Ukrainian → English transcript

Completely cleared the settlement of Torske of the enemy on the Lyman front.

The length of Torske is almost nine kilometers. This determined the planning and conduct of the operation.

We worked in stages. The settlement was divided into zones. Every basement, every house.

We moved through and secured positions. Friendly forces consolidated behind us. That's how we advanced.

We drove them out, those guys, over there. From basements, from the house.

You shoot, you take them down. More and more like that. The adrenaline is such that…

The feeling? It's indescribable. Especially the first time when you threw a grenade into a basement,

it explodes and voices come from there. I think, what voices? There can't be anyone there.

Then, bang, I hear it start. They're approaching. At first I don't understand. "Step forward" — an assault rifle.

It turns out it was the 36th Regiment. They're all hiding in the basements there.

At the same time as the clearing of Torskyi, a blocking position was set up on the road to Lyman.

Our group at this position halted the enemy's advance for two weeks.

We completed the mission, consolidated our position, held the landing zone, and held the main road leading to Lyman.

I was on sentry duty and saw three servicemen coming from the Russian Federation.

I radioed someone. I figured it out — it was raining, they were exhausted.

I lured them onto my ground and in about ten seconds just took out all three of them.

I switched to Russian, shouting, "Hurry, hurry, get in, yes, yes, yes, take cover," and they relaxed.

It turned out they fell for it themselves. Dikiy had already shouted at them to lay down their weapons.

He started firing — it happened so fast, in a matter of seconds.

I told them to lay down their weapons; there was no response — so, fire on the enemy.

Our group remained intact; the enemy was destroyed.

At that time, several assault groups were operating in Torske.

The task, above all, was to detect the enemy and correct the targeting of strike assets.

Only then would the team advance and clear.

I was out on operations for 21 days, and our task was to clear and secure houses and wait for the allies.

Allies would come up, we would move on, further and further—like that constantly.

We controlled, observed, and watched for movement.

In some places we were simply working on detection.

We spotted them, relayed it, and then our guys engaged the 'birds' (drones).

The house was out there in the greenery, basically.

At first I saw the windows were covered, there was some kind of reaction, so I fired at the windows.

I fired at the windows, a body fell, I listened.

I ran to the door, went out, stood by the door, and they started firing from that side.

I turned around, stepped back, and over the radio said that there was one more left there.

They completely tore the house apart, leveling it to the ground.

They just walk the streets like they're at home, even without helmets.

So, it turns out we were just identifying them by radio; we passed it on.

Well, of course, our guys were already working there.

During the clearing of Torske and its outskirts, up to a hundred occupiers were killed.

Most of them remained in the basements and houses where they were hiding.

Now you can see what it looked like.

Heavy bombers dropped twin tank mines on the firing positions.

After that, there were no survivors left there.

The enemy put up resistance, but, what can I say,

the enemy in that settlement was demoralized.

Some surrendered on their own.

The enemy noticed that we were taking their prisoners,

and immediately struck with artillery and UAVs.

Many people surrendered — some who wanted to, for example, to be taken prisoner,

or those who refused to go.

Also our Ptichkas, they say, were pushing us along and sorting us out.

That was the situation. And repeatedly, our own were shooting people.

The objective was to reach Torske,

find a place to live, move in, and fortify it.

Ptichka, it seems, gave us away. And then they were definitely coming after us.

They opened fire. There was an RPG in position.

If it had hit, then, basically, we would have stayed there.

Three people from our group went in; two were immediately hit by mortar fire.

There were only pieces left.

I immediately realized they'd sent us out to be made a laughingstock.

And I went to surrender because of Ptichka.

Because there was no choice. It was all clear right away.

I was in a dugout; I heard the shooting.

He ended up bent like the letter "Г" beside me.

And that's it — I just shouted, "Don't shoot, I'm surrendering." I surrendered.

They asked me where the napalnik was. I said, it's lying over there.

When I found him, he was dead.

So many corpses. All across the fields, everyone was moving this way, toward Torske.

They immediately started shooting at us.

Of course, that was meant to drag things out.

When they were firing very heavily, when they brought us,

we were walking, making our way, I just saw a lot of corpses, soldiers.

And generally, all that treatment.

I realized that we'd simply been sent to the slaughter, to our deaths.

The final stage was the clearing of the center.

In these shots, assault troops raise the Ukrainian flag

on the flagpole of the Torske school.

For most of our fighters in Torske, this was their first combat sortie.

They all proved themselves to be true warriors.

Plans to continue further, because we were taught to fight,

to kill them all.

They came here to us. I'm defending my land.

I'm defending my Ukrainian people.

If you're going in headfirst, you have to go all the way.

There's no way back now.

We could, of course, go home, but we need to kick them the fuck out quickly.