The deputy commander of the International Legion of Ukraine Yan "Kenobi" on mobilisіation, military service evaders, and the postwar future

No peace while Russia exists

Throughout the history of Ukraine and Russia, Russia has been attacking Ukraine.

After the victory, no matter who comes to power in Russia, in 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 years war will start with them again. We will not have peace as long as Russia itself exists.

If you drive away from Moscow, I don't know, 20-30 kilometers, it feels like you've entered some kind of shithole. No gas, no electricity, no shit. People write letters: "Putin, help, send us some firewood". I can imagine Putin sitting there chopping wood and thinking: "It's a nightmare over there, people are freezing in that shithole, we need to send them some firewood."

But the funniest thing is that they have now started to say that the native Americans in the United States are native Russians who emigrated through Alaska.

Ask the great Russian anthropologist Drobishevsky - "Indians are us, Russians. Because Indians came from Russia."

A difference between the warrior and military

People without rotation can stay on the front line for a certain period of time. It all depends on the direction and the unit. For example, in my area, where I am now, the situation in terms of rotations is simpler.

A person is involved in combat missions from a day to, let’s say, four days. That is, they are on the contact line for four days. It goes without saying that it's a complete nightmare. Artillery is constantly bombarding you, FPVs are flying at you, bombs are falling at you, it's hard... Sometimes small groups of the enemy or massive assaults - and they hold it all back.

Once I watched a broadcast, I was working with the 92nd Brigade and watched the actions of their certain group. These were the guys from the 1st Battalion, if I'm not mistaken. They were doing just a really good job. They did an assault, entered the enemy's position, and gained a foothold. But because of the difficult approach to that position, the enemy attacked them three days in a row. And two guys held the defense.

They ran out of ammo, collected it from the dead Russian soldiers, got back in the trench and continued to fight back. They survived. They were real crackerjacks. That's what I call real heroes.

I'm fighting, and my girlfriend is fighting, too

I just realize that if I resign now, go home and relax, the war will not end any faster. And while I'm here, I can make some contribution to the army, I can make some contribution to the victory.

It is extremely difficult for me. At the moment, I am already a deputy battalion commander. I am not directly involved in combat operations. That is, I don't run in front of the personnel with a flag on the battlefield. There are moments when, of course, mass units are involved, and I have to be with them.

But she doesn't worry about me too much, because she understands my role and place in the unit. Of course, she is worried, but I worry about her more because she is directly inside the battle.

I had a moment, I think it was a few months ago, when a missile hit the control station. And, thank God, there were no casualties. I was the only one, unfortunate, I got a light shrapnel, it just cut my head. I came out covered in blood, she was running, crying.

She started to wrap me up, loaded me into the car and immediately took me to the hospital. I said: "I'm fine". She replied: "No, no shit, let's go to the medical stabilization point. I know she's worried about me, and I'm worried about her. It's hard, but what can you do?

We will suffer if Ukrainians can't unite

Our people just need to realize that if we don't unite in the same way as we did at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, this war will have completely different results.

To be honest, I'm really, really, really, really pissed off by this shit. Let's say I have time to watch YouTube, watch shorts, and I see the following questions: “How to get out of the army?”, “How to tell the recruiting station guys to get off?”, “How to avoid being drafted?”.

For example, someone stops at a petrol station, fills up with 95 petrol, donates 30 hryvnias, and thinks he's a great volunteer.

I personally have the opportunity to resign. I have a desire to quit. But I'm postponing this to the last, honestly. People got relaxed, but that won’t do because the war is ongoing and it will not end soon. Unfortunately. A lot more blood will be shed. A lot of blood. And you have to be prepared for that.

It is the time to mobilise in the Army right now!

But the problem is that people run out. And there will come a time when everyone may have to get there. This is already the case, I exaggerate that we all will be. But now, while people are sitting, they are thinking: "I'll wait there when it's my turn."

We have powerful brigades, such as the Third Assault Brigade. They are really good! They perform their tasks very successfully. The 92nd Brigade is also very good. We work with them directly. The guys are experts.

While there is still an opportunity, while there is a chance, it is better to go now, choose a speciality, study in a speciality and work in a certain speciality.

Because people say they are scared that a truck with a military recruiters will arrive (for that truck, they themselves have donated), load them into that truck, bring them to the recruiting station by force, make them sign some papers, put an armor helmet and uniform on them, give them rifles, bring them to the position and say: "Mykola, sit here and die".

