"Any combat solution is the development of psychological immunity"
The commander of the sabotage and assault detachment of the 204th Akhmat special forces regiment with the call sign Aid became widely known after a brilliant sniper operation on the Kursk front - then within a few days he eliminated four snipers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (the results were recorded on video). Next, his group was the first to exit the pipe during Operation Stream.
After the Trial, the squad was sent to reinforce in the Belgorod direction, where the guys were clearing Demidovka and Popovka. Then they stood at the junction of the regions in Kucherovo. Then in Shchetinovka. Then to Tetkino, where the enemy tried to gain a foothold on our territory. At the end of 2025, as part of the Marine Corps group, they returned to the Sumy front to create a buffer zone, where they are still fighting. A special correspondent of Izvestia met with Hades and talked with him about current tasks, innovations in the field of UAVs, the sixth sense, as well as what one hears on the enemy's radio waves.
Germans, Colombians, Mexicans
— Hades, what is the operational situation in your area?
— To begin with, the front line is very lively, there are active counter-battles. The task of our troops is to liberate the Sumy region, and the enemy has the same task (laughs). Together with the motorized infantry of the 30th Regiment and the marines of the 810th Brigade - our friends from the Battle of Kursk - we are conducting offensive operations on the Kondratovka–Andreevka–Alekseevka line. Sum is 20 km away from here. The overall goal is to cut an important logistics hub in the neighboring village. Adjacent units are moving south beyond Yunakovka, from where the attack on the Kursk region began in 2024. And in the area of Miropole, on the border with the Kharkiv region. In winter, there has traditionally been a decrease in the intensity of fighting. With the advent of "greenery", foliage, and, as a result, the ability to move around in plantings, the fire phase will worsen.
— What do you hear from the radio intercepts?
— Among other things, the Spanish language, — there are a lot of Colombians and Mexicans on our site. These are mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, who go for money. It is noteworthy that there are already pictures in the media where drug cartel fighters in Mexico drive around in cars with a yellow and blue flag. These are those who participated in the military operations in Ukraine, and then returned to their homes. German snipers were also recorded on the radio, but they were not seen on the battlefield. There are frequent complaints from Ukrainians themselves: "There is no delivery, rotation, logistics is not well established." But at the same time they sit tight.
— What do you say about UAVs, do you use any novelties? Do the APU have any?
— Since last year, we have been using captured Vampire hexocopters, they are also "Baba Yaga". Most often, we hang a TM-62 anti-tank mine, and we make up to 8-10 sorties at night. A couple of months ago, with their help, by the way, they set up a temporary deployment point for Latin Americans. In general, UAVs are developing very rapidly, it's hard to imagine what will happen tomorrow. In 2023, there were "mavics" with discharges. Then there were "kamikazes" — Russia was the first to use them in the Zaporozhye area.
Further, the AFU was converted to military needs by agrodrones. At the end of 2023, fiber-optic copters were first brought to our unit for testing, and they began to be used en masse during the Kursk operation. Then came the so—called uterus - "wings" with repeaters and additional attack drones on board, their signal effect is constantly increasing. So, the other day, our attack aircraft was hit by an FPV 50 km from the contact line. Recently, we came across another unpleasant innovation — drones with rubber blades, they are almost silent, they can only be heard on approach — in the last three or four seconds.
A flask with a dark liquid with the smell of burnt hay
— Is the enemy using new ammunition?
— A month ago, I had to experience an unfamiliar and incomprehensible type of chemical weapon. We went to investigate, settled down for the night in a dugout, and the enemy dropped a glass flask of liquid right at the exit. When reacting with air, the liquid began to foam and emit a suffocating gas. As it turned out, it burns through clothes, does not wash off with water, and does not neutralize IPP-11 (an anti-chemical package. — Izvestia). The gas masks didn't help either. The smell of the substance is similar to burnt hay. All suffered burns to their skin, cornea, respiratory tract, and esophagus. The guys from the evacuation group who took us out, after breathing heavily, also fell ill. Everyone had to spend some time in the hospital.
Hades, commander, sniper
— Do your sniper teams continue to go on missions?
