"It's like World War 1" - Interview with a Ukrainian Soldier

The 47th Brigade in Ukraine has been involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and has been relied on countless times to push the initiative and hold the line, when necessary.

I was fortunate to be able to steal 30 minutes away from Viktor, a student who volunteered to fight in the aftermath of the Russian invasion with the 47th. A combat medic who was injured in battle, he shared frank assessments of the situation in the country, and highlights the ways that warfare is changing.

You can support the 47th Brigade here: https://markusfoundation.com/support-47-brigade-markus-foundation

NOTE: Ukrainian translation conversation included for awareness. Portions of the transcript have been shortened for the sake of ease of reading. Full video interview available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d5pnBruQFc

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Ian: Alright, good morning and good afternoon everyone. Victor, thank you for joining. 

Viktor: Thank you for having me.

Ian: I really appreciate you taking the time. I know you have a lot going on right now. I just wanted to kind of first check in and say, you know, how are you doing?  It looks like you got some nice weather, but how are you in general?

Viktor: Yeah, I'm doing just fine. Normal, I would say. Standard for Donbass.

Ian: Now, can you tell me a little bit more about you as a person? What's your background and where you come from?

Viktor: Well, I was a land surveyor before the full-scale war and a student at the same time. And when I joined in, I was a rifleman, more like a combat lifesaver in your terms. And then I was a squad medic. And now I do...

Ian: Got it. Makes sense. And you had no military experience prior to the 47th Brigade. You just volunteered?

Viktor: Yeah

Ian: Now, is your experience typical to those that have joined the 47th Brigade or are most volunteers?

Viktor: Yeah, it was like that at some point. It kind of changed over time. You have losses, you need to replace them. So at first it was just volunteers, yes.

Ian: Okay. Now, as a recruit, did you receive any training from NATO forces at all?

Viktor: Yeah, we trained in a foreign country. I think I could say it because it's like, everyone knows it. Germany. We trained in Germany under US military. I think it was... I'm not going to say which brigade.

Ian: I know there's been some debate about the effectiveness of that training, mostly because you were fighting a war that is, what, five years ahead of what we anticipated or were ready for. So I imagine that the training there maybe was a good base, but obviously what you're dealing with is far more intense.

Viktor: Yeah. It differs from what we expected, like a lot. So they go delve into it like more deeply or should they stay on the base?

Ian: You're more than welcome to dive into it a little bit if you'd like. Up to you.

Viktor: Yeah. I think US, like we got the basics from it. It was good. Like how to move with our squads, how to operate, how to have operational awareness, I think it's called. Like preparation for missions, debriefing is important, briefing is important. Like we got that from the training we did.

But in reality, it's a bit different. Like it's evolving constantly. Like before Zaporizhia, there was no constant aerobombs being thrown on us, like 500 kilograms of explosives is f****ing insane, to be fair. And FPV drones kind of changed the game a lot.

We had to adapt to it. Like the scope cages, as we call them, they're actually quite effective, to be fair. So we use them on Abrams tanks, Bradley's didn't have them. They used the electronic warfare for that. So it's quite a working tactic.

Ian: Makes complete sense. And I know that US, me, I was an Army Commander myself, and a lot of what you were taught is what I was taught, how to plan, how to prepare. But like you pointed out, the reality is obviously a little different. And I'm thankful that some of the lessons that you were learning and your brothers and sisters in arms are learning are translating now to help us on our side.

We've started to introduce drone training and remembering how to dig trenches. And that was a forgotten skill. I'm glad that some of it was beneficial, but hopefully we can keep evolving along with you and make that better.

Ian: So I'll move on to my next question here. You were talking a little bit earlier about some of the Russian Marines and the special forces. And obviously, Wagner was a thing for a while. What's your opinion on how those forces operate and perform? 

Viktor: Yeah, they're professionals. I can tell you that. You can tell a difference from the common Russian conscript. They have a contract army. They don't have that many conscripts; they're mostly volunteers who want to fight us.

But some of them are in it for the money. And you can tell by, if it's Marines or some regular force that's constantly training, you can tell by having a contact with them. They're not going to run away.

