Translated material
"Far Eastern "Ukraine" is fighting in the west." Three brothers from Amur Borispol died in the war
In the small Amur village of Borispol (according to the census 210, actually 150 people) there are only three streets - Sadovaya, Trudovaya and Vysokaya. The Babich cousins grew up here - both were called Vladimir. In 2022, both found themselves in the war against Ukraine - one was recruited from the colony, the second was mobilized. In 2023, both died. Their younger brother, professional military man Timofey Babich, died even earlier - in April 2022. This family, like many of their fellow countrymen, has Ukrainian roots. Many people in Boryspil also have relatives in Ukraine. But since 2022, almost all ties with them have been severed.
“I never dreamed of being a military man”
This village in the Amur region was founded by Ukrainian settlers from Boryspil, Poltava province in 1909. And it was named so in memory of the abandoned homeland.
– And initially this place was called Dubnyachki after the oak grove growing nearby. But those oak trees are long gone, and now we try not to remember our Ukrainian roots,” admits one of the residents of Boryspil, Sergei (the names of all interlocutors have been changed for their safety). - Of course, I remember Volodka and Volodka. We grew up together, I guess. They were a year apart. The younger one, with his younger brother Timokha, grew up dissolute. Their mother died early and there was no one to raise them. So the eldest got hooked on drugs in his youth and was in prison several times - for distribution, for manufacturing, for possession. Well, what a drug lord - he made hashish for himself, but the cops need to shut someone down...
According to local court records, Vladimir Nikolaevich Babich was detained for the production of hashish oil in 2017, and for possession of marijuana in 2019. In 2017, his partner accused him of threatening to kill.
– He put a knife to Svetka’s throat. Between alcohol and drugs, things went crazy. Many of us here indulge in this. This is the place, there is nothing else to do. Vovka Jr. moved to Blagoveshchensk at one time, but things didn’t work out there, and he returned back to his parents’ house on Trudovaya. From here he was already taken to a colony for selling drugs, and in 2022 he was recruited. He was one of the first “volunteer” prisoners,” recalls Sergei. – Maybe because his brother Tim [died] there back in April.
Timofey Babich was Vladimir's younger brother. And at the start of the war, the 21-year-old officer was a professional military man on contract in the Amur unit near the village of Ekaterinoslavka.
“He served in the 38th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade. Part number 21720,” says Timofey’s ex-girlfriend Irina . “We had already broken up by that time, but I was still worried, I wrote to him about how you are and what you will do.” He was shocked, of course. No one expected any war here. Where are we and where is Ukraine? Here it is closer to China - 700 meters across the Amur (from Boryspil to the Aihui district of the Heihe urban district - about 140 kilometers in a straight line) . “There’s nowhere to go,” he said. He was afraid he would be sent to prison as a deserter. And he was afraid of the colony more than anything else in the world, he was afraid of getting screwed like his brother. We hoped that they would not be transported from the Far East right away - after all, it is more than 6 thousand kilometers to Ukraine. But they threw us almost immediately, and straight into the Kharkov region, where there were fierce battles. On April 23 he passed away. They didn't call me, I'm not a relative. A friend passed it on from the administration.
It is known that Timofey died on April 23, 2022 near the village of Velikaya Kamyshevakha, Kharkov region. That spring there were long battles for the Ukrainian Izyum. Since February, the city with civilians was bombed, by March the situation in the destroyed Izyum was called a humanitarian disaster - there was no heat, gas, water, electricity or communications, residents were hiding in basements. Since April 1, Izyum was occupied by Russian troops, they used it as a springboard for an offensive to the north of the Donetsk region.
Irina believes that if Timofey had the opportunity to refuse, he would revoke the contract with the Ministry of Defense.
“He never dreamed of being a military man.” Just a boy from a dysfunctional family, where should he go? Where he will be told what to do, where it is clear what is “right” and what is “wrong”. There is no one else to say - there are no parents, the older brother was a mess, the second brother moved away because of this and left for Blagoveshchensk. In general, all the normal active ones left Boryspil. According to the official census, we have 210 people here, but in fact, 150 is the maximum. So I’m registered there and the village is indicated on social networks, but I’ve been living in Blagoveshchensk for a long time. Because in Seryshevsky there is nothing to do except knead manure on farms,” says Irina. – That is, you can find a job, but Tim went to a place where everything is simple and clear, they promise money, an apartment and there is no need to fight. Well, at that moment it was not necessary. And then it became too late. It turns out that none of them wanted to fight - Vovka the eldest left the colony, the second brother was mobilized.
According to Sibir.Realii's interlocutors, Babich Sr. was recruited from the colony when his younger brother had already died. But a little earlier than their cousin Vladimir was mobilized.
