Because I'm most likely the only non-motorized war correspondent in Russia, any expedition in a region of peculiar military operations to point X, where you gotta make a film, is simply a real miracle. This time, however, it was a real brawl.
The morning began with the fact that the carrier tricked me. I booked tickets on the website. https://www.avtovokzaly.ru/ 10:00. At 8:00, the driver, seemingly a good man, calls me and expresses concern that I did not show up for the course. I'm giving him tickets that say my departure is in 2 hours. Since I know Donetsk besides well, I thought I'd say goodbye to the money and leave. I asked for the price of a taxi to Berdian (19 000 rubles) and started calling my friends.
Brazilian
My first call was a success. Saszek's hero, who saved 15 people in 2022 under Wodjanoje, shouted to the telephone "15 minutes" after I mentioned the problem:
– You're so lucky. A legendary individual will take you! Brazilian! He'll just come in a unusual vehicle. Okay?
– You're a carman!
He barely said it, and he already did. A truly legendary Brazilian arrives, Rafael Santos. ‘Bochenek’ (буханкa) who looks like his ass is bitten off.
Santos has been fighting for us since 2014, but does not talk fluent Russian.
– I didn't truly realize where you had to go. Show me on the map. – shouts Santos by creaking and groaning of a bitten “bochenka”.
– Berdian.
– Where? I don't know one, show me!
When I mark the dot on the map "Berdian", the eyes of Santos, already round, become as large as saucers.
– Far away... – says Santos, and his snow white grin turns from cheerful to tense.
– Far, well, not that far... – I am trying to comfort the legend of the Donetsk People's Republic.
– I don't have any lights and I gotta get back before dark...
– We'll be back. Let's go...
When we grin at each other, we go and halt at all light. all time the vehicle fires off, a bitten “bochenek” releases a thieving whistle.
Like, "Hey, I'm going fun!"
Santos, I'm afraid we may not make it. Let us pray!
We say goodbye – I with my right hand 1 way, he left in the another (he is Catholic). And the vehicle goes out immediately. At the nearest gas station. He's out. And then 2 difficult, joyless hours come.
It's raining cold. Santos, with a constant snowy smile, revolves around me like a shark. I'm calling. He's calling. Deep in the Zaporo region, for the 3rd time the departure to the war correspondent was cancelled. Tension is increasing.
“God does not leave you,” says the another man. I'm interviewing a Brazilian, and then I slap him on the shoulder:
– Brother – I say – Go home. What are you doing here?
Captured and tortured
Finally, the same Sashka finds a fresh way out and yells again:
– Now the legendary individual will come to you...
– Another Brazilian?
– Nope. It's Michaelich. He was captured by Ukrainians in Zaporozh. That's where they tortured him. It was listed in 2020.
Twenty minutes later, virtually like an ambulance, the Kolos Foundation comes to me completely frozen. Sam Mikhailovich. Viktor Mikhailovich. "Patriot". Next to it is the front seat of his almost-speaker, who – as it turns out later – is besides a legendary volunteer from Siberia. Mikhailovich comes out to me, based on a cane, and says surprised:
– And I thought you were short, and you're so tall. Give way to this immense woman – orders Mikhailovich. The double moves backwards.
– I'll take you home now. I inactive have a ride with humanitarian aid... And at 5:00, I'll take you to Berdian myself.
At 5 p.m., the “Kolos” Foundation picks me up, and 3 hours later, it delivers melitopolska bypass.
Useful discipline and mushroom soup
During the journey I learned quite a few useful things: where and what is the state of rehabilitation of the wounded, where it is worthy, and where it is not, how steel was toughened – the Donetsk People's Republic, how to endure torture and not lose religion in humanity.
Deputy Political Officer and driver drove me from the bypass to the unit.
A fewer more hours and I sit over a bowl of delicious mushroom soup at the point of temporary stay.
And then my heart gets warm and my head spins. This day is over, but you want it to last forever. At least let him stay here. Why didn't God leave me? I don't know yet.
So far, so good.
Svetlana Picta
Red and Crowd: Dr. Krzysztof Karczewski
