Interview with Oleh, member of Ukraine's GUR (military intelligence agency)

Interview edited lightly for clarity.

This is Matthew Parish from the Lviv Herald, and, I'm interviewing today Oleh, who is working with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and for reasons that will become apparent, we're keeping Oleh anonymous. But I want to welcome Oleh to the Lviv Herald and ask him firstly, Oleh, what are you doing in the context of the war?

As my contribution to the war, I'm the commander of the battalion of the volunteers who came to protect to defend Kyiv from the first days of the full scale invasion. We have organised more than 10 organisations and, and [military] groups as of today.

You were involved in the very first days of the invasion of the war, and you've been involved ever since?

Yes. That was the first sector of the defence. Podil, Obelon, and Vynohradar District: they were under the direct command of the central military intelligence service, the GUR.

So what role were you playing as a member of the GUR and what did the work involve, in these early days of the defence of Kyiv during the war?

From the first days of the full scale invasion, I was a commander of a batallion of the GUR. We were checking all people, particularly at night. We arranged checks at at at the checkpoints. We suffered our first casualties on 28 February 2022.

So this was in the defence of Kyiv in 2022.

Yes. We, as the battalion worked with the police and all the other institutions like the SBU, all altogether, we will not only defended Kyiv and the regions and the districts around Kyiv. We were [also] trying to identify Russian agents that has infiltrated inside Ukraine. For example at Podol, we were identifying the call centres from where the Russian units were working they they were coordinating people, like the spies or whoever they were, the agents in Ukraine to do harm to Ukraine. We identified them, and we did our job.

And, me personally, I knew the head of Podol District. It's not the mayor. Rather the head of the Podol district. So we were protecting him directly.

So the FSB would have active units inside Kyiv, and they were operating from offices or buildings, and you were hunting them out and removing them from from Ukraine. The FSB had infiltrated Kyiv, and they were they had bases inside the city. They had offices.

Yes. And then you have to go and find them and you kill them.

The battalion where I was the the commander, [we found this building with the help of the local people]. All the people who worked at this hotel were from either from Podol, Obelon, or Vynohradar districts.

And the people staying in the hotel were serving shifts.

They were trying to secure the most important places and institutions in this in these districts, and they were trying to identify people. And we spotted these strangers.

For example, you take a look at the person and you understand that the outfit is strange and the behaviour is strange to identify those who did not look like locals. So there was this business centre [we were suspicious of].

Because at night, when we were serving the the night shifts, we identified the business centre. And just in comparison, all the people were trying to escape from Kyiv from the city centre right and to go somewhere to a more secure place. And, we got we've seen lights in a lot of windows in this building. So that was a trigger for us to go and check. So when we came, we understood that the work was going on in this in this business centre even at night.

So we cooperated. We called the SBU and the National Police of Ukraine. They came and we got into this office. We we got the people. And then we saw that the FSB was running this office.

And we identified that the building where this visa centre was belonged to a Russian oligarch. And it was built not a long time before the full scale invasion. And even when you take a look at the windows, it was built defensively like a castle from where you can shoot a gun or whatever. And in Podol, you can just imagine that in this business centre on top, they had two helicopter landing pads, these circles for helicopters to come and land.

So the Russians had been making extensive preparations for the invasion, including whole FSB buildings.

Yes. When we got this office and when we checked all around, we understood that it was done purposefully by the FSB.

How did you conclude this?

Because we found a lot of provisions, a lot of ammunition, a lot of clothing that would be enough for couple or even for three months in the future for these people who were organised by the FSB to act on the territory of Kyiv. Well, and to tell you more, when we captured this office, there were, more than 10 active FSB agents, which we caught. So I was granted with an honour for for catching these people and identifying this office, and they even gave me a gun with my name on it. So I received a military award.

So the FSB had planned a sort of a government structure for Kyiv, in the event of a successful invasion, and the FSB had infiltrated the city beforehand.

Yes, but I have only told you one episode. We had tens of episodes like this, and the people who we caught, and the building, and there was even one at the checkpoint. This one was for the noose.

One FSB agent had Russian passport and FSB identity card. So he was showing resistance. And we had to kill him because he was trying to fight back. And we didn't bring him to the hospital because hospitals were full with the wounded. Ukrainian soldiers, people, local citizens, and stuff. So and, we opened his passport, put it on the top, and we hooked him on a fence. And, you know, a bridge, which goes from Podol to Obolon. There was a fence. We didn't pick him up. We just hooked him on a fence. Why? Because we wanted other agents, other infiltrated Russians to see what is going to happen to them.

