“Instead of an alarm clock — tank shots” — the story of a border guard with the nickname “Cossack”
Vitaly joined the ranks of the border guards at the beginning of the large-scale invasion and received the nickname “Cossack”. The man is a builder by education. Previously, he had no military experience and did not serve in the army.
“I didn't hesitate for a moment when I went to the army. I got to one of the border units in Lviv region, where I began my military journey. Initially as part of my unit, I headed north, where training and coordination took place. There I learned how to handle weapons and learned the basic “basics” of military affairs,” the border guard said.
Subsequently, the border guard went to Donetsk region to fight the invaders in the Avdievsky direction. Vitaly said that on the front line without military experience, all the knowledge gained is lost until you master yourself and get used to the situation.
“In the East, for the first time, I felt what war was, that it was not like it was shown on TV. Continuous shelling from tanks, artillery, mortars... Every morning we started with the shelling of tanks, instead of an alarm clock,” Vitaly recalls.
During one of these attacks, his brother was wounded.
“In the distance I heard: “I'm 300!”, and immediately ran to his aid. At that moment I didn't think about myself. Only when we managed to evacuate a comrade, I thought that everything could have turned out differently,” the border guard said.
Now Vitaly continues to serve in one of the border units. He does not consider himself a hero at all, although, being at “zero”, he gave a worthy rebuff to the Russian invaders.
State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
