Military training school: How to fall in love with the army
It all started with a conversation between Olesia and her friend Andrii, a choreographer at her art school. Toward winter, he began to fade away. And one day, he gave up altogether, saying, “I'm done, I'm going to the military enlistment office.”
In this passionate impulse, Olesia saw confusion. He realized that he had to do something, but he didn't know what to do. Suddenly she thought: how many others are like Andrii? Motivated but confused. How many others are there who are not motivated; who do not know what to do and are afraid?
Then Olesia Korzhenevska, a volunteer, producer, and owner of the 9¾ School, had the idea to create a completely different school — one that would prepare for the military. The idea was immediately picked up by Olesia's military friends. In a few days, she no longer knew how to accept so many people who wanted to take the training.
The article by hromadske discusses how not to condemn anyone for being afraid to join the army, but instead to “open the door” to military professions; what the base should be like; what needs to be changed in mobilization; and why public initiatives to train civilians are not enough today.
“Our task is to make people fall in love with this strange structure called the army”
Olesia Korzhenevska, smiling, calls her initiative “a school that makes you fall in love with the army and brings victory closer”. She also says it is a “school of gentle mobilization”.
“Each person has their motivation, and it is at very different stages of depth. Some people have been preparing on their own for over a year, others have not even started yet. And some people come to us because they are afraid of government initiatives.
Our task is to make people fall in love with this strange structure called the army. After all, if there is nothing romantic about war at all, I think there is about the army. All this brotherhood… It's very impressive,” Olesia emphasizes in her interview with hromadske.
She knows what she is talking about. Her military friends are countless. And behind her is a long history of volunteering, which made her burn out 9 years ago, promising herself to “never do it again”. However, Olesia has successfully failed her promise to herself since the beginning of the full-scale war. Now every month she is at the front to deliver another aid to one of the units or brigades and, if she is lucky, to see her significant other at the same time.
“So when my close friend and the choreographer of our school, Andrii, came and said, ‘That's it, I'm going to apply,’ I said, ‘Wait, slow down a bit. If they take you, they will take you, but you have to stop now’.”
Because, for example, I couldn't do that for my significant other. He was a sound engineer, and he went to the enlistment office wearing jeans and was immediately thrown into the battles for Kyiv. So I said to my friend: ‘I can do it for you, but you need to be prepared and know where you are going’.”
Some people have realized that it is no longer “if” but “when”. Some people do not understand anything at all, they are just scared and confused.Olesia Korzhenevska, founder of the Zesyky 9 ¾ school
“I decided that I would try to do something so that people around me — my friends and acquaintances who, for various reasons, did not volunteer for the army — had the opportunity to learn the basics of military professions. That's how my local initiative came about. After I wrote a short post on Facebook, I had 40 students in a few days.”
The project was implemented based on her school of audiovisual arts 9¾. It didn't take long to choose the name of the new school, which is preparing for the army. “Zesyky” is a diminutive form of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The word was coined by a 13-year-old boy Mark, the son of Olesia's friend and volunteer Kateryna. Putting his hand on his heart under the oath of allegiance to Azov, the boy asked his mother if he was a “real zesyk” and “what does one need to do to become one?”
“Oh, so you are stormtroopers at heart!”
Olesia Korzhenevska still calls her project just a “demo version” of the school. As of now, it is completely free for everyone, and Olesia is funding it herself.
There are several disciplines: theory and practice of drone control, Tactical medicine is the provision of pre-hospital care aimed primarily at eliminating preventable causes of death and serious health consequencestactical medicine, and Close Quarter BattleCQB techniques. The school holds both online and offline meetings with military personnel of various professions — scouts, stormtroopers, aerial reconnaissance officers, infantrymen, etc. However, there is no permanent program yet.
“Classes are held on request from the group, as well as on suggestions from me or the teachers. For example, Pavlo Skurenivskyi, who is in charge of drones, simply texts in the general chat: ‘Guys, dear ‘zesyky’, tomorrow we are going to fly at the training ground. There are 8 places available’.
The first one to get up got the slippers. We gathered two crews, got into the cars, and drove off. Sometimes students make a request themselves, or I tell them: ‘Oh, do you want a sniper to come to us? Or do you want us to do CQB classes, but go somewhere else to practice?’ And it's great, everyone is loaded. That's how it works here,” Olesia says.
