«Elvis» on the Front Line

"Elvis" is a guardsman in the “Donbas” battalion of the National Guard. He was born in Seydove - a town in Donetsk region with the population over 24 thousand people. Lately, he lived nearby Zhytomyr city in the Central Ukraine. He was an active participant in Euromaidan and returned to his homeland as a National Guard soldier to fight the separatists. "It was hard for me to come back to Donbass in such a role", says Elvis, "I lost many friends, because they think I am a traitor. But I am not against them. I am not a citizen of an oblast, I am a citizen of Ukraine". Elvis has a wife and three children. The youngest of them is a 1 year old. "And this is exactly why I am here; so that my children don't have to do the brutal things I have to do now" - Elvis explains his choice to join the National Guard. In addition to National Guard duties, Elvis sings a lot. This film is one of the series “The East” by Hromadske filmed in the Donbass region.
/Bohdan Kutiepov