Eight against a hundred. The story of Master, platoon leader of the 2nd Galician Brigade
Bohdan has two degrees, in economics and law, which is why he chose the nickname Master. He commands a platoon in the 2nd Galician Brigade. He is proud to talk about his comrades, saying that even in the most difficult moments they fight like lions. He is modest about his awards: a silver cross from the commander-in-chief and three awards from the president: “there were several stories”. One of them was when Magister’s platoon took part in the liberation of Blahodatne in Donetsk Oblast.
“I was the leader of my group, we secured our positions, and then enemy infantry came to one of our observation posts. We opened fire on them, but the enemy managed to land. I gathered a reserve group and we went to storm that landing. Later, in one of the battles, I captured one of the enemies. As it turned out, it was their scout,” says Magister.
Another story is about the defence of the village of Sokil in the Pokrovske sector, where soldiers of the 2nd Galician Brigade were also working.
“We were entering positions, one of which was already surrounded, as the enemy managed to wedge into our defence. We decided to break this wedge and unblock the surrounded position. We launched an assault and successfully cleared the enemy from the captured areas. My comrades distinguished themselves in that battle: Zhuk, Jacques, Pinocchio, Irbis and Caesar. We had to make the most effort to smoke the Russians out of two dugouts. One was occupied by an occupier who could not be reached even with grenades. He was shouting “I surrender”, but as soon as the guys started to come to him, he shot at them. The enemy was silenced by a soldier with the call sign Caesar, who threw a cumulative shot from an RPG and a grenade. In less than 20 minutes, they stormed us. We were running out of ammunition. The first attacks of the enemy infantry were held back thanks to a box of grenades that was nearby. Later, my comrades raised the BC. We fought back for an hour. Then we gained a foothold and were able to evacuate the besieged position. After that, a platoon of guardsmen from the 2nd Galician Brigade held the position for another three days. In total, about 150 units of enemy infantry and two armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were restrained and destroyed. With a workload of eight of our fighters,” recalls Master.
The war has dragged on for so long that everyone except the military has adapted to it. For many people, the events at the front are conveniently put into dry statistics. This is understandable, but we must not forget that every planting, every metre of our land is a human life. And in fact, it is all very difficult. “But we have to finish this job of cleaning up our land and we have to move forward,” says the officer of the 2nd Galician Brigade. Together with his unit, Bohdan is performing another task in the defence of the country.