Commander Of Brest Air Assault Brigade: Messers Officers, Stop The War!

The legendary Colonel Valer Sakhashchyk appeals from Ukraine to the officers of the Russian Federation.

Reserve lieutenant colonel, commander of the Brest air assault brigade Valer Sakhashchyk, while being in Ukraine, recorded a strong appeal to the officers of the Russian army.

Charter97.org quotes it in full:

“I'm in Ukraine. A few hours ago, I entered the country with a humanitarian convoy. I brought help to the bleeding heroic fraternal people from my company, from friends, partners, neighbors, strangers who accidentally found out that I was going here and considered it necessary to bring at least a few boxes of bandaging materials and canned food.

I have not yet seen the war with its horrors, destruction, dead and wounded people. I just crossed the border. But I am so shocked by what I saw at the border crossing that I have not been able to sleep for many nights in the hostel room, and before my eyes there is an endless stream of people and an abyss of grief.

I saw something that I could expect: a company of Belarusian volunteer guys telling the Ukrainian border guard with whom they coordinated the arrival in Warsaw, and in response they heard, very calmly and kindly — guys, I called, there is no answer yet, no information yet, please wait.

A company of athletic-looking adult men in a boutique with British number plates, wearing very good, well-worn combat uniforms, standing in line at passport control right in front of us. A border guard girl with eyes red from insomnia and hands red from cold asks them in good English if they heard what happened at the Yavoriv training center, and if they were not afraid ... And in response — yes, we know. That is why we have come. All this I could imagine.

I did not imagine the stream of women and children moving towards us on foot. They passed a few meters, I peered into the faces of the children, met their eyes — the eyes of three-year-old adult refugees who do not allow themselves anything that is completely normal at their age, but on the contrary — disciplined, collected, clearly following the commands of their mothers or older sisters.

What did they have to go through to become like this? Through spending the night in bomb shelters, listening to the howling of air raid sirens and the terrible rumble of explosions, bullet-riddled buses in humanitarian corridors, torn bodies of people who until recently were their relatives, friends, neighbors ... A tent city in front of the border ...

I watched a woman who had a baby in her arms, and next to her were two more — 2 and 4-years-old. And for all this company there was one small suitcase on wheels. And they are clearly on the road for more than a day. What awaits them in Europe? A bunk in the gym of a Polish school? What will they grow up to be? How will all this affect their psyche? My youngest daughter is three years old. She knows that she has two hands because her father must hold her by one, and her mother by the other. She has her own room with a beautiful bed and toys ... And when we go on even a short trip, we fill up the full trunk of the car with things the child needs.

What have we, grown men, done? How could we let all this happen? I try to read and watch news from different sources. I am subscribed to the Telegram channels of Russian paratroopers and special forces. And I catch myself thinking that once I had exactly the same mess in my head as yours.

I was not just the same, I was one of the best in my time. It was me, a 27-year-old paratrooper battalion commander or a 34-year-old airborne brigade commander, who toasted to our domes over Washington. And I would fly to Washington then without any hesitation. My lieutenant years were spent in the 11th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade (SGAAB) — then it was called Mogochinskaya, in the Amazar battalion.

I fully realized myself in life, and I owe this to one of the coolest mentors in my life — the then commander of the brigade, the unforgettable colonel Mukhammed Tuchievich Batyrov. I see what huge losses the 11th SGAAB have suffered now, including the death of the brigade commander, and all this hurts me too.

But the main question is why? Surely the deceased Colonel Denis Shipov left children, like other officers and soldiers of the Russian army, and someone did not have time to live, fall in love, or have children ... And how many lives have you taken from the Ukrainian military and civilians — women, children, old people... Why? How I wish you could look from the outside — through the eyes of a normal mentally healthy person — look at what you are doing!

It is very difficult for a person who tells the truth to argue with a liar. Because they are limited by the truth, and the liar is not limited by anything. They came up with an absurd theory about the “genocide of Russians in Ukraine” for you. Turn on your brain!

Why did the genocide take place only on a piece of territory occupied by the Russian Federation? Nearby are the same Russian-speaking cities — Mariupol, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv ... Why was there no genocide there? Why do these “Russian” cities greet you not as liberators, but as complete fascists?

Doesn't it occur to you that you were just set up? The British and the French, the Germans and the Poles — fought for centuries and killed each other by the hundreds of thousands. And now they have ceased to be at enmity, removed the borders, are friends, conduct a joint business ... And it turned out that there was absolutely nothing to fight for. All human values are the same. Everyone just wants to live peacefully and safely with their family, raise children, work, relax ...

Any war is a mistake of politicians, and nothing more. This war generally resembles a gang warfare, in which a criminal authority gone mad sent a 150,000-strong army equipped with the most modern means of destruction to an appointment.

After my previous speech, several people with whom I was friends accused me of buying into some Western goodies.

Guys, there are no goodies in the West. It's just that normal economic laws function here. Corruption is invisible and there is complete freedom of business. It's just that in the 19 years since I left the army, I've traveled to 50 countries around the world and read a lot of books.

And you, unfortunately, remained in the same place, with the same mess in your head. At my time, there was practically no Internet and there was a plausible ideology of a strong state. And now only rabid propaganda remains.

Russia has 40% of the world's mineral reserves and just over 1.5% of the world's population. You must live better than in Dubai! And you go to the toilet on the street and rejoice at the colonel's salary, the size of the unemployment benefit in an average European country. In Russia and Belarus today, going out into the street with a “No to war” poster is considered extremism and terrorism. Guys, where are we going?

For centuries, officers were considered the most honest and courageous class of society. You see that the war is unfair, that some kind of hell is going on. Your soldiers don't want to fight. The country's economy is going down the drain. And no one understands why all this.

You think you represent an empire. Empires appeared and expanded due to the fact that a certain country was ahead of its neighbors in technological and cultural development, and there was a logical process of their conquest (often non-violent), accompanied by the progress of these neighbors. What progress are you bringing to Ukraine?

You are simply destroying a country that you obviously cannot restore even to the state it was in before you. All this makes absolutely no sense, because even if by some miracle you managed to occupy the entire territory of Ukraine, you would never be able to keep it — a country inhabited by 40 million free, proud and hating people. This is the Patriotic War of the Ukrainian people.

Stop! Cease fire! Demand from your superior commanders simply an honest and adequate assessment of the situation — that is, the fulfillment of their statutory duties.

The courage of a commander is not to die himself and put people to death. Believe me, for your children, who will remain orphans, awarding you a posthumous order will be very little consolation. Save what can still be saved!

Each new hour of hostilities, each new shot is the weighting of your karma for generations to come. All wars end. And then comes the time of heavy reckoning. What you are doing now is a crime against humanity without a statute of limitations.

Messers officers, stop the fratricidal war!