– Vladimir was not yet 26 years old when he left the colony. I enlisted in the PMC "Wagner" - I called someone in the village, and that's how they found out. It seems that he managed to pay off debts to someone in trifles - he was on the lists of debtors, in all collection databases for the last 10 years, - says Sergei from Boryspil. – But the mobilization was later - and his cousin brother, Vladimir, who is Nikolaevich, was mobilized in October 2022. At that time he had just turned 27. As far as I know, they took me from Belogorsk. He went there and worked as a salesman, everything was fine with the guy. At first, microloans and loans had to be taken out. He borrowed from me, for small things - 500 rubles until salary, but then, it seems, he recovered. He had a job, he didn’t go on a spree like that other Vovka.
On June 9, 2023, mobilized Vladimir died near the Ukrainian village of Levadne in the Zaporozhye region. He never turned 28 years old.
According to the obituary , Vladimir Nikolaevich Babich served as a senior gunner of a grenade launcher squad in the 1466th motorized rifle regiment, in unit No. 95483.
“He held the rank of corporal after the army, that’s why he was mobilized,” says Babich’s acquaintance Roman . “At first they were prepared until December in the same unit where Tima left. Near Ekaterinoslavka. Then they sent me to Zaporozhye. It turns out that he didn’t even last six months.
"Far Eastern Ukraine"
The history of Boryspil in the Seryshevsky district of the Amur region is directly related to the mass resettlement of Ukrainian peasants at the beginning of the 20th century.
This resettlement became part of the large-scale policy of the Russian Empire to develop the Far Eastern territories. After the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the authorities actively encouraged the movement of peasants from densely populated regions of the European part of the country - primarily from Ukraine. The settlers were promised land, tax benefits and temporary exemption from military service. For many, this was a chance to get their own plot of land, which was lacking in their homeland.
In those years, dozens of villages founded by Ukrainians arose in the Amur region. One of the most famous is Romny, which appeared in 1907 by settlers from the Romny district of the Poltava province. Similar names - with a reference to the small homeland - were typical of that wave of resettlement.
According to the 1926 census, there were 87 households and 456 residents in Boryspil, with most of the households belonging to Ukrainian families. In general, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a significant part of the rural population of the south of the Far East was of Ukrainian origin.
In Soviet times, as a result of the Russification policy, the Ukrainian language gradually disappeared from everyday use, young people were more likely to register and even began to consider themselves Russian. Nevertheless, the origin of many Far Eastern villages is still reflected in their names.
It is no coincidence that the flag of the Seryshevsky district, approved in 2010 by the decision of the Seryshevsky District Council of People's Deputies, is a green field and wedge-shaped dandelion leaves. In this combination, one can see a symbolic echo of the concept of the Green Wedge - the historical name of the regions of the Far East, where Ukrainian immigrants settled compactly at the beginning of the 20th century.
According to Sibir.Realii's interlocutors, Ukrainian relatives on the Babichs' paternal side lived and probably still live in Zaporozhye.
- We didn’t communicate. There was simply no contact. Normal relatives would not interfere with him, says Roman. – But remembering Ukrainian relatives now, you understand. It's dangerous now. He already got into the regiment because of his “Khokhlyat” surname. Although our entire village has Ukrainian roots, no matter who you look at. That Dranik, Karpenko, Makarchuk are very Russian surnames? But the topic is alarming, I don’t want to say anything about that Ukraine. We have our own here, 15 kilometers away.
The novel is referring to the non-passenger Ukraina railway station in the same Seryshevsky district. 15 kilometers from Boryspil is the village of Ukrainka for a thousand inhabitants and nearby is a large military airfield, 26 kilometers from Amur Belogorsk.
– The air base is also called Ukrainka (the 73rd heavy bomber aviation division of the Long-Range Aviation of the Soviet Air Force was formed on the basis of the Ukrainka airfield back in 1956) . There are bombers and front-line aviation. From time to time, all sorts of emergencies happen: the bomber rolls out of the runway, or the crew loses control. But, thank God, there have been no incidents lately,” says Sergei. – It’s strange that the airbase was never renamed, of course. It turns out that the Far Eastern “Ukraine” is now fighting in that one in the west. Strange, of course.
According to Mediazone statistics , in general there are many deaths in the Seryshevsky district: only in Seryshevo, the regional center - 33 people. In the village of Tomskoye, neighboring Boryspil, there were 8 dead, in the nearest large city of Belogorsk - 137 dead. During the four years of war against Ukraine, the Amur region lost at least 1,437 people. Of these, 80 were mobilized, another 157 were prisoners recruited from the colonies.
"Far Eastern "Ukraine" is fighting in the west." Three brothers from Amur Borispol died in the war