Ukraine War Day #830: A Soldier Who Switched Sides – Part I

Dear Readers:

Today I have this very interesting piece by Russian military correspondent Alexander Kots. He tells the story of a Ukrainian POW who decided to switch sides and fight for Russia. The Russian army has created a “Volunteer Corps” consisting of just such POWs, and now numbering in several battalions. Kots stresses that no Ukrainian POW is ever pressured to go back out to the front. Once they are taken captive, they have the perfect right to remain in the POW camp, with 3 meals a day and fairly reasonable living conditions, until such time as they are either traded for a Russian POW, or the war comes to an end, whichever comes sooner. That some of them actually decide to go back out into the carnage, but now fighting for the other team, is some kind of proof that these men are not cowards. In other words, cowardice is not the reason why they gave themselves up or got captured!

Pavel Yakovlev

This soldier’s name is Pavel Yakovlev. That’s his real name, and his real face. That shows just how brave he is. His call sign is Prometheus. He now fights under the “Russian Volunteer Corps” banner, whose symbol is shown below; it consists of the traditional Eastern Orthodox cross over a crescent moon.

I looked up the symbology: the crescent moon was a symbol of Byzantine power as early as 1165, and so preceded the use of the same symbol in the Muslim era. The crescent is a symbol of Jesus Christ in his role as High Priest and King of Kings. “In addition to the described above symbolism of the crescent, there are also other meanings, which belong to the patristic tradition. For example, the image of the Cradle of Bethlehem, which held the Divine Infant Christ; the Eucharistic cup; the Church’s Ship on the board of which a person can reach the bay of salvation. It is also a symbol of baptistery.”

Anyhow, this is the banner and patch that these soldiers wear now that they are fighting on the Russian side.

Pavel was born in Volhynia, way over in Western Ukraine, but spent most of his life in Kiev. By trade he was a skilled worker, he worked in many different factories, mostly specializing in constructing systems of automation. In 2022 he was laid off from his job and then he started to live the shadowy life of a draft dodger. He rented a room in a dormitory and spent most of his time hiding from the police. Only on rare occasions would he sneak back to his family home to do his laundry. This is what got him caught: “I walked into the foyer, climb up to the 5th floor, I see the guys standing there. I turn and start to go down, there’s another one waiting for me below. They surrounded me and handed me a mobilization notice. I went before the draft board, they took a fluoroscope [to check for tuberculosis?], but before the results were even in, they shipped me off for training.

“They treated us like meat…”

Pavel got 40 days of training, quite a luxury by today’s standards. After that, off he went to serve in the A0222 unit, which was called the “Separate Presidential Brigade”. Another week to get everything ready, and then off to the front. For him this was the city of Krasnogorovka, near the Avdeevka front.

Pavel and his Ukrainian comrades would crouch in their trenches, listening for the dreaded sounds from above. The most dreaded of all was the sharp, almost hysteria-driven “zzzz” of the FPV drone. Soldiers quickly learned to distinguish that awful sound from the more benign “zhhh” of the reconnaissance copter. After you hear those sounds, you will never mix them up again.

“One day the Russians stormed our positions. Our commander, who had never been close to the front line in his life, told us: “Lads, everything is normal. Just break through to your prepared positions, it’s just our guys out there, you have nothing to be afraid of.” This was Prometheus‘ first experience of real combat. “With difficulty we worked our way through to our positions, fighting as we went: A tank was shooting at us, then a grenade launcher. And when we finally got to our prepared position, we discovered that we were already in a half-encirclement. There was nowhere for us to go. We had been simply tricked into going there, as sacrificial cannon fodder. At that moment, something inside my head simply cracked. I decided that I didn’t want to fight for this side. To be deceived so many times, and then just sent to die, and for what? For a government that makes money from the conflict, by converting all of us into chopped meat.”

Next: Pavel decides to switch sides…

[to be continued]