First of all, the “zesyky” must undergo a tactical medicine course, conducted by certified instructors of the A volunteer medical unit that is part of the Freelance Center for Tactical Medicine at the Armed Forces of UkraineTactical Medicine North unit. After the course, everyone receives a personal first aid kit.
Olesia assures us that when people begin to understand how everything works, the confusion disappears.
“They realize that they are not the only one in this — there are 49 other people like them sitting there, who also don't understand anything. And they are slowly learning.
We can’t say that we teach them military specialties. This is not the case. This is a school that very tolerantly and carefully opens the doors to various military professions in an introductory way. And people can figure out for themselves what suits them and is more interesting to them. Some people are super interested in aerial reconnaissance, while others are only interested in tactical medicine.”
Many boys and girls have discovered CQB for themselves. I look at them and think: ‘Oh, so you're stormtroopers at heart!’ And before that, they were so afraid and worried…Olesia Korzhenevska, founder of the Zesyky 9 ¾ school
“My daughter is serving, and the boys are thinking about how to hide. I decided to motivate them by my example”
“It is significant that half of the group are girls,” Lesia notes.
When we arrived at the training ground to see the practical drone control training, we saw that out of eight people, three were women. Each has her motivation.
“I don't set myself the task of joining the army right after graduation, but I want to be prepared for different situations,” explains Natalka Shkurat. She is attending classes with her husband. “This is the main motivation — to be more prepared and hardened.”
Olena Shakhbanova, 53, has her own business and is engaged in landscaping. Both her daughter and son-in-law are currently serving in the military. Olena shares that she often felt embarrassed when she and her colleagues traveled to different sites to work.
The guys are looking for ways to hide or drive around the checkpoint. I can't tell them: you're bad, and my daughter is in the military — she's good. I decided to motivate them by my example.Olena Shakhbanova, entrepreneur
“I don't know if it will work yet. But they all know that I went to study. Maybe they will feel a little embarrassed themselves… I understand the risks that I may lose my employees. But I'm sorry, someone has to protect the country,” Olena adds.
The group is training on so-called household drones. They are divided into two groups: one navigator, and one pilot. Then they switch. They practice drone control and spatial thinking exercises.
The practice was preceded by theory: first, students are introduced to the main technical characteristics and how to safely handle the “bird”. First, they have to set it up and check the battery charge — how warm it is.
To acquire piloting skills, you need at least 5 practical lessons. The first ones are not easy. It's one thing when the copter is facing you, and you steer it up or down. It's another when you need to turn it, for example, 90 degrees.
“Ninety degrees to the left!” thecoach gives the command, “No! Forward relative to us! To the left!”
“Ahh, the key words are ‘relative to us’! So much for spatial thinking. I have a limp with it. My brain doesn't work!” Olena complains. But after an hour of practice, she is already rejoicing in her success.
“Aaaaaaah! The epiphany is coming!”
“It is not difficult. You just have to get used to it,” reassures Pavlo Skurenivskyi, who trains civilians as a volunteer. A former film director and videographer, he is now a pilot training instructor. He works with both military and civilians. He says that many people are put off by the high price of such courses.
We encourage civilians to study. This initiative is free, and the course at my school costs between 10 and 20 thousand hryvnias.Pavlo Skurenivskyi, drone pilot training instructor
The instructor is convinced that one way or another, everyone will end up in the war because there is a critical shortage of people. We ask him whether, in such circumstances, drone training is currently in the greatest demand in the army.
Mastering any military skill is useful. But at the front, there is a really big shortage of pilots of copters, FPVs, and drones.Pavlo Skurenivskyi, drone pilot training instructor
“What volunteers do should be done by the state”
A big gap in the knowledge of most civilians is the lack of understanding of the structure of the Armed Forces, emphasizes a junior sergeant of the Territorial Defense forces with the call sign Skif in a conversation with hromadske. In civilian life, he had management experience in an IT company. Since March 2022, the man has been in the army, and while he is on leave, he gives an introductory lecture on the structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“This is generally the basis on which everything else is layered. If you don't know the structure of the Armed Forces, it can be problematic to exist in this system: to understand who your immediate commander is, who you should contact, who is responsible for what, and how you should act,” Skif notes.
