"I don't need this meat." After fleeing the raisins of the refuseniks, they did not let into Russia a week until mobilization began - and immediately sent back to battle

When in the summer the 19-year-old SRO concluded a contract, they promised him that they would only be sent to guard the “liberated territories”. But in early September, he ended up in Raisins, from where he had to escape with the command - the offensive of the Ukrainian army began. Further - the week of wandering through the forest, the commander’s refusal to take the soldier back and the exit to the border with the Belgorod region. They refused to let the military into Russia - they demanded to return to war.

On the border, he dreamed of returning to Russia and breaking the contract, but did not have time to do this: on September 21, Vladimir Putin announced mobilization, forbidden the soldiers to quit. Already on the 25th, Sergey and his colleagues were again sent to the places of battles in Ukraine. "Mediazona" and "New tab" its history.

Volgograd SHI concludes a contract

Sergey Chizhikov19 years. He was called up for military service from Volgograd in November 2021. Sergey recalls that at first he served in the training center in Pskov for five months, where he was cooked at the soup. Then he was sent to the military unit to Barnaul, where he spent another three months, received the rank of corporal, after which the soldier was offered to sign a contract. The young man says he wanted to make money, so he agreed. This happened in July 2022, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been going on for the fifth month.

According to Sergey, before the contract was the contract, he was promised that until the end of the military service he would have three months of the trial period, during which he will be able to terminate the contract and return to his part. The guy, like other conscripts who entered into a contract with him, promised not to be sent to the front line. They promised that they would protect the “liberated territories”. But quite quickly everyone fell into the war zone.

“I agreed to the contract with the condition of arrival in the DPR and LPR. No participation in the hostilities was supposed, because I have no experience and preparation, ”says Sergey. - I had to protect the liberated territories, patrol them and stand on a checkpoint. Our brigade was sent to the village of Urazovo in the Belgorod region to study. They said that I will have ten intensive training as my soup. As a result, I went to the shooting range three times, where I shot targets, after which I was appointed commander of the department. On the first day, instead of the rear, we hit - shelling began, and we were taken out of there. ”

Sending to Ukraine and flight from raisins

In August, Sergey Chizhikov, along with other soldiers, was sent to the Ukrainian city of Izyum in the Kharkov region, which was then occupied by Russian troops. According to Chizhikov, he was attributed to - they did not participate in the hostilities and were in reserve for about a week.

But in early September, a rapid Ukrainian counterattack began in the Kharkov region, which quickly reached the raisins. When the Ukrainian troops entered the city, the Russian military had to retreat after the command, Sergei recalls, this happened on September 10-11.

“There was an alarm in the morning because shelling began next to us. We gathered very quickly, 15–20 meters from us began to explode at home, and the command had already left. We fled from Raisins to the BMP, we had to leave all our things there, many have documents in the city - everything burned out, ”the military man explains.

About 20 soldiers, along with other units and columns of equipment, drove towards Russia, but their transport broke down, and they lagged behind, Sergey says, for several days he and his colleagues could not contact his division and find it. According to the young man, the soldiers had to live in the forest in Ukrainian territory until they found another brigade. Through other military, they tried to contact their commander, however, according to Sergei Chizhikov, he said that he did not need such soldiers.

“We were glad that our colleagues were found and that they were alive,” he says. - We said to the commander: "This is a lost brigade, we found, we were not killed, and we are ready to go to you." To this, our commander said: "I do not need this meat." I don’t know why he did this. ”

The path through the forest to the Russian border

After that, the military lived for about a week in the forest with another brigade. They had no things, no water and products, says Sergey, so there were days when they did not eat anything. The command of someone else's brigade did not give them tents, so the soldiers had to sleep in the street in the rain. At the same time, they were sent to combat missions.

“The commander instructed me to go with his platoon to the destroyed Ukrainian bridge and protect the coast so that no one moves in either swimming or in motor boats,” the military recalls. - There, a kilometer from the bridge are enemies with complete uniforms and see us perfectly, and we have nothing, except for a knife and a machine gun: no tanks ,. We don’t even have a sniper. We were just sent to death. We refused to comply with this order, because it was an impossible task that emanates not from our commander. ”

Left without the commander, Sergey and his colleagues decided to independently go to Russia across the border in the Belgorod region. We walked for two days, and when they got to the checkpoint, they told the Russian border guards that they wanted to terminate their contracts. Chizhikov says that the FSB border guards did not allow them to go through the Logachevka checkpoint. About a week they spent on the border from Ukraine without the opportunity to get to Russia - that part of the Kharkov region where the Logachevka checkpoint is located, still under the control of the Russian army.

Weapons were taken from the soldiers and several tents were given. The military uniform and shoes remained - the one in which they fled from the raisins. Food from the field kitchen, according to Sergey, they are brought by the military from the Russian side of the border.

“There are no such conditions even on the front line,” the 19-year-old soldier is indignant, standing near the border of Russia through which he is not allowed. - We live, count, on the street. There is nothing in our tents, we sleep right on the ground. We do not live and do not rest here, but just survive. Thank you for at least feeding us. So far, everything is calm here, it only happens very loudly when shells arrive. It is bad, of course, that we took the weapon. If the APU will break through, we won’t even be able to defend the border. ”

On September 20, Sergei said that he was hoping to get to Russia until the end of the trial period and have time to terminate the contract. After that, he wants to serve the remaining two months of military service and return home.