People are afraid of it, but they just don't realize it.

Before joining the International Legion, I served as an instructor at an international center. And after I was wounded, I had a choice to return and continue to serve at a peaceful, calm, quiet training ground.

Yes, there might be a missile flying around the ground. Sorry, it is the largest training ground in Europe. But this is not a naval battle, it's impossible for something to hit us. I could have continued to stay there quietly.

And now I am fighting for our future. Because I know I'm not the only one. I know a lot of people who could quit now, turn around and go home. But this will cause us certain problems at the front line.

These are qualified combat officers, soldiers and sergeants who have been through hell, who know how to behave properly in battle, how to lead a unit, how to identify certain threats, how to use certain tactics.

They send people to study abroad now. There are a lot of professional courses within the country. The training centers train snipers, ATGM operators, drivers, tank operators… Anyone.

If a person was a tractor driver in civilian life, they are welcome to drive a tank and take a training course. If it is some kind of Soviet tank, say, a 64 or 72, they will learn to drive that kind of armored vehicle.

The guys in Bradley destroyed the enemy’s T-90. They had been sent for training and finished their course. The commander of the vehicle says he has played War Thunder.

I watched the video, and if I'm not mistaken, the tank fired several shots and, thank God, missed. Imagine the steel balls of that commander and that mechanic who were sitting in there.

Who works at the Territorial Recruitment Centres (TRCs)

People imagine it in such a way that they come, become twisted up, taken away, and the same evening you are already somewhere in the positions near Bakhmut.

Well, I personally don't know a single person who was brought like that. Not a single person! I have friends who were mobilized, and what happened to them?

The guy was taken away, brought to the TRC, then to the unit, and then he went to training. He went through basic training, spent at least a month or a month and a half at a training ground somewhere in a training center, and only then he was assigned to a unit.

And so, as I know from my own experience, from my friends, there was never a case where a guy was grabbed on the street and the next day he was already at the front line.

The officers of the recruiting center come up to the guy in the street just to clarify some data or for some other bullshit, but he freaks out and starts shooting videos, spitting, lashing out and shouting at them, spraying them with aerosols…

Well, that's their job. The guy asks: "Why are you so healthy here? Why aren't you at war?".

Some of the recruiting center men are combatants who are already wounded or unable to perform combat missions. And they are transferred to the recruiting centers to perform those tasks.

And now imagine how a veteran who was at the front line, suffered for the state, maybe even lost a limb or something like that, was transferred to the recruiting centre so that he could continue serving in the army, and some civilian said to him: "Go to hell! I'm not going anywhere! Go fight yourself!".

Take that ‘lawyer’, put him on a plane, drop him off somewhere over Luhansk or Donetsk, and let him walk around. I can imagine him running up to Vanka saying: "The article so-and-so, the law so-and-so, the criminal code." And Vanka is like: "Oh, my God! You’re right! I give up!". Lawyers are all smart. They're all smart until they have to be drafted into the army to defend the state.

I will tell you a funny story from my life about an acquaintance of mine. I will not name him. If he watches this interview, he will understand that I am talking about him.

I had a verbal conflict with him. He's a civilian. I personally don't see him in the army. This is a type of people who are better off not joining the army. Well, maybe for some kind of logistics position or something like that, but definitely not for a combat position.

And there, I remember, I had a verbal altercation with him, and he said to me: "You are charging me for not serving. I said to him: "I don't care if you don't serve, I'm not pressuring you for that." There was a completely different story there, and we started to quarrel with him about it.

And he said to me: "If I get a call-up, I will definitely go to serve." Two weeks passed, or a month. I don't remember exactly. He gets a call-up to the army. At this moment, the guy starts to call all his friends to ask them how he can avoid the service. Then tell me, you bastard, why you lied to me! If you don't want to serve, then shut up and sit quietly. I'm talking about him now, not about people.

The biggest fear is the frozen conflict

My biggest fear is that there will be a frozen conflict, as it happened, for example, during the JFO, right?

Because now the cream of society is slowly dying out. My list of friends, to put it bluntly, has halved during this war.

Some of my friends could not get into the army because they had nowhere to go. The guys had to stand in front of the military recruiting office without getting inside because the queue was so long that you had to queue up four days in advance.

Everyone was eager to defend the state. Probably because the frontline has now moved to the east of Ukraine again.

