war is over. I want you to understand that I did everything I could to end this war and help us win.”
