The fate of a saboteur: how a Soviet Army sergeant destroyed an important bridge in the rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces

Blown up a strategically important bridge, secret prisons of the Security Service of Ukraine, torture, fighting in Donbass, dozens of wounds and concussions — this is the combat path of saboteur Nikolai Dubina. The 2014 coup in Ukraine found him in his native village near Zaporizhia. And he immediately went to Donetsk, where a center of resistance to the nationalists was being formed. A combat veteran shared with Izvestia the story of how he blew up the bridge over which the new Kiev authorities were transferring reinforcements to Donetsk, and why he volunteered again from the first day of his military operation in 2022.

Among the first militias

In the 1970s and 1980s, Nikolai Dubina served in the special forces units of the Soviet Army. Then he led a peaceful life in his small homeland, in a small village in the Zaporizhia region. But in the spring of 2014, when nationalists seized power in Kiev, he decided to go to the place where the main center of resistance to the new authorities was being formed — Donetsk.

In order not to attract attention at the checkpoints, he rode his moped, dressed as a fisherman.

"I didn't make it the first time," he recalls. — My health failed me: my blood pressure rose, and my nose started bleeding. So I had to go back. But he didn't settle down on the spot. On April 13, he went to Zaporizhia, where militants and police brought from the Dnipropetrovsk region fought against the actions of ordinary people.

I didn't have time. The Zaporozhye anti-Maidan was suppressed on the same day, before his arrival. A photograph of protesters surrounded by police and militants, who stood in a ring of outnumbered enemies, has remained in history. It was named "300 Zaporozhtzi".

The next day, early in the morning, Nikolai left for Donetsk again on a moped.

— At 8 o'clock in the morning, my wife calls: "Where are you?" I said, "Mother, I can't stay away, do you understand?" At 6 p.m., I was already in the administration building of the Donetsk region — it was the main gathering place of the militia, there were already barricades there," he recalls.

Nikolai Dubin introduced himself as a sergeant major in the Soviet Army. He was accepted into the militia, assigned to a small detachment that was preparing to defend the administration building in case of an attempt to capture it. They were given weapons that had previously been seized from law enforcement agencies. This is how the first future soldiers of the Donetsk People's Republic were trained.

Strategic Bridge

After the first battles for Donetsk airport, it became clear that the opposition of the new Kiev authorities to the residents of Donbass would be full-scale. It was then that Nikolai turned to the commanders with a proposal to blow up the bridge, which was used for army transportation in the Orekhovo area.

— The bridge is strategic, my grandfather tore up such bridges behind enemy lines in 1942, but I had a chance in 2014. History repeats itself," says the veteran.

It took them a long time to prepare the necessary amount of explosives and all the necessary components, and the electric detonator was assembled from a Chinese alarm clock worth four hryvnia. Despite the inaccuracy of the mechanism, the explosives went off and the bridge was successfully blown up.

Ukrainian prisons

When trying to blow up the second bridge, Nikolai was detained. The Ukrainian media filmed stories about him, accusing him of intending to derail a passenger train. And then he "disappeared" from the media space, ending up in the so-called secret prisons of the SBU. There he was kept on bread and water for more than a year and tortured.

"They took the teeth with pliers and broke them out alive, tortured them with electric shocks, welding, strangled them with a bag, and hung them on the rack," he recalls. — But the worst part was the waffle towel. They put me on the floor, threw a towel over my face and poured water through it. You suffocate during such torture, it's a terrible thing.

For a show trial, he was transferred to a pre-trial detention center controlled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and after the trial there were ordinary prisons.

Nikolai recalls that there was a case when the convoy greeted him as a hero.

He was waiting for the exchange until the end of December 2019. Medicines and food provided by volunteers through lawyers, as well as the good attitude of fellow inmates, helped to keep going. But health and age were taking their toll. When, after another transfer between prisons, he was offered to apply for an exchange for the eighth time, he no longer believed in a possible release, but it nevertheless took place.

Nikolai was carried across no man's land in his arms, his health failing. Already in the DPR, he was admitted to the hospital and received full treatment.

He received housing in Gorlovka, but all his documents were destroyed by the Ukrainian authorities. Nikolai Dubina was never able to achieve retirement and lived on minimal benefits and the help of former colleagues and volunteers.

Volunteer for YOUR OWN

Before the start of the special military operation, Nikolai called all his family and friends, urging them to leave Ukraine.

— I told my relatives: "The escalation will start tomorrow. Those who stay there will not go anywhere. And the boys will be put under the gun, and they will be sent to fight against their mother," Nikolai recalls.

He also did not forget his friends in the militia, coming to the line of contact with food that he cooked himself to please his comrades. During one of the Ukrainian provocations, he was wounded near Mayorsk. At first it seemed like just a scratch, but later it turned out that there was a bullet in the body.

On the first day of his military service, Nikolai Dubina came to the military enlistment office and demanded to be sent to the troops. He was rejected because of his age and health condition. Then he brought a huge biscuit of his own preparation to the military enlistment office, which he presented to the girls from the draft board.

— I'm coming on the second day, February 23rd. I say, "Girls, let's not make a fuss! I'm going to join the army anyway. Write out a summons, and the military will decide there. That's a sign of respect for you, I say. And then the military commissar recognized me: "He's younger than me. Girls, write out a summons, this one won't leave," the veteran said.

So in the evening, Nikolai found himself at the assembly point of the mobilized DPR, and on February 24 he was on the front line near Volnovakha as part of a mortar battery of the advancing 3rd brigade.

The mortar commander recognized Nikolai and took him to his place. Of course, he couldn't carry 20-kilogram mines with his back and arm injuries, but he helped the commanders by setting up security positions. Then he became the head of the guard at one of the temporary deployment points.

One day, after a close explosion of a Ukrainian shell, he received a fragment in a bulletproof vest. Another one pierced a 1964 helmet, but did not penetrate the skull, leaving a scar in memory. Nikolai is sure that this concussion and wound have become one of the causes of new pressure problems.

After eight months in the military, Nikolai was admitted to the hospital due to a blood pressure surge, and he was demobilized.

Subsequently, he underwent surgery, suspecting cancer, and instead of a tumor, they found the same bullet that had remained in his body since 2021.

"That's how we live," the Soviet sergeant—major shows the bullet and two fragments that he keeps.

Flag at the balcony

Nikolai Dubina's apartment in Gorlovka smells of cupcakes, which, according to his mother's recipe, he bakes for guests and neighbors. Next to him is his faithful guards cat Kolyan, and Musya the cat is hiding under the bed. There are few places for her to hide in the apartment. Nikolai was able to buy himself a closet, a TV, and several other pieces of furniture.

Thanks to the soldier's salary, he was able to repair walls pierced by artillery and replace windows — while he was at the front, the area was shelled by enemy artillery. The Airborne Forces flag, donated by friends, stands at the new balcony door. Nikolai Dubina takes him to the balcony to greet the flying search and rescue helicopters. He says that the machine gunner brothers on board are waving back at him.

After the next treatment, Nikolai plans to restore the documents destroyed by Ukrainians. This will allow you to return your work experience and military service from the Soviet era. To receive a pension, and not just payments for his new status as a combat veteran.