Many people have already got used to the fact that there have been hostilities in the East since 2014. And they perceive it this way: "Oh, that's OK, there was a constant war there". This is not OK! If they go to Kyiv again now, we'll see what people's reaction will be.

For those who say: "I won't go to fight before the MP children do"

There are those who have gone abroad and help from there, right? I have a friend who went to Poland. He says honestly that he is afraid, he is scared, but he helps.

He is constantly raising money, buying cars, equipment, sending it all to Ukraine and contributing to the victory.

There are others, monsters that stay abroad and say: "What’s the use of donating if everyone is stealing in Ukraine, those corrupted MPs? Well, if I'm going to watch how shitty everything is around me, what can I say? Goodbye, I’m not going to do all this?

I understand that there are millions of civilians behind us. I see what life is like in Kyiv, I see what life is like in Lviv. People live normally, they live beautifully, just like they did before the full-scale invasion. Well, for the most part, right? There are establishments, clubs, and restaurants.

What makes it all work? If the people hadn't united on February 24, we wouldn't be here today. There would be a Russian flag hanging on the town hall in Lviv and all our streets would be named after Lenin or someone else, and our books would be burned.

During the Kharkiv counter offensive, we reached Kupyansk. And when the enemy was driven out of Kupyansk, we entered one of the schools. I was just shocked. There is even a video on the Internet, I can send it to you later, or you can find it yourself. It shows us walking around the classroom and ripping off stickers with Russian words hiding Ukrainian ones. Russian flags all over the walls. Firstly, they were too lazy to bring their own signs and alphabets. They just "corrected" ours. There were these briefcases of the United Russia party on the tables. The so-called sponsors, for September 1.

Russians surrendered to captivity and opened fire

They say that I am still on the wanted list there. After Petropavlivka, they even put me on some Russian public pages. I'll even read them out now. I learned so many interesting things. It turns out that I'm supposedly a drug addict, and God knows what else. What did they write about me? "This man committed a serious crime and is wanted by the authorities of the Russian Federation. If you have any information about him, please contact us."

They started to hype the battle for Petropavlivka. Allegedly, we "killed innocent boys in panties” who wanted to surrender. The hell those "boys in panties'' surrendered! No way! After Kupiansk, we started clearing Petropavlivka.

In Petropavlivka, the Russian special forces were holed up in one of the buildings. It was a café, right after the crossroads. Before that, they rolled out two BMP-2Ms. And these two BMP-2Ms were successfully destroyed by the legionnaires with the support of the 92nd Brigade.

The very first hit to this one BMP was made by our legionnaire with NLAW. The vehicles then stopped running because the engine and transmission compartment was hit.

Those 'Russian boys' hid inside the building. When the legionnaires were clearing the neighboring buildings around that building. They started shooting at us.

I think I had three wounded fellows at that time. One was seriously wounded in the face. He even had surgery, and then his face and jaw were reassembled. And the fight with them started inside. We tried to get in contact with them.

First, our legionnaire fell, and then the 'Russian boys' fell. And they wrote there that we had killed allegedly 'innocent prisoners', killed allegedly 'innocent Russian soldiers, poor things who wanted to surrender, and came out for negotiations.

To begin with, what the hell were they doing there? Their chevrons said that they were from Yakutia. Where is Petropavlivka, Kharkiv region, Ukraine? And where is Yakutia? Tell me, what the hell your 'Russian boy' was doing there! Allegedly, they got lost in a "military training". Bullshit! They came here from Yakutia and got lost.

After the Kharkiv counter offensive, I think it was 4 or 5 months later, I left on my first vacation in April, 2023. It was my first holiday since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Even though it was covered as if it was so simple, it was not that simple, believe me. Our losses were quite significant there. If we’re running out of breath now, we will run out of breath until the end.

The warriors need sychological assistance

Another issue is moral and psychological support for our soldiers. It will be extremely needed. We need it now, and we will need it after the war. We need to focus on this extremely strongly.

Being in Lviv, when I saw what life is like there, how everything works, people walking, enjoying life, stores... I just had a panic attack. I needed a week of pure adaptation to get used to it all. The lights at night.

My mum asked me why I switched off the lights all over the house. I used to turn off the lights out of habit. Pulled the curtains, and thank God I didn't bring my night vision helmet with me. I would have walked around the house in this shit.

When does the war end

How long will the war last? Of course, it is extremely difficult to answer this question, because it is still unknown.

