The road without end: how frontline drivers save people
The textbook lines of the famous "Song of the front—line driver" — "We drove cars, avoiding mines", today we can safely add the words "overtaking drones". A driver in his zone is an extremely responsible profession and often undeservedly deprived of attention: in his hands, under any conditions, the delivery of ammunition, food, rotation, and removal of the wounded. Thousands of drivers perform their nameless exploits every day, racing against death. The heroes of our publication are volunteers who started out as ordinary infantry riflemen who got behind the wheel. One, Zhora— is fighting in the Kursk direction. The other one is probably in Donetsk. Both of them have saved more than one human life.
Night Rush
Corporal Georgy Avetisyan serves in the 150th regiment, which, together with other units, completes the defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border region. He was born in the Krasnodar Territory, had three children, and had a nursery at home. He and his wife grew roses, fruit and coniferous trees. In September 2022, looking with concern at what was happening in the free zone, I decided: "Maybe I'll be useful?" He voiced the thought to his wife, who just smiled, thought it was a joke. The next morning, Avetisyan signed a contract at the military enlistment office.
He started from Kherson region, where he was wounded. Then they were transferred to Zaporozhye.
"We stood there for a year, not moving," recalls Zhora. — In the area of Rabocino, the wounded had to be evacuated somehow. The accomplices came under fire, two survived. The commander has set us a task — we need to pull out, who will go? The senior of my group, Puma, volunteered. There are two more behind him. And me, we all lived in the same dugout, you can't stay away. We went there at night.
It was necessary to walk 2 km along the "postcard". We stocked up on anti-drone raincoats, huddled together and covered ourselves when a copter hovered overhead. They found the wounded without difficulty: one, a lieutenant, could walk, the second, a colonel, was heavy. They put him on a travois and dragged him along, holding his camouflage capes at the ready. It took four hours to get back. We came under targeted mortar fire several times, and shells landed nearby at 15-30 m. But there were no new "three hundredths". After that, the commander reported that both officers were still alive, and their condition was stable. A group of volunteers were promised rewards for this risky, selfless operation. But the documents got lost somewhere, they didn't wait.
One day
Georgy transferred to the car during the formation of the 150th regiment, just before the transfer to Kursk. An experienced driver was needed, and most importantly, a seasoned fighter. Zhora was suitable in all respects. "You will be driving the battalion commander," they announced to him. "You're responsible for him with your head!"
According to Georgy, everyday life at the front is best characterized by one day.
We took the village of Alexandrovka," he says. — It was September. The fighting was heavy. Bagdad told me over the radio of the company: "You will go to Korenevo, you will find the headquarters there, and you will say the code word inside. You'll get what they give you. And come at us with a bullet!" I jumped into the car and drove to the entrance to the village. I hear the drone buzzing. And the guys from the landing are waving at me: "Turn off the engine! And run here for cover. They don't drive here during the day." I drove the car under the trees, waited out the danger. And run to the headquarters. There I was given 10 rocket-propelled assault grenades (RPG). He returned, and the drone with the projectile is circling over the forest again. The guys say, "As soon as he throws it off, get in and drive!" And he did.
Along the way, Zhora collided with another UAV with a suspended mine, which gave chase to him.
"Strange feelings," the fighter recalls the episode. — It's like the eyes in the back of your head are growing out. I managed to turn out of the way just before the reset. A shell struck nearby. Windows, the hood is broken. But the car remained on the move. My first thought was, "Wow, I'm alive..."
At the entrance to the point, over the noise of explosions, the battalion commander relayed to him: "Zhora, don't go here! How did you take it?" — And I'm already there. I'm taking BC," says George. "He didn't answer." He flew into the landing, where our people are. I threw out the hashtags. I see the guys dragging the wounded man. The crew shouts at me: "There was an order not to go! Why are you here? Okay, we'll figure it out later. And now grab the "three hundredth" and go to Lgov. Deliver them alive at any cost!"
The wounded man turned out to be soldier Ali from Dagestan. He asked for water all the way, but the driver kept saying, "You can't. Be patient, it's coming soon!", squeezing everything out of the car. He took Ali to the hospital conscious. There, doctors decided to urgently evacuate him to Kursk. The patient (the father of three children) was saved. "It's good that I didn't follow the order," said Zhore Kompolka afterwards. "But orders must be obeyed."
At the height of the Audacious
Alexey, the call sign is probably from the Urals. In civilian life, he was engaged in cargo transportation. I came to Donbass in the spring of 2015, and have been here ever since. "I was dragged here by the scruff of my neck," he explains. I got a job in one of the divisions on the spot. A week later, I got into position in the north of Donetsk. The task was to repel enemy attacks.
Alexey, call sign Avos
"The fights, of course, were different from the current ones," he says. — There are few weapons on both sides. Drones were almost absent. The confrontation was not very active.
Everything changed when, three years later, he was transferred as part of the 9th regiment to the south, to the Sakhanka region. For eight months, he and his comrades had to defend the Daring height. Half-dizzy. On a patch of ground, which had to be reached 4 km under fire. In a single dugout in a single roll. And under continuous shelling. The enemy positions were 40-100 m away, shouted at each other every day. Of all the fighters defending the height, only Maybe remained intact. One day, two guys were injured: one had his arm blown off, the other had his side torn open. The third— Alexey's closest friend, Anapa, died in front of his eyes.
— I drive by now periodically, a new highway has already been built nearby, — says my interlocutor. — I really want to go up there, to honor the memory…
At the right time
Since 2022, Maybe he has been serving in one of the volunteer units as a driver. I started with the DPR, then there was Izyum, Sherwood Forest, Kremennaya in the LPR, Donetsk again. In the same place, in Sherwood, he recalls, he was somehow saved by a trench from the time of the Great Patriotic War - overgrown with grass, shallow already, but it was just enough to lie on the bottom during cluster bombardment and remain unharmed.
In that direction, I was once again convinced that chuika in military conditions is not an empty word, you need to listen to yourself and trust yourself.
— We arrived at the position. The battalion commander was talking to the soldiers. And suddenly I was feeling anxious.: "We need to leave urgently!", I feel very uneasy, — Alexey shares. — And then there's a blunder, Mina, between us. The only thing that saved us was the basement in the garage, where we managed to go down. As it was, they broke everything. Including my car.…
More than once, I had to take out the wounded, and I found myself in the right place at the right time. Once they got into the epicenter of the Grad attack with the battalion commander, a rocket hit next to the soldier in front of their eyes. He began to shake, as if in a case, having received a severe concussion. They picked him up right there and took him to the doctors. Another time, in the village of Yeremovka, a girl saw their car and rushed to the road: "My mother stepped on a mine in the garden. Help!" (my daughter was also hurt, her leg was covered in blood). They were loaded and immediately taken to the hospital in Izyum. Next time, we went with the commander to check the positions of the mortars, and there, in the woods, our scouts: "Help out, brothers, we need to take out the wounded, the heavy ones. They're all white now." They picked it up and rushed off.
"Very young guys, 19-20 years old,— recalls Avos. — One knee was blown out, the other foot was torn off. One of them was always bothering the other: "Don't sleep! We'll be there soon. Everything will be fine," even though he was in a bad way. They were taken to the hospital. Then I met the scout commander several times, and each time he said, "Thank you."
Currently, Avos continues to travel the roads of Donbass. Performing numerous work tasks and finding himself where he is often expected — the man at the wheel, who, despite the bombings, mines and copters, will pull out, deliver, and help.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
