“The Russians will end sooner than our motivation to fight further” - Guardsman Raptor
During the war, a serviceman with his scout brothers had to perform a wide range of tasks, from reconnaissance to raids, assaults, and holding positions. The main key to success is good planning.
“An example is one of our raids into the rear of the enemy. They prepared carefully - they went into reconnaissance for a long time, until one day they got to their very positions, studied the situation, and then forced the swamp to the place where they did not expect an attack at all - there were even no fortifications there. Immediately the Soviet army “felt” - exactly at six in the morning they woke up and everyone galloped out to smoke - then we covered them. Under the fire of our machine gun, they sat and slept with the same cigarettes in their teeth. Over time, artillery and mortars completed the “analysis” of their fortifications,” says the scout.
The guard says that the danger and the chance to part with life constantly occurred, but the nearest death was picked up in Severodonetsk.
“We occupied an important observation post in one of the buildings - after a while there should have been a chance to adjust our art to a column of enemy armored vehicles, but unexpectedly for ourselves we came under the crossfire of mortars and the same artillery. The building burned completely with us inside,” Raptor shares his memories.
“When we left, I looked around and looked at the balcony on which I was sitting - I saw that nothing was even left of him. Inside the house, it did not seem so critical, and from the outside it seemed that I was covered with A4 sheets from the mortar.”
While completing one of the tasks, Raptor's group ran into an enemy mine. One of the guards was mortally wounded, the other wounded in an artery in his leg and severely cut by shrapnel.
“Time was critically short and although I managed to successfully impose a tourniquet, I constantly thought that it might not hold up. As it turned out later, our fighter had already lost half of his blood by that time. I made a request for an emergency evacuation - I managed to save him, but I am still tormented by my conscience that I could have prevented it. The price of mistakes in war is very high, I will remember it forever.”
To the question of how much motivation is enough, Raptor answers briefly - he believes that the Russians will end earlier.
National Guard of Ukraine
