“Dumbest thing is to be out of politics”. From pediatrician to commander of the Honor Company — Oleksandr Yabchanka

“He asked me: ‘Sania, can you shoot?’ And I replied: ‘No, I'm a doctor’,” Oleksandr Yabchanka recalls his first day at war.

Pediatrician, civic activist, and participant in the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity. On February 24, he did not go to a working meeting, but packed his things and went to Kyiv. Today, pediatrician Yabchanka is the commander of the Honor Company of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion.

In a conversation with a soldier and hromadske host Serhii Hnezdilov, Oleksandr Yabchanka spoke about how he stopped a grader on Bankova Street, how he met Honor, how he got to the front, and how he became a commander.

“Honor”

“Honor” appeared long before the full-scale invasion. Honor is the call sign of Orest Kvach, a hero who died at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. His friends, who fought with him and were involved in civic activism at the beginning of the Maidan, took his call sign and created a movement.

When the full-scale war began, the people who were part of this movement became part of a volunteer formation, and then part of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, named after Dmytro Kotsiubailo.

How Yabchanka got to the Maidan

It was actually quite funny. It was the end of November 2013. I was a pediatrician and an activist. I tried to do some useful things for the hospital where I worked. It was a specialized medical hospital that treated severe pathologies. And, of course, there was a lack of everything, including equipment. I remember that our X-ray machine was made in 1976, it was older than me.

I organized cultural events aimed at improving the material and technical situation of the hospital. As part of this activity, I was invited to Denmark.

It all started in Kyiv, when students took to the Maidan, and I was in Denmark. I went with one goal in mind, but I was doing something else — just watching the hromadske from morning to night, because there was a revolution.

I told the Danes about the Maidan, and also the Orange Revolution. For me, it was the finest hour of Ukraine. However, after the Orange Maidan, I was very offended by the authorities and did probably the stupidest thing you can do — I became someone who is “out of politics”.

“We elected a normal president, Yushchenko, but why aren’t we happy? I don't believe you anymore, I'm not interested in politics anymore.” This is a stupid position, I admit it. Fortunately, I realized this during the Revolution of Dignity.

I returned from Denmark and was about to go to Kyiv. But before that, I consulted my girlfriend about what I should do.

Lesia was already a PhD in political science at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv at the time. She said, “Look, there are three types of resistance. Terrorist resistance is 5% effective, violent resistance is 24% effective, and non-violent resistance is up to 50% effective.” The latter was suitable for me.

She explained that there are three important points in non-violent protest: not to engage in violent confrontation with security forces, not to seize government buildings, and something else about communication. I told her I understood everything.

Grader on Bankova Street and grenade on Hrushevskoho Street

So I went to Kyiv. I spent the night at my friends' place, and in the morning I went to the Maidan. It was December 1, when, according to various sources, there were a million people there.

There was something incomprehensible being said by the leaders of the Maidan, who had never been leaders of the Maidan, but they thought they were. From what they said, you didn't understand what to do next. Here we are, a million of us — that is cool, there is a sense of victory. And then what do we do, what are our actions? There were only slogans.

We went to Bankova Street. And there a non-violent protest was not possible. People were riding toward police officers on a tractor, on a grader. Knowing that this was less effective than a non-violent protest, I stood in front of that tractor and said: “No, this is a mistake!”

Polozhynskyi was also there, and I met him there. And we prevented people from driving that grader. They later dragged us away. Of course, I thought at the time that they were provocateurs.

But I noticed one thing then. I could have been crushed there. Instead, these people pulled me away and even engaged in discussions with me. And the discussions were very strange. There was a guy in a balaclava in front of me, and I was telling him about non-violent protest. He told me:“Listen, you're weird. They beat you the day before yesterday. It's fair for me to do this, if it's different for you, go do something else.”

And I thought to myself: this person completely disagrees with me, but he is discussing with me. If he is a provocateur, he is a really strange provocateur. That was the first time I ever met this audience. That was the “Honor”.

A month and a half passed, draconian laws had been passed, and I realized that these guys were right. I was running around Hrushevskoho Street with my medical backpack. When something was more complicated, people were immediately taken to medical centers.

This is how my direct interaction with these people began. And then there was a moment that actually changed me. I was running along Hrushevskoho Street, turned around, and, as I remember now, a grenade was rolling towards me, and I was running towards it by inertia. And I realized that it was going to explode right under my feet. And suddenly there was a shield between me and that grenade. It exploded there, and the guy looked at me:“Are you okay?”. And he took off.

And I thought, just imagine, this guy saw a grenade coming towards me, ran up, and then kept running. And it wasn't that he wanted to make a good performance — it was just in his head: if somebody is in danger and I can protect them, I will protect them. This was very significant for me.

Beginning of a full-scale invasion

On February 23, the guys from “Honor” came to Lviv and said: “Sania, let's go, there will be a war in the morning.” Maliar told me this. I told him: “Maliar, the war should have started several times already. I have a meeting tomorrow morning.” At that time, I had just started a contract with a serious international medical organization, and everything was in a grown-up way.

The guys left in the evening, and I, my friend, and some people from Lviv stayed. We stayed until late at night, until about 3:30. And I went home because I had a meeting in the morning.