How many FSB agents do you think infiltrated Kyiv before the full scale invasion?

The answer is incredibly a lot, incredibly much because my organisation, as you know, it is a huge organisation and has people and representatives in almost every city in Ukraine. And people were telling me that you have seen somebody talking not like Ukrainians acting not like Ukrainians and so on.

And, just to give you an example that they got locals recruited by the FSB. And, first, they had an experience. They got an ideological will or whatever and other reasons why they would cooperate with these Russian FSB agents. And just an example, the Podol administration, there was one one employee who [as a traitor] in the first days of the Russian invasion. And he was saying, we have to surrender to the enemy.

We will not do it. We have to give up. We have to come and to put down the weapons and stuff. And, we we picked up these people. We caught them.

We're in the kill. We just hit him to the skull and then we went to other institutions. So, as you know, in the first days on the full scale invasion, when they were expecting for the the Russians to come to Kyiv, they had prepared people, locals who are prepared way before the full scale invasion. They they got the guns from the [FSB] people. They got the Telegram channel with the creator who would tell them what to do, where to go, and they got the fluorescent paint, which, will have the colours during the night.

So when you take a look and find the fluorescent paint. So they were coming and putting the crosses, the arrows, where they can land, where they can put whatever, maybe a helicopter. We don't know for sure. We had a lot of these people caught in Kyiv.

And these recruited locals, which we're talking about, there was a piece of a railway road. They marked it all the all the way along. And when we when we put glasses on, which can can identify this paint, we were coming to all the places and to paint it on top so that the Russian piggy dogs cannot see. So we were doing this stupid work in order to save Kyiv and Ukraine at that point.

Why do you think the Russian invasion of Kyiv failed given that the Russian armed forces were overwhelmingly strong at that point?

I would say why they did not make it because they were planning to get Kyiv in three days. But when they came, when they saw the Ukrainian armed forces prepared, and also they did not expect that the locals, the civilians would have this we call it the social uplift. People understood that you've seen the platforms on the railway road with all the armoured vehicles and stuff coming from Kyiv to some other direction.

So our Ukrainian state gave up. They did not they move all the bombs under the bridges. They were they were kind of preparing to give Ukraine with these figures. But when locals saw this this tragedy, people from 18 years old, even high school students, two of them six years old, I mean, coming to us, wherever wherever they saw a uniform, asking for a gun to fight back the Russian invaders. And when the Russians came, after three days, they've seen that the resistance is so high.

After this, they they understood that they would not make it because of the social uplift, and people understood. They [understood] the Ukrainian culture. We have our state, and we want to fight for it. So that's why the Russians decided to move back from [Kyiv].

Volunteers of every kind went to fight. My friend with thick spectacles went with me to the trenches to fight. He had not served in the army before. So I just saw even people without uniforms, but they came in regular clothes, just the jacket and jeans and they got the boots, got the body armour, but had no armour on top of his head. Women here came to us and smaller but they fought.

What do you think of the state of the war now on the current frontline?

The situation is terrible at the moment, And in couple of a months, it will be even more hell. But you have this front. I have been shown almost all the way, the whole front line that you have now, I spoke almost to every commanders of the brigades. We will continue to fight. Yes.

I have permission to visit all the positions. The situation is complicated as we only have 30% of what we need. The ammunition, the the vehicles, the drones, also all equipment. Ammunition is the biggest concern, and we are holding back the frontline only because we are using the smart technologies, which we which we use smart technologies, which we which we are using in a smart way.

They found out this way of putting the mines on a battlefield when the Russians are coming, [we cover it in invisible mines].

They put 100 grammes of explosive inside, and when they come, bam, oh, la, we got a present for you. That is important.

And, any platform which is on trucks, if you if you put this big 500 grammes of explosive, when it explodes, then the the truck is broken. It cannot operate anymore. Now we have a situation when there's over one Ukrainian soldier to 10 Russian soldiers. And only thanks to these smart technologies which we try to develop, we still can fight on the front and hold the front line.

So and only thanks to this smart technologies which were developed by us, we can hold back the Russian pigs. And unfortunately worldwide, no one has used this kind of methods, which we're using. It's knowhow from our side. And all only thanks to this, we still can hold back the front. We we are not talking about the attacking to move to that territory because we only have 30% out of 100 of what we need to to have the real fight back and attack and stuff.