They're going to sit in there until they die. They do not surrender. And the special forces kind of differ from us. And I think they operate more like yours do, SF. They do more logistics strikes, destroy our vehicle, and so usually just being annoying is their job.

Ian: Yep. That's very, very much very similar to how ours operate. You're right. Were they ever putting the special forces into those assaults, those open field meat assaults?

Viktor: No, never. 

Ian: That was one of a common misconception though, is that the Russian special force were being put into the meat assaults. And obviously it's hard to tell from the internet.

I'm kind of curious, how did the support from outside organizations affect the 47th? Has it been, has it been beneficial or are we doing enough on our side from the sake of just regular people? Are you getting a lot of support? Has that been has that been noticeable at the 47th?

Viktor: Yeah, it's noticeable because most of our drones come from volunteers, like donations you make and our people make. And also like usually people stopped asking for equipment since it's been delivered or bought by ourselves. But if you're talking more on a massive scale, like from your aid, US military aid, yeah, this cluster munitions were awesome. I loved it when it was introduced, like it was at the beginning of the Russian counter offensive, like Russians were constantly using cluster ammunition.

I had a phobia of it. And then when I heard one going in their direction and exploding, like they were constantly our boys(sic) I think I can, no, I can't say it, like with our team shooting at Russian positions with cluster munitions, it was awesome, like it was a song to hear. 

Ian:  I have never experienced anything that like you have experienced, nothing but respect for you there. You're a medic, correct?

Viktor: I was a medic, yes.

Ian: And was your medic training, was that all, was that all at your training camp in Germany or has that been a mixture of here and Ukraine or Germany?

Viktor: It was a mixture of both. We had training in Ukraine and then Germany too. It was decent.

Ian: Now the, there, you're in an interesting spot right now. I know there's a lot of, you know, a lot of stress, and a lot happening at the moment, but looking forward over the next six months to a year, what, what do you just need? Like, what is the main priority as far as material or weapons that you as a 47th brigade member would want right now in order to achieve your objectives?

Viktor: Artillery shells, drones and people - more people in the trenches. .

Ian: Artillery drones and manpower. That seems to be common thing everyone is saying. Well, I'm happy that we're finally starting to get artillery production back to where it should be. It's going to be a slow crawl, but again, you guys are just proving how important all of that's going to be in the future and it's, it's crazy. Yeah.

Viktor: Considering that, yeah, Russia had a shit industry before the war. They expected like a quick victory, but now they're adapting, the industry is growing. They're making artillery shells, aerobombs. I think it's FAB bombs, yeah. They're making them and constantly throwing them on the front. Like it's unimaginable. We have to, we have to spare our artillery shells, mortar shells, everything, but they're constantly shelling everything.

Like everything is turning to dust if you stay at the front line. Like the land picture constantly changes. If you've gone for a day and then come back, it's a different place. You wouldn't recognize it. 

Ian: And so they're essentially, they're on a war footing. Their economy is on a war footing. As you said, now they've acknowledged that it's not going to be a quick war. But the difference is that they, like you said, they've mobilized their industry to start producing. Whether the quality is good or not, it doesn't necessarily matter to you, right? Because it's still, it's still coming down that way. And, you know, we we need to understand that that's happening. 

Viktor: Yeah. I think we did, but like most countries did, at least France did, understand that they have to do something. Germany did at the beginning. Everybody didn't want to give us like eight shells and everything. And since those industrial capabilities are like low and they're constantly harassed by enemy missiles, we can't really have our own production of some like artillery shells and stuff. We have to get them from the, across the border.

Ian: Have you, have, have you been aware of any issues from getting - there's been no issues getting weapons across the borders, right? I know there were some blocks in Poland and whatnot, but I'm not familiar with anything else.

Viktor: There were blocks, there were blocks of foreign, like food and like consumer goods, like mostly, not military aid. But it was still annoying. 

Ian: Well, hopefully, hopefully that, I don't even know if that's still going on, those blocks on the Polish border for the, for grain and whatnot, (14:01) they stopped that?

