To learn to shoot 30 min before battle, to transport weapons, to transmit coordinates of Russians: partisans in Kherson

When Russia advanced from Crimea to Kherson, hundreds of volunteers joined the territorial defense. On February 24, they received assault rifles at the military enlistment and registration office and their first task was to cover the withdrawal of the Armed Forces from Kherson. Some of them learned to shoot half an hour before the meeting with the elite Russian troops. After the first heavy battles for Kherson, the territorial defense fighters either left for the mainland or went underground for several months and only later got out of the occupation and liberated Kherson in the ranks of the 124th separate territorial defense brigade. Now the guerrilla fighters can slightly lift the curtain on the Kherson underground.

“Hrybochok”

On the morning of February 24, Serhii and his friend Zhenia called their friend from Kherson territorial defense and said they also wanted to join. At the location, they were given a list of things to take with them and told they had an hour to pack their things. When they returned with their packed backpacks, they were put on buses and taken to the outskirts of Kherson, from where a few days later they were sent to their first battle, given an assault rifle and two cartridges of ammunition.

“I saw many people there for the first and last time. Some went straight to Kakhovka HPP. It was probably the hardest there. Together with my friend, I personally went to Antonivka Bridge,” says Serhii with the call sign “Hrybochok”.

The territorial defense fighters helped to defend the bridge for two days. Half an hour before the meeting with the Russian troops, Serhii was taught how to reload the magazine. At that moment, he did not know how to do anything else and he had nothing else. Even his helmet had to be removed from a dead Russian. Russians were landing from helicopters instead. The fact that he survived those battles, he calls nothing but “luck”.

“It was really scary then because the Russians still had a professional army,” Serhii recalls.

The occupiers were somewhat delayed, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine withdrew to Mykolaiv, and Serhii and his comrades received an order to withdraw to Kherson, “to sit quietly at home and wait for the command to leave”.

“Miedvied”

On the night of February 24, Oleh “Miedvied” Glushchuk was taxi driving. At 4:30 he began to receive many orders. He called his friend and asked if the war began. His friend was surprised.

“Look what addresses I get — to the Security Service, to the military enlistment office”, he explained his guesses and went to fulfill the first "military" order. After Oleh took the first passenger, Kherson was already “bombed”. Oleh decided to go home and sleep a little. When he woke up at noon, he went to the military registration and enlistment office with his friend. They were given weapons and at four in the morning on February 25 were sent to defend the Darivka bridge, where they stood until the next day. After that, the weapons were taken away from the soldiers.

“Our commander told us to hand over our weapons and that buses would come and take us to Mykolaiv. We handed over the weapons, and waited, then he received a call and was told that the buses were blown up and no one would come. We were thinking of going to Mykolaiv on foot, and then we met our military, artillerymen, who said that Kherson was free and we could return,” says Miedvied.

After returning to Kherson, Oleh went to the first rally with a friend and since then he went to protests every day until his friend was detained. After three days, the Russians released him, and he advised Oleh to leave. “Miedvied” says that during the two months of his stay in the underground he transferred information to the Security Service of Ukraine about the location of Russian troops in Kherson.

“Yatsyk” and Serhii. Underground

Another soldier of the 124th Brigade Andrii “Yatsyk” Yatsenko joined the territorial defense on April 1, when Kherson had been occupied for a month. During this time, he saw what the Russian army was doing and did not want that the occupation troops to be onto someone from his family. Andrii became a partisan. Together with a friend, he rented an apartment, which none of his family knew about. He drove around the city and collected information about the movement of Russian equipment and the location of checkpoints, which he transferred to the mainland through a friend.

Then the units of the Special Operations Forces contacted Serhii on their own. Through a messenger, the Special Operations Forces sent Serhii's group, which consisted of him and two of his companions who were also partisans, videos with a changed voice and a blurred face. At first, they were “tested” by giving them small tasks: throwing paint on Russian posters, for example. Having made sure of their reliability, the “Hrybochok” group was given more complex tasks. For example, to transport a package with ammunition from a stash to another area.

“The first thing about which I may speak is, perhaps, coordination. I mean, some guys were doing something more serious, for example, killing collaborators. And we helped them,” “Hrybochok” tells about his tasks.

Serhii and his group even transported grenades across Antonivka Bridge to Hola Prystan. First, they sent the first car to check whether there were dogs at the checkpoints. When they were convinced of their absence, the second car, in which Serhii and his companions were transporting grenades, set off. “Hrybochok” promises to tell about his most difficult task after the victory — for now, he says, it is too early.

“I knew that Kherson is a Ukrainian city, and back in 2014 when there was a commotion here and the Russians tried to seize it together with the Crimea, people came out, as they did in the spring. Kherson has a Ukrainian spirit, so I had no doubts that the Russians would not stay here,” he said when asked what kept him going during those times.

Russians were looking for Serhii at his old address and visited his parents' house, which they sold 5 years ago. Apparently, they did not have a new one, no one came there.

According to him, “Hrybochok” did not personally cross paths with other guerrilla groups and, if he communicated with them, his voice was always changed voice and the video was blurred.

Having already reached the mainland and joined the 124th Brigade, the guerrillas began to learn about each other, but they do not speak publicly about their most high-profile operations.

“I even know who killed Kuleshov,” says Oleh Glushchuk, “but I think it's too early to say.”

Return to Kherson

At the end of May, by the order of the command, Serhii “Hrybochok” had to leave Kherson on his own. He took the work car of his friend, who worked in a tobacco company, and pretended to be its employee, saying that he was called to work in the unoccupied territory.

“We took old women with us in the car. They were excellent actors there: they pretended to be very sick, and their hearts hurt. They all worked well as one. Russians were like "Old women? Well, go ahead". And honestly, they did not even look at their phones, although we were preparing, deleting everything,” Serhii says.

Oleh “Miedvied” Glushchuk also decided to leave Kherson in May. After the Russians detained his friend. Oleh had a tattoo in the form of the coat of arms of Ukraine and a Kolovrat. He found a girl who covered it with the other tattoo because Russians scrutinize any tattoos. The man pretended to be a carrier who earns money by transporting people. The passengers were his neighbors with four children, so they did not undress him and check his tattoos at the checkpoints.

Later he, as well as the rest of the territorial defense fighters who left Kherson after months of occupation, joined the 124th Brigade, with which he liberated Kherson. Now Oleh “Miedvied” Glushchuk is ready to go to Crimea.

“I had a dream back in 2014 — to be photographed under the inscription "Crimea" with weapons and armor. And it must be done now,” says Oleh.