Unfortunately, Russians became smarter because, at the very the very beginning of the full scale invasion, they were use they were still using the USSR combat methods, but now they have become very smart. And I made an example. Like, we have two positions. There is only 30 metres between the positions.

Here is our position, like, the house where our soldiers are located. This one is Russian. They send 10 people to get the position. They were killed. Okay.

Well, then they will send 20 people. At least two, three will come. We'll make it to the end. We have enough FPV drones, artillery, so we still can fight back. But they become smarter, and they're trying to use smart ways of fighting.

And we are even fighting at 30 metres distance. And, they would fail the battle for the dead bodies, but they would reach at least one, two, three positions which they need. They don't count. So yeah. And, when we say about Russians, they don't count people.

We'll kill 100, 200. They don't care. And, Russians, they are kinda like the kamikaze. They would die, and then others would die. In Ukraine, we tried to fight back for our independence for the country.

And I think just, I made an example. There was one guy, one soldier who was surrounded, like and he was in this, surrounded for fifteen days with another guy himself. And the other guy was was only helping him to load the magazine with ammunition, and people were using drones to to bring him some water and some some dry cookies. In fifteen days, he killed more than 2,000 Russian piggy dogs. Then they stepped back, and only because of his whatever character he has got, he survived.

And he he said, I was fighting for Ukraine. He's got these big blisters on his finger because of the trigger. So that is the difference you can feel between the Russian and Ukrainian soldier. So the Russians don't really care what they're fighting for. They're just going to die whereas the Ukrainians are fighting for their territory and for their sovereignty and country.

We have a famous saying in in Ukraine that what mine is mine, and I will not give it to anyone else. And at the same time, I don't need anybody's field or house. Mine is mine, and I will fight for this. But I do not need anybody's else.

Well, yeah. What I said as well is, can you imagine we have been fighting with Russians for the last three hundred years? And that was a a very long period till now. And when the full scale invasion happened, we got this national identity let's say, independence and sovereignty woke up from the middle of the heart, from the bottom of the heart. And that is what we are fighting for because we have the bad experience from from past, and we are trying not to have this bad experience in the future.

So now at this present moment, we are fighting for those, and we are covering those traumas that we have in in the future. Yeah. And, what is also important to say that we do not have any hate towards other nationalities because Ukraine is a multinational state, starting from the Kazakh siege. And, we have the south part of Ukraine, where we have different nationalities, we have the West, the East. We do not have the fight, the hate towards other people, but we are trying to protect what is ours.

Because if you take a look at the history, from the, you know, Mongol time on, they came to Ukraine. We were not trying to go to somewhere's land to fight and to get a piece of this. I mean, we're trying we were trying to protect what is ours. And, interesting story and the fact that during World War II, we got four Ukrainian roads. Right?

If you take a look from Odesa up to, up to Scandinavia and right? Our four Ukrainian front lines, and none of them were Russians. And after World War II, every second family had lost at least one a member. That is the experience we gained from before, and that's why that is, like, the meaning why people in Ukraine are fighting so hard nowadays to protect the sovereignty which we were fighting for the last three hundred years. You say you don't have any hatred [of] brothers.

How do you feel about the Russian soldiers who are dying in such large numbers trying to occupy your country?

Well, the first, Russian and, I would like to emphasise the Russian soldiers I've killed when I was the the volunteer like, how do you call it? The self-recruited soldier in Georgia in 2008. And it's not being like the top of the frame where the hate starts. Right?

Just imagine someone came to your house, raped your kid or your wife, or let's say, stolen what you got. You don't have time to have hate. You don't have time to think, is it good or bad to kill someone? You just come, fight back, and kill. That is what you have to do with the coal in the coal mine.

Well yeah. And, I would say there is an okay towards Russians, towards, Belarusian or any any other soldiers with the Asian face who came from any, like, eastern part of Russia. I would say that we are just fighting and and nature in the nature, on a street, who is stronger, he will survive. I fight him back, and I survive. It doesn't matter who will come.

They come to my a land to get what what is mine. So that that's why I'm just trying to fight back.

Do you have any predictions for the future of this war?

Well, as to a question, I would say, I would like to believe and hope for their for the quick end of the war. But here, I have to say one more thing.

If we talk about the end of the war, the peace, we have to sit down and to make a plan at least for the nearest five years. Because if you stop the worst point where it is now in Ukraine, can you imagine this this amount of anger, for the government, for the people, soldiers who want blood, who want to kill people, they would come back. They would either fight with the state or they will have to find the place to where these soldiers would go. Then if you stop the war now in Ukraine without thinking about the future, the war in two even even in one week would start in Latvia and Lithuania. That is 100%.

