24/ "Nobody wants the truth. About the numerous losses due to the fact that the mobilised were sent to slaughter, and experienced contract soldiers guard warehouses and shops. Although we are promised the opposite.
Full-scale invasion and national resilience, broadcasted live.
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Battalion encircled by Khokols without support
"Guys fighting there told me that on June 20, the Khokols encircled an entire battalion and opened fire. During the battle, the commander requested artillery support, but none was provided, and the boys were callously abandoned."
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Injured survivors applied tourniquets, refused pain relief due to adrenaline.
19/ "The guys applied tourniquets, I refused promedol [trimeperidine] as I was moving quite well myself due to the adrenaline rush. We were all injured, but, thank God, we survived.
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Survivor recounts shrapnel wounds, concussion, and electric shock-like headache after incident.
18/ "I was unconscious for about five minutes, when I woke up I had a terrible headache, as if I was electrocuted, sparks in front of my eyes like from welding. I received shrapnel wounds to my head, both arms and legs, two broken ribs, contusion of eardrums.
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Survivor’s account of a bombing
On New Year's Eve, we were hit hard. In January, I was wounded. Four of us were at the position, and then the shelling started—mortars and a tank were active. We went down into the basement; I was closer to the exit when a shell struck.
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Why line up a regiment in an open field?
I asked one: "Why did you line up the whole regiment in a bare field? What if [an attack] comes at us now?" He replied, "When it comes, then we'll think about it."
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Five days later, displaced from Millerovo to the war zone in Svatove.
Five days later we were taken away from Millerovo to go to the war zone. They said that we would stand in Svatove in the "green" area [the territory that was previously captured by Russia and had to be garrisoned].
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Locals treated us better than officers
10/ "We travelled to the nearest villages, bought meat from people ourselves and then cooked normal food. The locals treated us differently, but still better than some officers who could only yell and line us up in the fields.
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Alarmed by lack of stamps on military cards, data stored digitally
7/ "I was alarmed by the fact that there was no stamp in our military cards – only an inscription in pencil with the number of regiment, battalion and company. The officers said that all the data was stored in a computer.
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Uniforms, torn buttons, and cold tiled floors: a tough start to a journey
6/ "The first two days we slept in some cabins on a cold tiled floor. We had no normal clothes; in a single day all the buttons on our jacket tore off. We wore uniforms we bought ourselves.