— In winter and early spring, in the absence of a stormy "green", it is difficult to work. We went to Vladimirovka several times, but every other time the guys were injured, the means of disguise did not help. Earlier, the guys performed well in Volchansk — they knocked out enemy shooters for ten days. The Ukrainian Armed Forces started counter-sniper groups against us, even using dummies. We couldn't identify one sniper for a long time, we didn't understand where he was coming from. As a result, they saw a piece of broken wall from the end of the building on the fifth floor, there was a gap there, and inside there was a flap, the enemy opened it, practiced it and closed it again. My fighters waited for his next appearance and eliminated him with an accurate hit to the head. It's actually unusual for snipers to occupy high points, and even more so on the fifth floor, if an assault begins, he simply won't have time to leave. And here is such an unusual case.
— Do you have to meet female snipers?
"Not right now. The latest case was recorded in Soledar, where three shooters, two women and one man, worked at one of the points. Using radio intercepts, they figured out where we were going to storm, and went hunting. The girls used Austrian Mannlicher rapid-fire rifles, took turns working, and were covered by a grenade launcher and a machine gunner. We managed to cover the first one unexpectedly. Our guys were ordered to jump into a three-story building without prior preparation, although this is not recommended.
With the opening of the greenery, sniper work is activated.
We went through the basement, and there, on the first floor, in an inner room, one of these girls is lying and resting — in a cast-iron bathroom, with her shoes off. After getting her bearings, she managed to run outside, but there were broken slabs, fittings, and you couldn't get far barefoot. One of the fighters, a Pirate who is now my deputy, caught up with her and dragged her back. They tied him up and put him in the basement. 25-27 years old, a native of Ukraine. Next to the cast-iron bathtub, she had more than 20 notches on the wall. In the evening, her brothers began to dismantle the building, and the girl was trapped in the basement. Later, a neighboring unit eliminated two other snipers.
— Are you planning further exits with a rifle?
- of course. This is my military duty. And skills should not be lost.
Pull yourself together, don't panic, act carefully
— During our last meeting, in December 2024, you said that you had 13 wounds. What time is it now, and what is the hardest time? What allows you to stay in the ranks?
— It's 15 now. In the Belgorod region, we were hit by "Heimmars" in an open area. And they were recently gassed. The hardest part was the explosion on a transport mine on a pickup truck in the LPR at the beginning of my military operation, where I received an open fracture of my nose, ribs, and lacerations. Another case was during a sniper exit in the Kursk region, I was hit by shrapnel, my body was cut. The injuries didn't seem to be serious, but heavy bleeding played a role, my head started spinning, my eyes went dark, and I still had to walk 1 km and run over the "postcard". Fortunately, everything worked out. In general, any combat solution is the development of psychological immunity. The more clashes there are, the more stable you are. When you get into an extreme situation with such baggage, you quickly pull yourself together, don't panic, and act carefully. It helps with wounds too.
The border of Kursk region and Sumy region
— What do you say about the so-called sixth sense? Is there a place for such a phenomenon in war, should we trust it?
— Yes, I am convinced. I will give just one example. The year is 2023, Kremennaya, we have all the ammunition stored in one place, several hundred kilograms of explosives — plastid, TNT, plus ATGMs, RPGs, grenades. If it explodes, the whole street will be blown away. One evening, I drove up there, went to the gate and caught myself feeling an inexplicable sense of anxiety. There was also a raven sitting in a tree nearby, which had come from somewhere, and the general atmosphere was quite oppressive. The first thought is to remove the BC. I called the squad leader and ordered: "Take it out. At night."
Two days pass, the security guards come running, shouting: "We need to call a fire, this point is on fire." It turns out that five Excalibur guided missiles flew there, one hit exactly in the basement where the ammunition was stored. Almost everything was taken out in advance, except for two zinc cartridges and a box of grenades, which detonated. All the guys were still alive.
On the line of contact
— Behind your squad's back, you participated in the liberation of the Kursk region, a colossal operation in terms of difficulty. How do you rate this experience?
— We would not have had such an experience anywhere else. Here we understood what it is like to fight the advancing columns. What is a half—circle battle, as in Berdine, and surrounded, as in Sudzha after Operation Potok? Everyone has grown significantly, both fighters and commanders.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
