Resisting the invasion of the occupiers since 2014, served in Lisichansk and Bakhmut: the story of a police lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant Colonel of Police, Head of the Department of Dispatch Service and Monitoring of Electronic Means of Control of Management of Organizational and Analytical Support and Operational Response of the GUNP in Luhansk region Dmitry Borodavkin has been defending Ukrainian soil since 2014.
In 2014, he witnessed militant attempts to seize the building of the Main Directorate of Militia in Luhansk and was an active participant in the movement of resistance to the occupation authorities. At that time, while working in Lutugino at the State Traffic Inspectorate, Dmitry, at his own risk, decided to bring to Kharkov a software and hardware complex, thanks to which the militants of the so-called “LPR” wanted to print “linden” documents. After that, he returned to Lysychansk, where he continued to engage in clandestine activities, helping the Ukrainian army.
And when Lysychansk was liberated, the man helped the fighters to equip checkpoints, and he and his colleagues went on duty to restore law and order in the region.
However, February 2022 radically changed the life of a police officer in Luhansk region. In order to prevent the enemy from taking possession of the weapon, Dmitry together with his colleagues took it all away. Then, as part of the consolidated detachment, the policeman returned to Lisichansk.
“I never thought I would do the tasks I did during the war. My colleagues and I became not only policemen, but also guards for our repairmen, who repaired power grids both during shelling, and during the lull, and volunteers, who got all possible medicines, and replaced some state authorities, because when there was no one left in the city, we were engaged in organizing garbage removal, cleaning streets, burials, sometimes we had to dig holes,” the policeman says.
Dmitry repeatedly delivered fuel to Lisichansk. Even after the policemen had to leave for Bakhmut, Dmitry Borodavkin to the last continued to drive to the outpost of Luhansk region and deliver the essentials. During the performance of official duties, the policeman was repeatedly attacked, as a result of which he was wounded. Nevertheless, he refused hospitalization, emphasizing that he needs to do his job and there are people who need to be treated more in the hospital.
In the future, Dmitry was waiting for service in Bakhmut, Konstantinovka, Kupyansk. The lieutenant colonel of the police had to not only deliver humanitarian aid, identify looters, collaborators, but also sometimes do a morally extremely difficult job - to record the death of dead soldiers.
“It was like this, they brought the deceased. We had to describe everything. He had no documents, only a phone, on the screen of which I saw an SMS from the daughter of the deceased: “Daddy, hello"... At that moment my heart moved...”, recalls Dmitry.
With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, Dmitry had to take his family to a safer place - his wife and parents. The husband has two sons. The elder, with the outbreak of a full-scale war, immediately volunteered for the army. Currently serving in the ranks of the Armed Forces. And the younger one is studying at the university and plans to go to serve in the future.
“Now all of us are not only witnesses of our history, we are now writing it - and engrave in everyone's memory that Ukrainians are able to stand up for themselves and their Independence,” says Dmitry Borodavkin.
National Police of Ukraine