The military adds that another key problem is the Soviet approach to mobilization.
Mobilization in our country is carried out according to normative documents that date back to the 1940s.Junior sergeant of the Territorial Defense forces, call sign Skif
“These processes are not adapted to the modern world. Everything is happening as prescribed by law. Today, the public has no clear understanding of who is responsible for what.”
In his opinion, there should be more of such exercises to prepare for the army, but they should be done in coordination with the Defense Forces and the authorities. As an example, civilian training activities are already taking place based on battalions and brigades of the Territorial Defense forces.
At the same time, Skif complains that there are still not enough public initiatives.
“What volunteers do to train civilians is only a partial realization of what the state should do. The state component exists partly on paper, and partly in reality. But, again, it exists mainly at the expense of a separate initiative of individuals.
What we are doing now is more about knowledge than skills. But if a person engages in networking, and develops a circle of friends and acquaintances that will help them adapt to the military environment, it will be much better than the situation of February 24, 2022, when civilians who did not understand how the Armed Forces work came. And the Armed Forces did not understand what to do with so many civilians.”
Many civilians do not understand that if a person joins the Armed Forces, it does not mean that they will be sent to some forest plantation. This is not the case.Junior sergeant of the Territorial Defense forces, call sign Skif
The soldier explains: “Nowadays, most people have a natural fear of combat. But any mobilized person can be sent to completely different places, for retraining or left in the reserve or in the rear. There are many variations.”
“Heroes are already running out”
“Such experience will not be superfluous,” Pavlo Korobov, a 41-year-old drumming teacher, explains of his motivation to learn the basics of military affairs.
“I have set myself the task of simply developing in this business. At least if I am called up, I will be ready. Even if I am not. We still don't know how it will end. And whether it will end in our lifetime at all.”
One of those who came to the military training school not just out of curiosity, but to find a job in the army, is Oleksandr Domashenko. He is 47 years old. At one time, he used to conduct excursions in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. He has already lost many colleagues in the war.
Dosimetrists died, historians died, and we lost a Ph.D. in history, an expert on Polissia.Oleksandr Domashenko, former guide in the Exclusion Zone
“Five of my fellows died who said: ‘San Sanych, you stay here, we'll be the first to go’. Some of them are still fighting. And I am going to go. I see that the heroes are already running out. I see that I have to go. Everyone will fight.”
“The state continues to do everything in the Soviet style, there is no communication with the reserve. I don't see people being talked to. Instead, the question is existential: Do we exist or we do not exist. Everyone understands this. And the state pretends that it does not,” the man complains in a conversation with hromadske.
Oleksandr literally “jumped into the last carriage”, recalls Olesia Korzhenevska, the school's organizer. After all, the enrollment was already closed. Nevertheless, when she learned about the man's motivation as a “potential recruit”, she accepted him as the 41st student in the course. She couldn't stop there — as of early February, 50 people were already enrolled.
More than ten soldiers in total volunteer to teach at her school. The training has been going on for almost a month, but she does not know when the course will end. She predicts that it will be in about two months. And in March, a new enrollment will start.
“Right now, I don't charge any money for tuition and don't ask for donations. But I would really like to bring this demo version of the school to something worthwhile. To graduate the first students of our school and, having a certain understanding of how this will happen, to apply for a grant, get funding, or make tuition paid, but with an adequate price,” says Olesia.
As practice shows, free training loses value very quickly.Olesia Korzhenevskaya, founder of the Zesyky 9 ¾ school
“I also joke because I always tell my students and friends: be very specific in your request for space. On the New Year's Eve, I made a resolution to double the size of the school. Two days later, I had 40 more students. I scaled the school twice. The only question is that I still don't earn anything from it. But there are exactly twice as many students: there were 40, and now there are more than 80.”
You can sign up for the spring enrollment at Zesyky 9 ¾.
You can also support the Zesyky 9 ¾ school by donating to the bank or PayPal with the comment “Zesyky”.
PayPal: o.korzhenevska@gmail.com
Bank card number: 5375 4112 1420 8915