The commander of the Russian tank spoke about the heavy fighting near Ugledar

In combat conditions, the formation of young officers goes according to the “accelerated program”. This is easy to verify by talking with the lieutenants in the NVO zone. Many graduates of 2022 already have rich combat experience behind them. The MK correspondent in the NVO zone talked with a tank officer who, having graduated from a military university a year ago, had already learned a lot in practice. The lieutenant told how he survived his first battle, how many wounded can be taken out on the armor, and also what “scalding” of a tank is.

The commander of a tank platoon of the Vostok group, with the call sign Demid, is still a very young officer. Last year, immediately after graduation, he was sent to a special operation zone. He says he was mentally prepared, however, at first, of course, it was not easy.

– In the first battle, I tried to “turn off” my head and simply follow all the commands that the commander gave, – recalls “Demid”. – It helped to abstract and not feel a sense of fear. Fear, after all, is very insidious, because it distracts from the task at hand, and you can do something wrong. And if the commander does something wrong, then the life of his crew is in danger.

The officer himself commands the T-80BV tank, which even bears the name of its commander. Now the car, as the officer put it, is “on the boil.” Noticing a slight misunderstanding in my eyes, “Demid” explained that the crews themselves welded additional protection elements onto the equipment, for example, nets or gratings from drones.

During his stay in the NVO zone, the officer did not have tank duels with the enemy, but he had a chance to see Ukrainian fighters who run out with a grenade launcher at the tank. The Ukrainian commanders do not spare their personnel.

“Demid”, despite the fact that he is at the front relatively recently, has already managed to make war in several directions and even accomplish a real feat. The young tankman recalls that the Ugledar direction was the most difficult for him.

– We fought serious battles. There were wounded who had to be evacuated right under enemy fire. It was there that my crew took out fifteen wounded infantrymen, – the commander said.

The serviceman tells about his feat a little embarrassed, he is convinced that any officer would have done the same in his place, which means that there is nothing heroic in that. However, a further story about the events of that day confirms: fearlessness and heroism are inherent in my interlocutor.

During the battle, there are situations when, for some reason, the car can no longer perform the task, says Demid. How to act in this case is discussed in advance with a higher commander. The main rule for everyone is that you cannot leave the battlefield.

The company commander ordered the young officer to approach the forest belt with his crew, where the wounded infantrymen were, and proceed to evacuate them. The officer knew that this was not about one or two wounded, it was necessary to save fifteen people at once. The risk of transporting such a number of people was certainly huge, but the tankers understood that there might not be a second chance to return for the wounded. This means that we must save everyone at once.

– I drove up in a tank to the forest belt in which the wounded were, and my gunner, along with those infantrymen who remained intact, helped to load the wounded directly onto the armor of the car.

First aid was provided while the car was moving. “Demid” admits that he was very worried at that moment. It is understandable – people’s lives depended on it. The territory along which the tank was moving was literally littered with mines.

“I understood that I had fifteen people in my car, and if we run over at least one mine, these people will die,” the officer recalls, and it is noticeable from him that he recalls that episode with excitement. – I was even scared to imagine such a thing.

Our tank drove backwards, and I tried to correct the driver, suggest where you can go and where you shouldn’t.

In addition to mines, there were other obstacles in the way of the tankers, for example, a swamp. The driver even had to swim a little, the source says, but he did not stop and continued to move.

Throughout the evacuation, the enemy fired heavily on our fighters. At some point, Demid’s comrades even thought that he, along with the crew, had died. There was an “arrival” near the officer’s car – a shell exploded – and communication with him was cut off. Fortunately, after a few minutes, communication was restored, and the tanker reported to the command that everyone was alive, and he continued further evacuation.

– Have you been presented for an award?

Yes, but she hasn’t arrived yet. I do not consider myself some kind of hero, I think any normal person, especially an officer, would have acted in my place in exactly the same way. The main reward for me is that all the people we evacuated survived.

Moscow – NWO zone – Moscow.