“I can and want to terminate the contract, but they don’t pass me across the border so that I come to my part and do it,” he is indignant. - In the same situation as mine, there are ten more conscripts. When they send everyone to war, of course, I will go to defend my homeland. And in the military operation I no longer want to participate. Especially in such conditions and under such a command. ”

Soldiers are not allowed into Russia, they demand to return to war

The 19-year-old corporal says that the commanders explain the refusal to let the soldier back to Russia with a certain order emanating from. According to Sergey, they are promised to keep them there until they agree to continue to fight in Ukraine.

“They say that they have no order to release us,” he retells the words of the commanders. - The military police allegedly does not want to miss me, because then I will become a deserter. Well, let me be a deserter, just let me into my country. I am a citizen of the Russian Federation and I want to return home. Let the military police will detain me or the Feesbashniki will be taken away, I am ready to solve these issues, just do not keep us here. ”

Sergei Chizhikov says that they have moral pressure and 12 of them have already agreed to continue participating in the hostilities in Ukraine.

“Every day, the commanders come and say:“ Let's go back, now we will calm you down and go to fight again. ” They take our people who can no longer be here and agree to everything. These are the same young boys like me. You look at them and think: "Well, what is the war?" - Sergey laments. - I only have to put a bullet in my forehead so that I was buried here, and that’s it. So at least I will know who killed me. I do not want to go back "for the ribbon", and others also do not want to. Everything is completely different there, not as they show on TV. ”

The corporal says that in such a situation were not only soldiers from his platoon - they did not miss the border to Russia and volunteers who also wanted to terminate their short -term contracts. According to Sergey, by that time the volunteers stood on the border for about two weeks.

He himself tried several times to cross the border and talk to the commanders. He was released by the employees of the border service, however, the military police and the FSB officers, according to the soldier, did not allow them to go further, saying that there were no orders to pass his colleagues. After a couple of days, the desperate soldiers decided to go across the border together, but they were not released again.

“One officer took me aside and said:“ Guys, you won’t go like that, you will just expose us all. This is your right, but you will not pass without lawyers and civilians, you need help, ”the military assures.

"Let the boys go home"

Sergei Chizhikov talks not only about problems with the command and the actual ban on returning to Russia - the contractor also did not receive the promised money.

“I should have paid 100 thousand lifting,” he lists. - Also, for every day in the rear, they promised to pay three thousand rubles, and eight thousand on the forefront. As a result, only eight thousand rubles came to me all the time. I don’t know what it is and what I should have enough for this money. ”

In Ukraine, Sergey, according to him, was contusion, but this was not considered a sufficient basis for returning: “I generally have a traumatic brain injury, and when I stood next to the artillery, I was slightly contra-contaminated. Sometimes my head is spinning and my heart knocks hard. I spoke about this to the checkpoint, and they gave me analgin and said: "Sit, rest, and everything will pass."

Relatives of the soldiers stuck at the border do not know what is happening with their relatives: according to Sergey, he does not tell his parents details, because he does not want to worry them.

Chizhikov says that the military tried to contact in, but received an answer that they could not help while they are in Ukraine. Most of all at that moment, he was worried that he and other soldiers would be kept on the border until the end of military service and they will lose the opportunity to terminate contracts. He said that in this case he agreed to continue the contract service if he is allowed to meet with his family and let his colleagues go home.

“I have not been at home for almost a year, let me go home at least, show my parents that I am alive and healthy, and let the boys go home,” he asks. -At least they taught me something, but here the guys are fighting, who do not understand anything and do not know how. They simply powder their brains, told beautiful fairy tales and sent to fight. They cannot be sent there again, they will not be able to do anything, they will simply die of hunger and cold. ”

Mobilization, ban on dismissal, sending to Ukraine

The Decree of Vladimir Putin on the “partial mobilization” was found by Sergey Chizhikov and other soldiers there, not far from the Logachevka checkpoint. Two days later, on September 23, the soldier recalls, they were informed that now they would not be able to break the contracts and return home. The decree on mobilization really forbids the military to quit on their own free will and suggests that all contracts "continue their action until the end of the partial mobilization period."

According to the 19-year-old corporal, a colonel said that all soldiers would now be sent back to the war zone. The real prison term for desertion can wait for those who refused: after the announcement of mobilization, Putin signed amendments to Article 338 of the Criminal Code , now for desertion during the mobilization period threatens up to 15 years.

After that, the soldiers were nevertheless passed to Russia - and returned to the same Urazovo in the Belgorod region, from where they came to Ukraine in the summer. There they were asked to write explanatory due to loss of property during the retreat. They could not provide new shoes and things, says Sergey, so they had to ask for help from Belgorod volunteers.

Where exactly they were supposed to go to Sergey’s brigade further, he did not know. For about three days, soldiers spent in the military unit, and on September 25 they were taken to Ukraine.

“I can’t refuse,” he said before sending. - People meet us here as heroes, and if I sit for five years, my life will be destroyed. Now they call everyone who has experience, but I now have it, no one will let me go. I know for sure that I will survive and return home, and then I will quit. I realized that I do not want to connect my life with the army and war. ”

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Editor: Yegor Skovoroda