I dream of liberating my hometown: the story of a border guard from Mariupol
Dog expert Mykola Ivanchenko, who always dreamed of a faithful four-legged friend, began his service in 2018 as a journeyman on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied Crimea.
“At first it was difficult, because the situation there was tense and there were constant provocations from the enemy. Then I had an experienced assistant - the German Shepherd Kasana, trained to search for narcotic substances. I served with her for 3 years, until Kasana went on a “dog pension”, - Nikolai told.
Nicholas comes from Mariupol and he, like no one understands what war is. Despite his young age, the border guard already has experience in combat operations. The 23-year-old young man has been deterring the enemy in the Kherson direction for more than a year.
“On the day of the full-scale invasion, I was in the response team. For the first time we were raised at midnight, then there was information about the readiness of a column of enemy equipment. And at about 4 o'clock in the morning the shelling of our unit took place. Then came the columns of tanks, the enemy was actively advancing on our territory. Under the shelling, we were able to withdraw and joined forces with a unit of the Armed Forces. For more than a year we defended the first lines in the Kherson direction,” the border guard recalls.
Now the guy has returned to his favorite business and, together with his new four-legged partner Femi, is learning to detect and detain violators. Cynology has become a matter of life for Nikolai.
He plans to enter the border academy to become a dog training officer.
“Above all, I dream of Victory and my greatest desire is to personally participate in the liberation of my hometown - Mariupol. I remember, in 2014, when I was still a teenager, there were also battles and shelling of residential buildings in our city, but then I did not even imagine that I would become a military man and personally fight the enemy,” says Nikolai.
State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