It all depends on how we fight. So if people want to just stay at home and hope for armed forces, the means that we already have, that we are about to break through, break through the enemy’s defense, reach the state border, and that's it, victory, a rainbow will shine over Ukraine, everyone is happy, everyone is rejoicing. No way!

The enemy has superior forces, but somehow we still assault them from time to time and move on. We are pushing them in some directions, but in some directions, unfortunately, the enemy is pushing us. This can be seen on the Deep State MAP. Anyone can track it.

And the time after the war... It will be an extremely difficult time. People should not hope for peaceful and calm times. We will have to rebuild the country.

Large cities are destroyed, we have fields strewn with unexploded shells... There will be years of demining, years of rebuilding, putting the economy back on its feet, and fighting corruption. Because if we don’t remove corruption after the war, it will lead us to even bigger disaster than we already have.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine stand on the volunteers' shoulders

First of all, I believe that it is necessary to establish state production of armored vehicles, aircraft and FPV drones. To begin with, we must start producing FPV drones.

Because it’s no good when a volunteer makes this shit by himself or herself in the kitchen at night, finishing the 20th or 30th drone.

It must be state production, constantly supplied to the Armed Forces from a conveyor belt. Believe me, it will play a crucial role!

For example, we have a UAV strike company in an infantry battalion, and this company receives drones on a regular basis, a certain number of them every week or every month.

The infantry soldiers will no longer have to risk their lives to get into the enemy's trenches and get into contact combat. They will first strike them with artillery, and then finish off everything that moves and doesn't move with FPV drones.

And then the infantry will just march in victoriously. If there is anyone there, they will take them prisoner or kill them, and that's it. This simple gadget worth $500 saves dozens of lives by destroying the enemy.

I'll give you an example: my unit received two Humvees, and they came without turrets. So, those were just armored vehicles that could transport personnel to the battlefield. We started to ask how and where to install those turrets. It was a bit of a mess. We were told that there was just one way to get the turrets. We had to raise money by ourselves, and order this equipment through a certain company.

Thanks to volunteers, we raised one million hryvnias and installed these turrets on both vehicles. Now they don't just drive and deliver infantry to the battlefield, they also support them with fire.

Recently, the Ukrainian singer alyona alyona performed. Not only her, but also a number of our pop stars, if I may call them that, or rap stars.

What is more important to you? She has made her conclusion. Honestly, people's attitude towards her will change a lot. Of course, there will be some audience that will support her, but it will be extremely difficult for her to regain the trust and love she had before. She has already recorded lots of patriotic music, but this one phrase or hers crossed out everything.

Who shouldn't be taken to the Army

From a more global perspective, first of all, this concerns the state in general, and we should not neglect the Armed Forces. We saw what happened to the Armed Forces from 1991 to 2014.

The Armed Forces were downsized, funding was cut, there was no sufficient supply of equipment, weapons, all the stuff. And when 2014 came, everything went to shit.

We saw the poor state of the Armed Forces. They managed to survive at the expense of volunteer formations. Volunteers also survived at the expense of what was then called the Armed Forces. Now, compared to the year 2014, or rather until the year 2014, we have an extremely powerful and large army.

Throughout the whole history of our country, we have been at war with Russia. As I said earlier, it is not just Putin alone. Before Putin, there were other certain historical figures who were unpleasant.

It is our stronghold for the defense of our state. Our future depends on it. What’s the use of mobilizing some uncle Stepan who was returning drunk from work the other evening? He was stopped at a checkpoint and sent to the military recruiting office, then sent to the front line… He doesn't want to fight, he is waiting to be sent to his position and is ready to surrender at any time... Such people should not be sent here.

What is inappropriate to ask the militaries

People still have to respect their Armed Forces, their soldiers who are returning home from the war. And they need moral support, they need psychological support.

He saw things that an ordinary person cannot imagine and does not want to imagine. And this is a psychological trauma for him.

There are soldiers who come back and say: "I'm fine, I feel OK!" Believe me, it's bullshit! There is such a mess going on in his head...

A man has spent, say, a year or two at the frontline, without leaving or with some short rotations, he has constantly seen death. He goes to an observation post and sees the corpses of Russians lying everywhere. He sees it all the time. For him, this is already a norm.

I'm not saying that all military men are sick in the head. He’s just a living person who has gone through an extremely difficult journey for you to live a normal life.

And there is no need to burden him with stupid questions. Just support him and that's it.