Ukrainians must unite as in the first days of the full-scale invasion — Salvia, the commander of air reconnaissance platoon

I don't want to be a burden to my team

I understood that a full-scale invasion was inevitable when Russians occupied Crimea. Since then, I started preparing to defend my country.

First, I had to understand whether I was useful at the front, so I started studying combat tactics. I also attended paramedic courses.

Attitude towards women in the army

I will not say that I felt skeptical in the army about being a female. My colleagues are all normal and educated people.

There are no stereotypically thinking individuals in the team who could make claims, distrust, or complaints. In the army, women do their best. Each of them is an expert in the field in which she works.

I can describe only one situation that occurred to me. There were no more similar ones.

The guys were making something in their free time after combat missions. One of them asked me: ‘Dasha, do you know where the jigsaw is?’. Before I could answer, another said: ‘Why are you asking her, how does she know?’.

I told them I knew everything I had in stock. They realised that I could tell the difference between a tool used for metal and a tool used for wood.

People who devote all their heart and soul to their service do not care what people think of them. They do their job.

Advice for women who want to mobilise

Mobilisation will affect absolutely everyone. Even those who are hiding from it. It is naive to think that you can sit out somewhere. It does not matter if you are a man or a woman with a military speciality.

The war will not end tomorrow. Nor will it be over in a year. We are suffering losses, so someone has to replace us. It can be both women and men.

Before you mobilise, try to go through a few physical, emotional and intellectual training sessions.

If you can withstand it and realise that you can work at this pace for a year, two or three years, no questions asked. Any speciality is yours, even machine gunner. If you realise at the stage of training that you are not fit, then you should not mobilise.

Also, if you are a good accountant, clerk, then you are welcome — this is a very necessary specialty in the army.

After all, we need not only medics, machine gunners, tankers and grenade launchers. There are still many rear professions, without which we will not get water or food in the trenches.

Try to go to school in a peaceful city and feel your ability to understand which specialty is right for you.

What a professional commander should be like

First and foremost, a commander is a normal, understanding and sensitive person who feels his or her personnel. A good commander assigns tasks that can be performed by the military, given their skills, abilities and capabilities.

A commander needs to understand that their guys can get injured or, unfortunately, die. A commander need to be ready to communicate with the relatives of the deceased and explain to them why and how it happened. In other words, a commander must be resilient, strong and intelligent, because without a clear head, nothing will work.

Commanders have to change — this is a normal procedure. We have almost all of them raised from soldiers, junior sergeants. They come up with new ideas, which are well received by our management and nobody puts grit in the machine. Commanders have room to develop and implement their initiatives.

The commander must be at the front line

The hardest thing is to make decisions when you know it is too dangerous near your position, but I tell the guys: ‘Guys, please, we have to go’. They work under fire because they know they have to.

I'm waiting for them, and every three minutes I check in on the radio to see what's going on. I'm sitting here, worrying about their arrival, entry and exit.

It is easier for me to do something myself when I realise that it is too dangerous at the frontline or the situation is unclear.

If I don't know what's going on, I can't ask others and assign them a combat task. Because I don't feel the atmosphere in which this task will be performed.

First, I have to feel for myself how frequent the arrivals are, how far the contact with the enemy is. Only then do I have the moral right to say: ‘Go there, do this’.

Modern warfare is impossible without drones

We lack night reconnaissance drones and night FPV.

The greatest need is for DJI Mavic 3T drones, which we use around the clock. These drones are used to bring infantry to positions, find equipment, cover the assault, and notify of its beginning.

We have also used drones to do everything from bring a tank to a position, to escort the enemy to surrender, to drop notes, water and batteries.

The best option is to use factory-made drones that are already on the assembly line, and I don't worry about whether it will take off. When you have 10 completely different models, you have to deal with them for several hours.

Do peaceful cities feel the war?

I see that there is no war in Kyiv. Everyone is living a normal civilian life. Kyiv residents only remember the war when there is shelling, and then they support the Ukrainian army.

Communication must be established between the government and people involved in the reintegration, rehabilitation and adaptation of defenders.

Civilians need to adapt to military society, not the military to civilian society.

Communication, adaptation and psychological strategies need to be implemented now, as well as various courses for the families of defenders. This is a whole layer of work that should be done by non-military people who are sitting in a trench.

Those who do not help the army and do not understand why to help, unfortunately, will be plunged into this war, but from the other side. If you want to do something, but are hesitant and don't know how to help, come to my battalion for an open day. I will show you what we do and how we do it.

My children will not know what bloodshed is

If one does not care about what is happening at the front and is trying to swim across the Tisa River, I would not want such a person in my unit. If one is ‘‘pulled by the ears’’ and said to serve, they would run away from a position anyway.

All my сomrades know what they are fighting for. You cannot force this feeling into a person's head. One has to look for it in their heart.

But I understand that this is my country, and I have my own piece of work. I don't want my children to learn about bloodshed, violence and the like.

Ukrainians must unite as they did in the first days of the invasion. With the same strength, motivation and will to live. Look how many new graves have appeared in the cemetery. And this does not motivate you? Don't you understand why you have to go to war?