The fighter comes from the city of Hirske, Luhansk region.
We continue to publish stories from the front. Vladyslav Sorokolad, a native of Luhansk Oblast, continues to serve in the Drohobytsk Central Committee and SP in Lviv Oblast after being wounded. Vladyslav participated in the anti-terrorist operation, after 2015 he was demobilized, but with the beginning of a full-scale war he returned to the front.
Text and photo from Drohobytsky RTCC and SP.
Vladyslav, please tell me where the war met you?
Well, if we start from the very beginning, I myself am from a small town, the city of Hirske. It was a front-line area, a small front-line town. She met me back in the 14th year, my city was occupied in the 14th year, then the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated it and before the full-scale invasion it was a nice city, a Ukrainian city. I was a member of the ATO for 14-15 years, then I resigned, got married and lived in my own place in the city of Hirskyi. From the first day, when the full-scale invasion came, I took my wife and family here (to Lviv Oblast – ed.), I myself went to the Central Committee and SP, and from there – to the 24th brigade.
And what was your military specialty there?
Driver-shooter. I got to the defense of the city of Popasny, there I received a serious wound – a sniper, well, according to my comrades, it was a sniper’s bullet. After that I had a long rehabilitation process. At the moment, I am serving in the Drohobytsk State Central Committee.
How long have you had this injury?
I was injured on March 26, 2022. As the doctor said, I was very lucky that I was taken from the battlefield to the hospital very quickly, because I had only a few hours left. Many thanks to the doctors, they did everything they could. Now I am alive, more or less healthy.
How long have you been treated?
A very long time, 4 months. After that, another month of rehabilitation leave, after which the military medical commission declared me “limited fit” and I will return to the army, but I was already serving in the rear unit, the Bakhmut direction, where I was engaged in delivering everything necessary to the front.
Already as a driver?
So. There I still had two losses of consciousness, two seizures and after that I passed the MSEK commission, she assigned me a disability group, I was already transferred here to Drohobytsky TCC and SP.
So you serve in Drohobych in the TCC?
So.
How do you feel about refugees abroad?
I don’t understand them. I don’t understand these men. They will all return here after the victory and how they will feel as men, I do not understand at all. Well, maybe I have such an upbringing that the state is in trouble – it is necessary to protect the state to the end.
How many people help the military now? In the beginning, of course, there was a huge amount of support from people, but now what?
Help is coming, a lot of help, people sent knitted socks, someone handed over some pies, volunteers helped with cars. It’s just that I was wounded at the beginning, I was in the hospital for a long time and I may not have felt it, but when I returned, there was support again, people brought and handed over various things. It was nice.
Do you think the military is very tired of the war at the front?
But, of course, they got tired, it was very difficult there morally and psychologically. First of all, when you see blood, swamp, devastation, especially if it’s already winter outside, you get cold every day, you get tired. But I talk to the guys there “at the front”, they still stand for victory. But you know, I served in the ATO, in the 73rd Naval Center of the TsSO, but I was unmarried then and I had no children, and I had no fear there, you know. And as I was driving to the city of Popasne, I understood then that all the columns were talking about Mariupol and Popasne, because these were the hot spots at that time, it was very scary. Well, but when I got there to the position, we had a very nice sergeant there, and he told the whole truth: “Well, guys, it’s hard here, very hard, and we will fight.” You know, with such commanders as you meet, I told the whole truth, but we will stand, and it is easier. And you know how it is with me – fear, fatigue have receded into the background, forward only forward. Unfortunately, I was injured there.
What would you like to say from yourself to our community?
I would like men to be more actively registered, for the military, because the state needs to know what reserves we have in general, the top military leadership. Because it is difficult for the boys there, there are wounded and dead. You still have to change guys, from time to time.
As I understand it, the main problem of the ongoing mobilization is not replenishment of the reserves of the dead (replenishment of reserves – ed.), but maybe in the matter of rotation?
Of course, in terms of rotation, too, because there are such guys who have been on the front lines for a very, very long time, since the beginning of the war. They went there somewhere to rest, to go home, to see their family and wife, children. And there are no such reserves, I can’t say exactly how to replace them, some went to rest, others came to their place, it would be much easier that way.
There may be such a factor that many guys who have already seen the war, when the military is experienced, he has already seen the war, he already copes with everything much easier than sending an untrained person there. All the same, it is necessary to solve this issue somehow.