‘Two Hours Before His Death, Eduard Shot Entire Landing Force Of Russians’

Friends and brothers-in-arms spoke about the volunteer Lobau.

Belarusian Eduard Lobau died on January 26 in the battles near the Ukrainian Vuhledar. For the last three years he served in the 72nd separate mechanized brigade named after the Black Cossacks. Eduard was 34 years old, Radio Svaboda reports.

Eduard Lobau became famous in Belarus in 2010, when on the day before the “presidential elections” he was arrested along with his Young Front ally Zmitser Dashkevich. As a result, Eduard was sentenced to 4 years in prison. He served his sentence in the Wolf Holes colony near Ivatsevichy. He was released after serving his term in full.

“He got out of the trench with a machine gun”

In 2015, Lobau went to war in Ukraine. First he served in the Right Sector battalion, then in the 8th separate special forces regiment in Khmelnytsky. Recently, together with the Black Cossacks brigade, he lodged in Bila Tserkva.

In the war, Eduard was a shooter with a grenade launcher and the American Javelin portable anti-tank missile system. Ukrainian warrior Ivan “Coyote” says that the Belarusian was absolutely masterful in shooting from a grenade launcher.

“It looked like he was playing some Angry Birds or something, he did it so well. I was better with Javelin, I did better, so we complemented each other well,” says Coyote.

Ivan was wounded a couple of hours before Eduard died. It was Lobau’s actions that saved the life of the Ukrainian soldier.

“The Russians landed troops not far from his position. Eduard got out of the trench and calmly, with single shots from a machine gun, shot them all. At first we talked about the five enemies he killed, but then fifteen corpses of Russian soldiers were found near that place,” says Aliaksandr Mauchanau, Eduard’s Belarusian brother-in-arms. It was those actions of Lobau that allowed to evacuate Coyote from the battlefield.

“Very principled person”

Lobau was mortally wounded by a fragment of a tank shell when a Belarusian fired at a tank from a Javelin. It was close combat, they could not make a quick evacuation.

“I knew Eduard for three years, he was a very principled person.They refused to give him Ukrainian citizenship, they froze something. He is a very experienced warrior, responsible, knew a lot, and could do a lot. Many contractors did not even know how to do this,” says Ivan “Coyote”.

Aliaksandr Mauchanau adds that Lobau carefully studied military affairs.

“He was trained in special forces, these are the standards of NATO countries. In battles, he acted competently, decisively, and boldly. It seemed that he did not feel fear at all,” says Mauchanau.

“Distributed self-made leaflets in the army”

Lobau joined the Young Front in 2010 quite by accident. When he served in the Vitsebsk landing force, Andrei Tsianiuta, a Young Front activist from Homel, got there.

“I spoke Belarusian. Perhaps Ed was interested in this. He has always been a patriot, but he has not come across anything national yet. He served six months older than me. When they put me in the hoosegow, Eduard made leaflets on his own and pasted them on the territory of the military unit and around it. He wrote that it was enough to endure military atrocities. When I came out of the hoosegow, he was taken there,” Tsianiuta says.

The guy says that Lobau has always been interested in military affairs, he perfectly knew all the characteristics of weapons. It is noteworthy that after the incident with the hoosegow, the company commander deprived Eduard of the opportunity to parachute. But in case of Tsianiuta, they tried to make him interested in military service in every possible way.

“They gave me the opportunity to shoot from everything, there were also parachute jumps ... When I came from Homel to Minsk (it was in the morning, at 5-6 am), Eduard always met me at the station. We walked together, occasionally sat in a cafe, because there was no money. He showed me Minsk, his favorite places,” says Tsianiuta.

“Striving to stop the evil”

Ivan “Coyote” says he asked Lobau why he came from Belarus to fight in Ukraine.

“He said that we are close peoples. We have one enemy. I know that he dreamed of leaving the army, getting Ukrainian citizenship, building a house. He believed in an ideal society, defended its principles. We didn't even know there was a Wikipedia page about Eduard. He never boasted about it, Ed was modest,” says Ivan.

Aliaksandr Mauchanau adds that Eduard saw what evil Russia brings not only to Ukraine, but also to all countries of Eastern Europe.

“Therefore, he tried, as best he could, to stop this evil,” says the brother-in-arms.

Everyone with whom the journalists talked about Eduard claimed that the man was not afraid of death. He participated in the battles for the liberation of the Kyiv region, then he was in Chernobyl.

“He said he didn’t have any matrimonial plans yet, because it’s hard during the military service. Servicemen are constantly in some kind of dumps, training grounds. He said, well, what normal woman would wait for a man whom she sees a maximum of 15 days a year? I know that he had a small apartment in Khmelnytsky, but almost all the time he lived in the barracks,” says Ivan.

Eduard Lobau became at least the 19th Belarusian volunteer to die since the beginning

la large-scale war, protecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

It should be noted that in 2014 the Charter97.org website announced him as a laureate of the Viktar Ivashkevich National Prize for the Protection of Human Rights.

The ceremony of bidding farewell to Eduard Lobau will take place on Saturday, February 4, at 2 pm in the Cathedral of St. Alexander (the Main Catholic Church of Kyiv).