Ronin's Way: How a reconnaissance group spent two months behind enemy lines
For two months, our scouts operated in the village, which was controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They extracted important information and destroyed the enemy. They had to fight their way out of the village, under drone strikes. Despite their injuries, they were able to come out to their own, having completed an important task.
Behind enemy lines
Our scouts had to act in the village of Belogorye, Zaporizhia region. The details of the special operation were told to the Izvestia correspondent by the commander of the reconnaissance department of one of the motorized rifle divisions of the Dnepr group of forces, Renat with the call sign Ronin.
This was his first combat mission after he found himself in the area of the special operation.
"We secretly entered the village, which was controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces at that time," the scout recalls. — Our task was to gain a foothold, to conduct reconnaissance of the enemy's forces and military assets. Find out the number of personnel in the area. If possible, destroy their sabotage and reconnaissance groups.
Then the squad was given the task of bringing our stormtroopers to the settlement as safely as possible.
"We gradually followed this order, not every night, but whenever possible, we started two or three attack aircraft, defining their further targets," Ronin continues. — Our "birders" helped us with this. In total, we stayed in the village for 1 month and 24 days.
Our scouts were sitting 50 meters away from the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The enemy, they said, guessed that intelligence was operating somewhere nearby.
"They were looking for us everywhere, but not around themselves," the scout smiles.
At night, the scouts came out of their hiding place, did combat work and returned back.
"It's been like this for almost two months," Ronin recalls. — They even went into the house where we were staying. They were doing something there, but they didn't notice us. We were famously disguised there. I will not voice the subtleties, so as not to give the enemy a chance in the future.
We fought our way through
Nevertheless, our scouts were discovered by an enemy drone, a Baba Yaga flew up to them and attacked.
"The house we were in was literally razed to the ground,— Ronin recalls. — The enemy was so angered by our appearance and our long stay at their side that they gave orders to each other not to let us out of Belogorye alive. They hit us with everything they could: tanks, kamikaze drones, drop bombs, grenade launchers.
Baba Yaga UAV
At some point, our command thought that our reconnaissance group was dead.
"We haven't been in touch for seven hours,— Ronin says. — We did it intentionally, because one of our comrades died and his body was captured by the enemy. He had a walkie-talkie like ours. We thought that we could be listened to and quickly found.
When he and his comrades were coming out from under fire, Ronin was wounded.
— It was very dark at the time of the exit, and I stepped on a landmine. — he told me. — I still haven't determined her type. My shoe was torn. It was saved by the fact that there were Kevlar insoles. But he still got a closed leg fracture, as it turned out later. Probably on adrenaline, I ran another 50 meters on such a leg and saw an enemy drone above me. He radioed the commander and asked whose "bird" it was. As soon as I asked this question, an explosion occurred near me. It was a reset. Briefly lost consciousness. I woke up and saw that the drone was still hanging over me.
At some point, the drone was distracted by another of our fighters, and the drone hit it.
"My brother was seriously injured,— Ronin says. "His lungs were punctured. But we managed to notice the dugout and hide in it. They bandaged each other up there. We sat there until everything went quiet. For some reason, they didn't bother us anymore. Perhaps because in an open shooting battle, the enemies do not pull with us, they are afraid of him. They try to dodge or run away.
After that, Ronin and his friend managed to walk another 2.5 km to the evacuation zone.
Order of Courage
"You can imagine this picture," he smiles sadly. — I have a broken leg, which was swollen by that time, and a bandaged head, where the fragments were stuck. So far, four pieces of glass have not been removed from my head and two from my leg. But we made it, and we were safely evacuated.
For completing this task, Ronin and his comrades were presented with state awards — Orders of Courage.
The doctors put me on my feet
Then there was almost a month of treatment and rehabilitation.
— I recovered well, — Ronin is pleased. — I went home on vacation and had a rest. His family never realized that he was injured. I didn't tell them about it. He said that after the combat mission, we were sent to rest for a while.
After visiting his family, he returned to the front.
"There was no fear of going back," he says firmly. "I'm not bragging. I even suggested to the commander that I interrupt my vacation earlier, but he insisted that I rest properly and then undergo a medical examination at the unit. That's how it happened.
Now, as he notes, they have received a replenishment — eight people.
"The guys are fighting, but they haven't served in intelligence before," Ronin says. — We have our own specifics. We don't work in large groups. In small detachments of two or three people, we make multi-kilometer marches with a load under 80 kg. Now I'm sharing my experience with them. We train at the shooting range, we make night training trips.
Ronin says that night is a scout's time.
"We pull on a poncho and go into the darkness two or three at a time," he says. — Drones are correcting us, we have our own maps. We are doing something that requires excellent physical fitness. We support her constantly: every day we do morning exercises, horizontal bars, push-ups, and drink special vitamins.
I ask him who a scout is.
"This is not the kind of fighter who breaks everything,— Ronin explains. — It should be simple, quiet and inconspicuous. He needs to overcome a lot of obstacles and challenges. Sometimes you sit in one position, without moving, for a long time. He should never panic, be as patient as possible. He must do his job quickly and also leave unnoticed. Intelligence is, of course, not just eyes and ears.
According to him, intelligence carries out all combat missions.
— It happens that, having assessed the strength of the enemy and our capabilities, we ourselves join the battle and destroy the enemy, — he says. — If it's four or five enemy fighters, then we can eliminate them together. If there are more than 10 of them, then we aim weapons of destruction: artillery, attack drones.
The Scout's Path
Ronin came to his place as a volunteer. Before the war, he lived in Dagestan and served in the Makhachkala OMON. He devoted about 20 years to this service. He carried out combat missions to identify and eliminate terrorist groups.
He is now 50 years old. There is a family at home: a spouse, three children and three grandchildren.
My family released me for the special operation with understanding. He has been engaged in combat work for many years. To some extent, relatives are used to the fact that this is what the head of the family does all the time. The decision to send them to their home was taken calmly.
Ronin admits that he could never just stay at home. Especially when his country is in danger.
After signing the contract, he was sent to a training course at a training ground in Feodosia.
"There were steep loads," he says. — But I also served in the Navy as a boatswain. And there was such a hardening, God forbid. Yes, and the service in the riot police, of course, affected.
At some point, he said, there were those who recruited people into intelligence.
"When he saw them, he came over and asked to pick me up," he says. — They didn't want to take it right away because of their age. We decided to test it by setting conditions — if I can withstand a march of 16 km in full gear, they will take me. In the end, I passed the test. He wasn't the first, but he wasn't the last either. Many of those who were younger were well behind me. That's how I ended up in intelligence. After that, at the location of the unit, he also underwent special training.
Ronin is proud to serve in intelligence. He chose this path and does not regret it.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