And you love astronomy. They they are weak countries, and they are prepared. They got the one you should so that's why we have to sit down and to make a step by step plan if we stop what would happen next. This could be the wise decision done by those who sign the the the peace paper? So we can't just stop the war because the Russians would redeploy their assets elsewhere and perhaps invade the Baltic States.

I would ask you. So, if you talk about peace, to sign the peace as what today is, you know, the trial with Putin. Maybe both of them [Trump and Putin] would like to be in a list in the genius book or whatever target they have, but what they don't have into the targets was to save the Ukraine, sovereignty and the identity as one country with all the pieces of the land that we have lost and which is temporary occupied now. And Aleph [a reference to God] has also has said that Ukraine is being the big shelter, between the Russians and the rest of the Europe. And, as for today, to sign the peace is impossible for two reasons. The first reason, they did not find the solution where to employ or like, in what hole we we should put these Russian soldiers for them not to come back to the society, start for robbery, murders, rape, harassment, whatever it can happen.

And the second one, we have the constitution of Ukraine where you said Ukraine is the one of unity. And [if] Zelensky signed this peace in the form that they have proposed to give some piece, even one a metre of land, it's against the constitution. So when he signs it, at the very same a minute, he would sign himself a death sentence because he would go against the constitution. And, and they also said, like, if Russia would have chosen not Ukraine on 24 February 2022, but let's say Latvia on 20 [February], as for now, they would have been in Belgium already. There would be the other story because we can say without hesitation that Ukrainian soldiers and officers have have been one of the best in the world with combat experience with the great combat experience.

We got the fourth year ongoing war, and when it all ends up, I will give 100% that Ukrainian soldiers and officers who who go to Europe and to to become consultants to other armed forces in in the rest of the Europe and help them to to identify what are the weak points on the border where to dislocate the ammunition, the soldiers, and so on. So I'm very interested in the idea that Russia can't demobilise its own armed forces because it would be sending soldiers back as killers into Russian society. So Russia is stuck in a wartime mode.

Indefinitely?

Yes. And, if you take a look, at the history of the USSR from the day it was created, it collapsed. They had the ongoing war for the because when people were watching, they did not have anything else but just to watch the TV at home after work, after the shift, spent on a plant. Whatever. Just typical people. They came back home, watched the TV, and the president and all the politicians would say, we are a great country.

We have we don't have the toilet paper. We have the holes in the underwear. But look, America is bad, or whoever is bad. The West is bad. We do not have to go there.

And to prove that we are great, we have to do what? We have to fight. We have to have the war, the ongoing war. So war and, like, we are great country goes together all the time. So war was part of the Soviet system, and now it's part of the Russian system.

Well, not really, but Putin's ambition is to be the King, you know, the the the Czar, you know, is, is another kind of so if I can take another ten minutes of of your time That's historic, but mostly, obviously, we can tell you from the history because I love history, and I can tell you why. Well, one one hundred years ago after the revolution was done, Lenin became the only person who inherited all the King's [powers]. They killed the representatives of the King's family. And, Nikolai the Second [Tsar of Russia in 1917], [Lenin] refused for him to inherit the everything that belonged to the king. Now we are coming to the very, very important part. Lenin, as he inherited everything which belonged to King, the colour of the land and stuff, when he died, he was not in a grave in the earth.

He's in the mausoleum, and he is like the King's body. And the King's curse, what you have said before, the person either alive or died, people have to come to him, and he is still being the King. And Lenin is lying, being preserved in a human body in the mausoleum, and so, like, subsequently, he's still being the King.

But then there is a rule from history, like from old times, that after one hundred years, the new King has to come. Look how big the Royal Family is in the United Kingdom. It is a hamlet and look how big the United States is. But the United States is still paying its percentage to the Crown treasury. And all the while, we have the King of Belgium, the United Kingdom and stuff, and they are under the protection of the all these rules about the Kings and who has come after one hundred years. That is very important.

So, as we know, Lenin died in in in 1924. So Putin was planning to conquer Ukraine by [one hundred years from then], and he has even changed the constitution in in Russia that the ruler, like, the president or the king can can rule the country in the infinite period of time. And the United States is under the control of the Vatican City, this is the same principle.

We'll have to stop it there and I thank you very much, Oleh, for your time. Thank you for your explanation of your work and your defence of Ukraine. You're a hero of Ukraine.