When the enemy is 20 meters away. How a border guard held his position with Russians already nearby

His brothers-in-arms tried to destroy the Russian group that had so brazenly entered the position. However, the enemy did not give up — Tom still does not understand how the ceiling withstood direct hits from Russian shells. He even wrote a farewell message to his wife — he thought that if the trench was covered with earth, it would be dug up later, and they would find a phone with the last news from him.

Tom was lucky — he survived and completed his combat mission. He had to meet the new year 2024 in a trench, and then his friends set up a festive table to celebrate the New Year once again, together and in safety. At the same time, the command presented the border guard with an award. However, the documents are still "in circulation" somewhere.

When the man went to the front, he promised his wife he would return in a year, thinking the war would not last much longer. Now he laughs at his naivety. He prays to God that the war will not come at least to his village in the Kharkiv region, where his wife and two sons remain.

If I knew exactly when the fighting would end, it would be easier. I would know how long to endure. And so... My son is already 14 years old and will soon receive his passport. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and I will miss it. But we have to win. I can't go back to my family without a victory!Serhii, a border guard with the call sign Tom

Love, children, farm. War…

Before the war, soldier Tom was just Serhii. He worked on a cattle farm, raised his children, and loved his Alona. He and his wife are the same age — both are 33 years old now. They met when they were teenagers. They dated for several years, and when they turned 18, they got married. At 19, they became parents for the first time. Two years later, their youngest son was born.

Serhii's love is when you buy a former collective farmhouse with only walls and fix it up yourself. And when you move into your own family home at the age of 20 with your wife and son. With two small children in your arms, you earn money for your wife's treatment, because she almost simultaneously develops two ulcers, purulent peritonitis and congestive pneumonia.

When you drive her from hospital to hospital, look for rescue, because even the air ambulance refuses to take her on board so that she doesn't die on the way. When, many years later, you remember the names of the doctors who saved your loved one. You remember that she spent a month and 18 days in intensive care. And at the front, you think that it's sowing season, and Alona has a garden, cattle, and children to take care of, and she can't have any physical stress…

Alona was well aware of how difficult it would be to support the children and the household if Serhii went to war with her illnesses and frequent hospitalizations. Nevertheless, she let him go, knowing that it was important to her husband.

“I had a friend who fought in the ATO. As soon as the Russians moved in in February 2022, he was at the front from the very first days. He died six months later, in August. We buried him, and something happened to me after that.

I had a good job, my family was doing well... But I felt bad, sad, disgusted with myself. All the time I thought that my friend's children were orphaned because he died for my children and for me too. And I was so sick of this hell that I went to the territorial recruitment center and asked for a summons,” Serhii recalls.

A former farmer became a specialist in electronic warfare in the army.

“It was in November 2022. I was sent to a training center, and then I got to the Kharkiv border guard detachment. I performed combat missions in the Kharkiv direction, and then I was offered to work with electronic warfare stations.”

He said goodbye to life a hundred times

On December 27, 2023, a very young guy with the call sign Dash went with Tom on a mission near Klishchiivka. It was his first combat duty. The two of them dragged an electronic warfare station to the position, installed it, and camouflaged it. By order of the commander, they had to periodically turn it on and create radio interference for the enemy.

Under fire, you crawl out of the trench to check if the station has been damaged; and pull out the power supply to recharge it from the generator — not an easy job.

“These blocks weigh 10-15 kg, and I had to carry them 400 meters to the generator. Sometimes I didn't have 30 minutes to do it — the Russians were attacking, the situation was constantly changing, and I had to get back,” the soldier recalls.

On that day, at the end of the year, Tom did not notice the Russians as they approached his trench: “My visibility was limited. The situation was monitored by drones, but the Russians were leaving the field — the drone operator must have thought they were ours and let them pass. They passed us and jumped into a neighboring trench. Only then were they spotted.”

That trench was long and wide. It led the Russians to the positions in Tom's rear. The occupiers threw grenades at the positions and used gas.

The border guard recalls that it took a long time to chase the Russians out of their positions because the entire trench was covered with “fox holes”: “Our guys tried to get them out, to make them scurry around so that they would run into the trench, and then we could knock them out with drones. It took us a day to do it. One of the Russians got lost in the middle of the trenches and was taken prisoner, and the rest of them were attacked with grenades in a concrete dugout. Later, 7 Russian bodies were found in it. It's hard to say how many of them were alive.”

