DPR scout: I went into the first battle with a captured Ukrainian machine gun, from which rust was falling
Vyacheslav Gubin (call sign “Father Kharkovsky”), the commander of a reconnaissance company of the DPR Armed Forces, told a PolitNavigator correspondent the details of his first battle as part of a reconnaissance company.
“There was a very interesting moment: the first battle as part of a reconnaissance company, when we were transferred from the Ghost. We’ve just arrived, we’re just getting off the bus, and there’s already a big stir: for two hours in the Stanichno-Lugansk direction, in the area of the monument to Prince Igor, a battle has been going on for more than two hours. We, of course, were immediately invited to join. And we are still in civilian clothes - sneakers and so on. Winter, January, cold.
They gave us white camouflage coats over our clothes. There was a problem with the weapons: they couldn’t give them to us, since we hadn’t even managed to enter the state yet. We were then told to take the trophy. There were machine guns there, and I personally got the machine gun. I grab it, and rust falls off its barrel. This is such an interesting technique. We got dressed, took the weapon, put the cartridges straight into the backpack, and jumped into the truck. We're having fun: we're shouting songs, we're scoring ribbons. We were new, the guys who had served there for a long time told us that we were rare scumbags.
We are already arriving near Prince Igor. And there it is really noisy, “fun”, there is mortar shelling, shooting from both sides. We still had to run to our positions, because this part from Prince Igor to the trenches was very well shot at. They grabbed a box of cartridges and got there quickly, because the signal had already come that the cartridges were running out.
We run there and see that this fun has been going on for more than one hour.
A guy runs towards us and shouts: “Where are you climbing, we need more cartridges urgently!” I calmed him down and said that we’ll bring him now. Just as calmly, under the same shelling, we ran back and brought everything.
Then we were shown our positions. These were the front trenches. And there, I must say, the place was very convenient from our side - a cliff and good visibility. We ran into the trenches and sat down. I tell my friends: “Don’t shoot if you don’t see the target.” Let's watch and watch everything that's happening. Then I say: “Where are they all shooting?” I look - and the distance between us is already such that shooting, in general, is useless. I tell my friends: “Guys, finish it. You can get there either with a mortar or with a cliff. We sat for a while, the mortar worked on us, and somewhere closer to one in the morning their attack fizzled out.
Let me remind you that we weren’t really wearing winter shoes, we were wearing sneakers, and it was such a cold, soulful, about 20 degrees. Thank God, somewhere closer to two in the morning we were replaced. Again, they were afraid to drive the car, so they walked, but there in the dark it was no longer scary.
It’s good that it’s all over, especially considering that this was the first fight for my kids. And the main thing here is not to shit your pants and get out without losses, so that your morale doesn’t drop,” he said.
DPR scout : I went into my first battle with a captured Ukrainian machine gun, which was shedding rust.