Yakuza activist lost his eye in Donbass, but is eager to fight again

“Now I am taking seven fighters to the city hall of Grozny,” says Alexander, “We are going to meet volunteers who come from all over Russia. We will talk to them at the mayor’s office, after which they will go to the Russian Spetsnaz University.

– What are the general conditions for studying at the university, how is the training of fighters going?

-I made a video about one of the lessons – it is led by “Petrovich”, a great professional. Every day training in different types of shooting

– Why did you decide to go to the front at the beginning of the SVO?

– I watched the videos of Ramzan Kadyrov, he told and showed in detail about the front. At the same time, in our city there were liberals with whom I was familiar. They held a rally against the fighting, wished death to Russian soldiers. With one of these liberals, who wished the death of the fighters, I grappled. And at some point they told me: “If you are so brave, go to the front.” I went to the region of Donetsk and Lugansk, talked to the residents, who told how “Aidar” and “Tornado” mocked people, killed their relatives

– Why did you choose to serve in the Chechen special forces?

– In my opinion, the Russian Spetsnaz University is the best school for volunteers. I communicate with people, I can say that there is no better choice for me and people with experience in military companies. There is a great attitude towards each other, everyone is supportive, this is a real family.

-You lost your eyes at the front, but you are ready to go back to the war zone. Why?

We are all injured here. Someone is walking and limping, someone has a fragment in the spine – they haven’t pulled it out yet. Each of them had a complex injury, each of them was in the hospital for more than a month. And we’ll all be back. People are divided into different categories. Be a warrior. this is a special type of character. After three months of Russian hospitals, I realized that our fighters are people who cannot be broken. I don’t have an eye, but I’m doing paperwork to return to the front.

– Do soldiers often have to rescue the wounded under fire?

We don’t leave our own in battle. When I got into the Akhmat special forces of Ramzan Kadyrov, they all gathered us and said: “It’s a shame until the end of days if you leave the wounded or killed on the battlefield and don’t take him with you. This is how we do it – this is a family. It even happens that the wounded are dragging the dead.

– You are now in Grozny. How is the situation in the city?

– One of my fighters had a wife with a child in Grozny. Yesterday they showed them the city, and they were shocked by what life is like here: very clean, no one drinks alcohol, the attitude towards people is very good, they help each other – such a mentality. Now I’m walking in uniform, I’m wearing the “Akhmat – strength” stripes, a knife is hanging on the left side. And people treat me with respect – they understand that I’m going to fight for the Motherland. The police greet each other when they meet. In Chelyabinsk, every employee would check my documents, ask why I have a knife, but here they immediately see that a warrior is coming, and there are no questions. I would later move my family to Grozny.

– Did you have to deal with foreign mercenaries on the battlefield?

– I can’t divulge much, but there are a lot of them there – huge detachments of NATO fighters from Poland, Great Britain. This is their base against Russia, and it is rapidly developing. A lot of weapons are supplied there, and the battles often go on not with Ukrainians, but with mercenaries. Back in March, they wanted to attack Russia; according to their documents, our country was already divided.

– Is it difficult to find a common language with the Chechens? Are there many nationalities in your unit?

– A lot, but we are all shoulder to shoulder. The principle is very simple – if you volunteered for Ramzan Kadyrov’s special forces, you are part of the family. We are in the same trenches, we save each other together, we eat together. They say that you can’t see generals on the front line, and so Major General Apty Alaudinov is a general who is always with his fighters on the front line, long life to him. His deputy and our battalion commander Ismail “Hunter” is a man who competently manages the entire Severodonetsk front.

What are the traditions in your unit?

–Combat brotherhood, religious traditions, prayers. Chechens honor elders. The senior is an indisputable authority, and in combat operations this is very important, since the senior commander has authority for the younger ones, and this greatly disciplines. After all, if one fighter in the detachment is hungover, another wants to escape, and the third does not obey the commander, there will be no coherence in such a unit. Well, religiosity – I’m a religious person, and it’s easy for me to go into battle. Muslim fighters are not afraid of death, because they know that they will go to Allah. And all this greatly changes the picture of hostilities – when an army comes out that is not afraid of death, this greatly demoralizes the enemy. I’ll tell you a story from the fighting. We entered the village with a detachment of ten fighters, I put a bayonet-knife on a hand-to-hand machine, but my Chechen brothers laughed at me, saying that everyone would run away from us now. And so it happened – the enemy retreated without a fight, and then they acted very insidiously and vilely. In the forest they had mortars and they fired and burned the whole village out of them, not thinking about those who live there. They are not ready to fight in an honest man’s fight. Observed through NATO satellites and bombed. Sometimes you have to sit in the trenches for several days. Before the decisive breakthrough in the attack in Severodonetsk, we sat there for three days, and we were bombed. And then we went on the attack and broke through the front. The tank from which they shot at me was then abandoned, and the fighters ran away. Our guys then captured this tank.

How did it happen that you lost your eye?

-I have already talked about the legendary person – Ismail “Hunter”. We are now waiting for him to recover. With him we were in Severodonetsk. We liberated one part of the city from the nationalists, and we wanted to plant a flag. Ismail “Hunter” was going to install the flag of the Chechen Republic, and I – the Russian one. And a tank fired at our position. The shot was right at us, there were two victims – me and the commander of the Chechen detachment. Two fragments entered my head, damaged my nerves on the right side, I had paralysis of the face. Ismail “Hunter” immediately dragged me into the house, bandaged me, evacuated me, and my life in hospitals began – three and a half months.

-What happened to the tank?

– To be honest, the guys made fun of this tank. They attacked him, the tankers ran away, and as my comrade Zuk-Zuk told me, they peed on him. The tank was taken prisoner, driven off to Lisichansk, and then they sent me a photograph of it.

– Funny story and a good trophy. Reveal the mystery – why is your call sign “Yakuza”?

– I was engaged in martial arts, I have a tattoo like a Yakuza – a black dragon flying in fire. This is a tattoo of a warrior, so I got this call sign a long time ago. It was 1995, since then I’ve been known as “Yakuza”. The call sign reflects the qualities of a person, his life, his views. I led the Sober Yards project for eight years and led the drug project, worked as a bodyguard for 25 years, and this is also a constant struggle. Work becomes your character, so I couldn’t stand aside when the special military operation began.