Victor: Yeah, not anymore.

Ian: That's good. Hopefully that won't be an issue again, because we want to make sure that you can get everything you need and obviously get, you know, that's a big source of income for Ukraine is your, is your grain and your agriculture. .

Viktor: Yeah. I mean, like five kilometers from the front, wheat fields are growing. Farmers are constantly mowing it down, even under enemy fire. It's ridiculous. If you look at it like that, like it's 30 kilometers from the front, life is booming here. Like people are constantly on the streets, young kids, teenagers having fun, like nothing is happening.

Ian: Well, you know, that's that's almost a good thing. It means, you guys and your girls have done so much work to make sure that those people can enjoy life still. I'm sure that they are more than appreciative and acknowledge that. I hope they do. Yeah, I think they do.

Viktor: Most of the people do, yes

Ian: Have you seen any targeting of farming equipment? I've seen a little, I saw some tractors were hit by, looked like drones, but has that been a thing you've noticed?

Viktor: No, never. 

Viktor: They targeted, like, I think they were not tractors, but they used to, I think it's more of a scare tactic, use ballistic rockets near the frontline, hitting houses and shit and whatnot, to like annoy the people, scare them. So they hate us and we are, we can't really sleep. They constantly sending ballistics, ballistic rockets at night. So it's kind of getting on your nerves,  but I think they run out for like a month. It's been quiet here. 

Ian: Yes. That is definitely a thing that our enemies like to do. Not on the same scale at all,  but just a quick story. Every Christmas at midnight, the Taliban would fire rockets at us just to keep us up and annoy us because it was Christmas, you know. Now they're, you know, they rarely ever hit anything important. So again, not the same, just the idea of keeping us up and annoyed.

Viktor: Yeah. Yeah. And it works. It does. After a couple of days on the front, you come back, you want to sleep at night and they f***ing start selling everything like this. Ballistic rockets. At some point I just like put the earphones in and just like slept. You get used to it too. 

Ian: True. But yeah, some, I guess some noise canceling headphones can't hurt sometimes. Well, hopefully you get an opportunity soon where you can actually, you know, get some peace from that, that noise. I know that wears you down after a while. 

Viktor: Well, you can't really get any rest from it. I remember having like medical leave, I think it's called, like for two or three days rehabilitation. And I was in Kyiv at the time and they were, it was New Year's Eve. They were constantly sending rockets at Kyiv. So I was waking up like at 2AM hearing explosions, sh*t was exploding like in front of my eyes at some distance, two kilometers I think. So you can't really rest from the war unless you go to the West of Ukraine, to Carpathian mountains. It's quiet, most of the guys do that.

Ian: Yeah. Ideally the war ends. That's the ideal ending and hopefully we can expedite that in some way.

Viktor: Yeah, absolutely.

Ian: Let me just kind of, kind of wrap up, you know, what makes you optimistic about the future, but what, at the same time, are you kind of in full acknowledgement that this concerns you and and that we we need to get the world to understand exactly what's happening.

Vikor: Well, I met the best people I know in the military, like, like the best and worst people are here. I mean, it's, it's makes me optimistic that there's still good people, still brave people. And a lot of people want to join the military, but I'm not going to delve into that. It's more of a government problem.

What makes me concerned is not enough, everything. Like we don't have enough, everything, shells, equipment, FPV drones, regular Raycon drones, Bradley's. We need more of them. I love them. 

We need better equipment. How it's called, like excavators, and dig trenches. We need those two and low on this since Russians have been targeting them with FPV drones, destroying them.

So people have to dig by hand, even like 10 kilometers from the front. I see people digging with their hands. It's kind of dumb in my mind.

Ian: So there's several fundraisers to get some excavators from Poland and Europe there. Hopefully that they are successful because that's obviously hugely important, and so you guys have better protection, especially overhead.

Viktor: Yeah, I think the main problem right now is like, you have to adapt or trenches or warfare to FPV drones and the FAB bombs. Since you need to put, what's it called? Nets, I think like ropes over, yeah, nets over trenches. So like FPV drones hit them and either explodes, not, not hitting you or just stops.

