the last azovstal soldier

Oleksandr knew that the best way to escape from prison was to pretend to be dead or to wear a shroud. he read it the revenge Of alexander dumas, He knew that a man could survive even in a coffin-sized pit if possible.ue some kind of vent because he watched the movie burieddirector rodrigo cortes, He knew that to escape you had to go unnoticed and disguise yourself as a civilian because he remembered the great EscapeOf John Sturgess And above all he knew that to escape from a castle he would have to be clever, because he had played there Colditz Escape,

Oleksandr Ivantsov, 29, is a veteran of the Donbass war who was caught up in Vladimir Putin’s push for aggression on the high seas, specifically as an armed guard on merchant ships transiting the waters of the Indian Ocean, including Somali Pirates work. “It took me six days to find out that the Russians were trying to invade Ukraine,” he says in a cafe in Konstantinivka, a few hours before traveling to his new destination at the front. It landed at the port of Cairo and took three more days to enter Ukraine while millions of women and children fled across its borders. On 13 March he already had his weapon.

“The first thing I did was to join the regional defense and fight north of Kiev to drive out the Russians,” he says accurately in his native Russian. “But a few days later a commander of my old unit, the Azov Assault Brigade, proposed that I join them again with a very special task: to support the internal resistance and evacuate by helicopter with some comrades Traveling to the besieged city of Mariupol, people were seriously injured. Many helicopters were shot down, but our helicopters managed to arrive. Then I realized that my ticket was one-way, and I was convinced that I was going to die there. Was.”

At the time Alexander landed from the helicopter, the main fighting was still taking place in the city, not in the industrial complex. Azovstal, Within seconds they had taken out all the military supplies and several Starlink antennas for the Internet and brought the wounded up. He remained on the ground along with 30 other people.

MariupolA port city south of Donetsk was likely to be the first major city taken in a large-scale offensive by Putin’s troops. It was only a few kilometers away Area captured by pro-Russian rebels And, due to the progress of z soldier From Crimea, within days the city would be attacked from two sides and thousands of civilians would be trapped. No one knows for sure how many deaths Putin’s troops left in the city, but their bombing of the theater alone cost 600 lives, many of them children.

hell on earth

“Mariupol was hell on earth. The basements were filled with women and children and the Russians attacked them without considering the consequences with aerial bombs. They wanted to wipe the city off the map along with the inhabitants inside it. Civilian bombing. could be avoided but very little by little They were dying without water and without food“He remembers, he was putting his hands on his head as if waking up from a bad dream.

In those days he slept very little, “barely two hours, sometimes not even that much, because the Russians attacked us and we had to respond,” he says of his last meal, based on beef steak with fries, before returning to the war. Said while having a big dinner. “The circle was closing around us. Our group was surrounded and separated from the rest. During these battles the Russians killed everyone. Only two of us survived, me and another boy who was doing military service., We realized that it was impossible to try to advance during the day, so we tried to join the main group, which was already sheltering in Azovstal, moving forward only at night and using the sewers, ” he says.

At that time, Azovstal facilities were bombarded 24 hours a day by aviation, warships and artillery. But at the same time, the plant, separated from the rest of the city by the Kalmius River, was a huge steel fortress, the size of a large city, with several underground floors of tunnels. The Mariupol garrison, or what was left of it, about 2,500 soldiers, went there with few supplies, a few hundred civilians, low ammunition and no hope of being able to get out of that maze alive. “It took us three days to get there. We had to take a small boat to cross the river and row to the other side, even under fire from our own comrades who thought we were Russians. We still made it. Then they walked away looking in disbelief and took us to a room to interrogate us. But my commander, surnamed onyxWho recognized me and took me back into battle.”

Alexander spent a month fighting in those facilities, from 20 April to 20 May. They no longer had armored vehicles. “It was my job Supply the outer position of the fort: Food, water, ammunition… and had to be carried on foot in a backpack. There were areas where you could go underground, but in other places you ran through the open and visible area.” At that time, the lower levels of the industrial plant became a field hospital with seriously injured people and frightened civilians. Food and drinking water were scarce, It was only a matter of time before the last bastion fell into the hands of the Russians.

The Ukrainians agreed to evacuate the civilians, but the Russians insisted that it would have to pass through a certain point in the plant that should be dismantled to facilitate people’s exit. Following this action, the Russians took advantage of that corridor to enter the plant. After several days of fighting it became clear Surrender was the last option, Ukraine asked Turkey to mediate the process in exchange for keeping the Azov leaders in Istanbul for the remainder of the conflict. “When I found out we were going to surrender, I went in Shock, I did not go to Mariupol to be caught and taken prisoner by the Russians. I I was ready to die but not to give up, So I told my commanders not to put my name on the list of prisoners and not to reveal their plans, that I would remain hidden in Azovstal.” And he explains something important: “I am from Lugansk, one of those provinces One is the one that started the pro-Russian uprising of 2014. My treatment in the Russian prison was going to be much worse than the rest because they treated me as one. traitor,

grave site

How were you able to hide from the Russians in those first moments? “I prepared a grave-sized hiding place and placed several cans of food and some water, as well as tea bags and hand sanitizer, which I could burn. Then I covered the hole and I I can assure you that It was impossible to know that I was in, It was impossible for anyone to find me where I went.” After seven days of not moving, having severe stomach pain due to food and complete lack of communication, he came out of the hole. “In the first few days he Plant the entire search carefully, but then the Russians relaxed. I remember seeing two bonfires burning that night, with occupation soldiers all around. I decided to advance among them, along the train tracks full of abandoned cars, already dressed in civilian clothes but with my gun and a compass. I crossed the perimeter without attracting attention and exited the factory. Oleksandr recalls, “I drove through the destroyed city at midnight, and when daylight came I was already outside Mariupol.”

How did you manage to go unnoticed? Did anyone help you? “Yes, the people I met in the rural areas. Farmers and people who lived in villages. They gave me some water and food. I slept wherever possible and stayed away from the roads. But I didn’t tell anyone that I was a Ukrainian soldier At that time so that no one betrays me.

Ultimately, “after 18 days of marching,” he continued his civilian role and allowed himself to fabricate a complete story in case he was intercepted by the Russians: he was a sailor searching for his mother among the ruins. Landed in Mariupol for. After a trip to the occupied south of Ukraine, he crossed the limits of his freedom, the details of which he plans to tell, calmly, in the book he is writing these days, flashback mariupol, After returning to Ukraine-controlled territory, he was Interrogated by the intelligence services for six monthsIncredible with its story of Alexander’s audacity and survival.

Do you think you were lucky in terms of survival? “There are three reasons why I survived. The first is that I had experience. The second is that I had prepared myself morally to die. The third is that I had Luck, My other colleagues had the first and second quality, but he didn’t have the third quality,” he explains. Late last night we sent him a message to find out whether he was still alive or dead in the fighting around Avdiivka. He doesn’t take a long time to respond. “It’s just that it’s harder to kill me,” he concluded.