In February he noticed that something was developing: sick people were also ordered to train. “It turns out that my machine gun had a broken belt and was rusted. The first night at the shooting range, the cartridge case got stuck.”
Marching orders meant marching
On February 20, his unit would then have received a marching order – they had to run to a new location. Three days later there was a visit from the division commander, who raised the pay to $69. “It was a clear sign that something serious was about to happen.”
On the night of February 24, Filatiev was then woken up by artillery fire. He didn’t know whether advancing Ukrainian soldiers would be fended off or even NATO troops. But it was clear to him that a war had begun. Later he found out that there were marching orders to Cherson. His commander would have had no idea what was going on.
“All our training took place on paper, our strategy was hopelessly outdated. We had the same tactics as our grandfathers,” writes the Russian ex-soldier in his memoirs. “The first to attack were destroyed.” The cold could be felt in the bones. When his unit reached the port of Cherson the next day, the looting began. “I found a hat and took it.”
Paramedics were out of syringes
In April, Filatiev then fell ill with dirty eyes from artillery fire. He had to fight on for five days, sometimes with one eye closed, until he was evacuated. “The paramedic told me to tell the doctors he didn’t have any painkillers or shots.” He saw soldiers in the hospital who stuttered, who had amnesia and others who drank heavily. He had to pay for his medical care himself.
“For two months I tried to get treatment from the army: I went to the prosecutor’s office, I went to the command, to the head of the hospital, and I wrote to the president”. When that didn’t work, he applied for his release on medical grounds. The leadership sent the documents to the prosecutor. He was accused of shirking. “It was a bluff that was used a lot to get people to go back to their unit.” He has since left the army. His book is a reckoning with war and its leaders.