Like most of the times they don't detonate if they hit nets and you have to like about FAB bombs. The only way to deal with them is like shut down this barrel. So we need to destroy the aircraft.

And that's another one that you need a lot more of an anti-drone, anti-drone weaponry of any type. Right now, everything has anti-air drones, like our pickup trucks, tanks, everything, even our positions are equipped with anti-air drones, like backpacks, rifles, everything. And it's costly and it's constantly evolving. So you have to adapt to that too. And it's expensive. It's really expensive. 

Ian: And again, that's another lesson that you guys are teaching us because now we're, I mean, it's been a work in progress, but we really accelerated the anti-drone part of warfare onto pretty much everything. I mean, the Marines, the US Marines have like four different anti-drone technologies in the works right now, again, based on your experiences. It's wild.

Ian: It does look, I mean, some of the footage from the woods with the trees torn and the trenches running throughout, it's, it's incredible. It feels like, like you said, we're back in time, not to a good time. We don't want to go back to that, but it's the nature of the beast right now. I know there's been several military packages in Europe. I think the, I think the Netherlands just passed one, but a lot of things are are happening. And I'm hoping that this continues you guys get every bullet that you need because you need them - and every non-bullet, you know. You need medical stuff, you need excavators, you need all kinds of things.

Viktor: Yeah. About medical supplies, it's gotten better over time. Like right now our military have certified stuff. It's been constantly supplied to us before, like 20, 2023, it was, it was mostly Chinese shit that killed people. So it's gotten better over time.

Ian: Are there any, any specific charities or organizations that you are familiar with that you would recommend that we as regular people can support that directly support you?

Viktor: Yeah. The best one, I think is Poverny Zhyvym, Come Back Alive. Since like most of our pickup trucks in the army, I mean, not just 47 brigade, most of NVGs, not, not so called them yet.

NVGs, even mortars, they buy mortars too, like weapons come from this foundations and I recommend it. Like the guy that runs it, Taras Shmut, he was a marine himself during the don't like 2014 war when it started, like this separatist whatnot (sic). He was marine himself, so he understands that we really need this stuff.

He tries, he's everything to get us better equipment and better stuff in general. 

Ian: That's good. There's so many organizations and charities out there right now that it's hard to tell who is, who, who is actually getting you what you need. You know, it's very frustrating from, from our side, but obviously more so frustrating for you. So I want to be sure that I can point people towards a good organization. 

So, Victor, I don't have any more questions for you. I don't want to take up too much of your time because you need to rest,  I know that much. I haven't had an opportunity to talk to anyone on the front line in Ukraine, so I just want to say I really appreciate you. I'm honored. I really am. You guys are going through stuff that no one on my side of the aisle has experienced.

And I know it doesn't mean too much, but I am learning a lot from you and we are learning from you.

Viktor: I mean, I have to, I have to thank you since like Bradley saved my life twice. It's an insane vehicle. If we used like BMP2s or 1s, I would be like that (sic/dead) two times over. Not just me, a lot of guys.

Ian: Yeah, that's good to hear. I have been very happy to see how well a Bradley has performed and I will forever have that video of those Bradley's wrecking that T90 just in my head. (27:37) That was the best thing I've ever seen. Your guys really know how to use them as they were intended. So yeah, it's incredible. It really is.

Our work obviously on our side is not done. We have a lot we got to do to keep, keep the attention up. You know, Hendrix and Sonya here are doing some rallies in Washington D.C., we'll keep pointing support your way as best we can. 

Okay. So Victor, any, any last questions, any last words or words of wisdom for whoever listens to this?

Viktor: Yeah. I used to tell myself like little steps for like long distances and it works for me like constantly. You have to start with something small and grow up.

Ian: I like that. That's a very similar to, you ever heard crawl, walk, run as far as training? That's one of my favorites. Basically you got to crawl before you can learn to walk before you can learn to run. You got to start somewhere, and you know, it's a long journey. Do it as best you can and at your pace.

Thank you, Victor. Again, I really appreciate you.