Throughout that day, Tom and Dash followed the command “Do not move from their positions”. They couldn't engage in combat, as they might hit their own men. However, they were ready to fight hand-to-hand in case the enemy jumped into their trench.

Our positions near Klishchiivka were well known to the Russians, they had been shot at. I said goodbye to my life a hundred times — I was most afraid that we would be crushed by a slab. But we had to maintain the station. It didn't work for a day while the Russians were 20 meters away.Serhii, a border guard with the call sign Tom

The two soldiers were not together all the time — sometimes Tom would crawl out of the trench to recharge the power supplies. His and Dash's trench was about 8 square meters. It was a passing position: the guys went to other positions to change and take cover if necessary. During that shift, 17 or more people were on duty.

“The shelling was terrible, Dash and I were pulling the wounded to us, giving them a signal with our voices where to go, trying to provide medical assistance. They were hiding with us for 3-4 hours, and sometimes even longer. I don't know how my partner and I survived. It was just luck,” the soldier marvels.

New Year 2024

Late in the evening of December 31, Tom and Dash got a replacement. But as soon as they were about to leave, enemy artillery started firing again. They had to celebrate the New Year in a trench.

Tom recalled his happiest winter holidays: when he and Alona moved into their own house. They didn't need anyone then: neither relatives nor friends. They celebrated the holidays together, drank champagne, ate goodies, and dreamed. And now he is under fire, with four energy bars, a little water, and the deadly fatigue of the last five days for a celebratory dinner.

It was planned that Tom and Dash would be at the position for three days, so they didn't take much food with them: “When I was going on the mission, as usual, I took 8 bars and 4.5 liters of water. Even though I knew that these three days could turn into a week, it depended on the situation. I didn't take any more food, because I had to carry equipment and cables.”

It's impossible to eat in the position — the stress is insane, the smell is corpse-like. Even if you put on cologne from head to toe, it's everywhere. Before the war, I worked on a cattle farm, and had to slaughter cattle — and it was okay, I ate well. But not there. It happened that I went to the position weighing 85 kg and came back weighing 74 kg.Serhii, a border guard with the call sign Tom

On January 1, Tom and Dash finally got out of the trench. An armored personnel carrier took Tom to Kostiantynivka and then by car to Druzhkivka, where a festive table set by a friend on December 31 was waiting for him. He believed that the border guard would still be able to leave the position.

But before he could celebrate, he deleted a draft of the message — the farewell he had prepared in the trench for Alona. He survived!

It won't be easy anymore

When we talked to Tom, he was taking sergeant training at the training ground. He lamented that even today it is a problem to get permission to see his family: “Alona and our sons could come to the nearest village, but who would let me see them? Why do the commanders have such a distrust of the soldier?

I went to the front voluntarily, so would I really run away if they let me go to my family? I joined the army, hoping that a colonel and a soldier are first and foremost brothers-in-arms, and only then one is a commander and the other a subordinate. It doesn't always work that way.”

Tom says that it took almost a year of the war for him to feel like an experienced guy. But even now, the fear does not disappear, and sometimes it grows.

“When I first took office in 2022, I didn't seem to be afraid of anything. The wounded? What is this? The dead? It has nothing to do with me. Now I'm walking and thinking: my brother-in-arm's leg was blown off here, and another was killed here. I look at the trench: if I get wounded here, how can I crawl out, how can I get to the evacuation vehicle? Before the war, I had no idea how much you could want to just survive.”

The soldier does not yet know what duties he will have to perform in the unit after his sergeant training. Nevertheless, Tom likes to gain knowledge and discover new opportunities.

“At first, I only knew the assault rifle, until I was entrusted to be a guide: to lead groups to and from their positions for many kilometers. Under fire, through minefields. Not a single fighter was killed while I was leading the groups. And not a single one escaped. Then I mastered the EW. Now there will be something new. I tell my sons: study all the time, don't let me down, don't mind that the studying is remote, because, without knowledge, no one will need you in life,” the fighter says.

Tom sighs bitterly at the realization that his sons have become children of war. He realizes that after the victory, neither they nor he will have it easy. They will have to rebuild their lives from the ruins, and this will take years. So he asks his children to remember the war and not to forget who our enemy is and what they did to our country. So that no one could later tell them the distorted history of their homeland.