At about 6 a.m., my mother tried to wake me up for the first time. I didn't wake up because I hadn't slept much. Then she tried for the second time. She told me: “The war started”. I thought, “Yeah, I'm definitely asleep.” Then I realized that I was awake. And I got a text message from Maliar: “How is your meeting?”. And I replied: “I'm getting ready.”

I got ready, got in the car, and thought, there wouldn’t be any traffic jams from Lviv to Kyiv, and I would be there in six hours. But no. Somewhere near Zhytomyr, the first cars started driving towards me. I was still honking at them. I'm coming to defend the capital, and you're running away, driving on the wrong side of the road.

Then the whole row was filled, then two rows, and then I was driving on the side of the road and I felt really bad for honking, and I still do. You drive slowly and look, and there are people with children and pets. You can see that people are running away. And you look at the adults, and there’s hopelessness in their eyes.

I arrived in Kyiv at night. In the morning, at 11 o'clock, I arrived at the base. I was given an assault rifle. And Filia asked me: “Sania, do you know how to shoot?” I said: “No, I'm a doctor”. He said: “Okay, you will learn.” And I did.

Brothers-in-arms and service in the battalion

I got to meet legendary people. Maliar is one of the symbols of the Maidan. Filia is the legendary leader of the “Honor” movement. And, of course, when you get into such an environment, you can't “backtrack” anymore.

Of course, at first, I was a little lost. In medicine, I had the necessary skills to both help and treat. Because it was a benefit that I understood.

For the first few months, while we were in the “Honor group”, I realized that I was needed. I had to set up an evacuation system and be a physician for these people. These were two simple tasks and I managed to do them.

And when we got to the Da Vinci battalion, I was lost. I saw the Ulf medical service there and realized that I would not do any better there. Everything there works like clockwork.

That's how I started learning to fly a Mavic. And then from May 2022 to March 2023, my main job was aerial reconnaissance. And then I was promoted and became an infantryman. It was an unforgettable experience.

I have a story about this. It was summer, probably June or July, in the area of Bohorodychne, the Donetsk region. It was the last village captured by the enemy. And there were very fierce battles. They still had the best artillery, and the ratio was 1:10. And we flew there, there was no night flying then, so the main battles took place during the day.

You would drive past our positions, and there was always someone from the infantry standing there drinking coffee. They looked neat as I noticed. But they were covered with dust. And I felt so guilty. I was going to leave in the evening, take a shower, and go to bed. And here they were. I had a feeling that I was not doing enough compared to the infantry holding the positions.

In March 2023, I was sitting in a dugout called a “zhmur” in the mud, being shelled non-stop with everything that was there. Another attack was just repelled, I was smoking a cigarette, thinking: “Well, moralist. Are you doing enough now? Now don't whine.” And I'm not whining, I'm proud, really.

Enemy tactics and robot warfare

The line is held by infantry and the airborne troops who hold the positions. With all due respect to the entire Defense Forces, it is held on the shoulders of the people who are on the frontline.

So our key task now is to help them stay there. At least, so that they do not have to drag everything there with their hands so that they stay in dugouts as much as possible, and so that all logistics, evacuation, reconnaissance, additional reconnaissance, mining, demining, fire damage, electronic warfare, electronic intelligence are done by robots. This should be done differently. This is my responsibility now.

As of now, the staffing of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, which includes a company of ground robotic systems, is under consideration by the command. Undoubtedly, there is such a discussion in society. In addition, a special type of troops has been created, which is very cool. We just need to implement our plans.

Ukrainians came up with the idea of using wedding drones in war. We also invented FPV drones. But the trouble is that an authoritarian regime, especially a totalitarian one, which Russia has now turned into, has another advantage: one person decides everything and there are no rules, procedures, etc. For example, they were told to “make” FPV drones, and they “made” them.

The same thing awaits us with robots. From the moment the Russians realize that this is effective, and until they have more robots than we have (because they have more industry), we need to be at another technological level. And so on.

And if we keep moving like this, making some intellectual leaps, then by the time they catch up with us, the number of their losses should increase so much that this war of attrition will be a war of attrition for Russia. If we fight them symmetrically, we will simply run out of people faster and that's it.

Now, no doubt, their losses are higher. Unfortunately, these are not the same losses as they were near Bakhmut. During that month and a half, the losses were 1:13. If we inflicted such losses on them constantly, it would be a war of attrition for them.

Unfortunately, they did not suffer such losses near Kupiansk. Because we no longer had a technical advantage. By that time, they already had more Mavics and were making more “dumps” on us than we were on them. Because they have a hell of resources and a hell of people. And they are learning too.

For example, in 2022, Verkhnekamianske, home to the Lysychansk oil refinery, experienced several attacks a day. These were combined meat and iron assaults. They just marched in columns — 2-3 tanks in front, then a few more IFVs behind them. And you adjusted it all and blew them away. Now they launch fewer and fewer such attacks.

Now they work in small groups of infantry, just covering everything with bodies, but eventually, some idiot will get in, gain a foothold, then a few more idiots will be sent to the first one, and when they gain a foothold, an experienced group will go in. The experienced ones come to a good spot.

Thus, we cannot underestimate the enemy. And they are now shifting their economy to the military and mobilizing even more people. The Russians will not run out of people, so we must always run ahead in terms of technology.

The next step is the “robot war”. We need to move from idea to implementation as quickly as possible. I dream that by 2024 we will have rolled back the technology of robotic warfare as much as possible and that in 2025 we will have done maximum damage.