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"We’re all on the same side". How Ukrainian soldiers posed as Russians to escape
March, the settlement of Rozlyv in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Everything is soaked: the walls of the few houses still standing are damp, and the relentless, heavy rumble of artillery tears through the wet expanse of the steppe. It is impossible to tell where the fog ends and the smoke from fires begins. Second lieutenant Serhii, a mechanized platoon commander with the call sign Boxer, came face to face with two groups of Russian stormtroopers. The first was wiped out in the settlement. The second led to a "conversation" that saved his life.
That morning began in silence — a time when soldiers at the front are most exhausted and fog severely limits drones’ visibility. Taking advantage of the conditions, Russian troops entered the settlement in pairs.
A shot through the door
Through the cracks in the basement, where Boxer and his fellow soldier, call sign Tekhnar, were hiding, they heard footsteps and gunfire aimed at the windows.
"Come out! We’re Russian!" a voice shouted from outside.
The two soldiers sat ready, without making a sound. After firing a short burst, one of the Russians, just a few steps away, muttered to the other: "You dumbass, don’t waste your ammo".
The first pair moved on. But more were coming. Unfamiliar footsteps approached the garage, which stood right next to the house. The Russians tugged at the door, which had been tied shut with a rope. A second tug broke it open. The enemy approached the door. Boxer fired a short burst straight through it. The first Russian fell, while the second jumped back into the adjacent room, shouting: "What the hell, we’re on your side! We’re Russian!"
A risky game of trust
Serhii is originally from Horlivka, which is under Russian occupation. As a teenager, he left for Ukrainian-controlled territory in 2014. He later completed his conscription military service, served under contract, and took part in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). Then came a brief period of civilian life, followed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He volunteered to join the 23rd Separate Mechanized Brigade.
During the events in Rozlyv, Serhii says, his ability to speak Russian with a Horlivka accent came in very handy.
"I’m from the 36th Division. We’ve been here for two weeks. Khokhols (an ethnic slur used by Russians against Ukrainians — Ed.) smashed our radio," he shouted to another Russian soldier.
BOXER GAVE TEKHNAR THE SIGNAL: "NOW!"
Boxer pulled the pin on an M67 grenade. He waited. Throwing a grenade in such a confined space was dangerous — it could take them all out. So he kept talking, trying to deceive the enemy as he slowly made his way through the doorway:
"Let’s not do anything stupid. Easy now. Just don’t aim at me. Keep your rifle a little lower. We’re all on the same side. It’s fine…"
The Russian believed him. As soon as his silhouette appeared, Boxer gave Tekhnar the signal: "Now!"
Tekhnar took out the second intruder. Their haul included ammunition, grenades and, most valuable of all, a radio.
"Thank God their Chinese-made TYT radio was working. We were listening in on it," Boxer recalls. "I realized the Russians were somehow tracking these radios. As soon as they lose contact, they start pounding the area with artillery".
The entire following day was spent listening intently to the captured radio. Boxer wrote down every call sign he heard on the channel on a scrap of paper, then cross-referenced them with the documents. He figured out that the Russians they had killed were Ozornoy and Taksist, and their commanders were Krym and Yaryi.
"One of them still had this… smile on his face even after death. You could tell he was a lively fellow," Boxer recalls. "The other had every vehicle category listed on his driver’s license, and his car keys were in his backpack".
Darkness and dust
Then hell broke loose. Artillery and FPV drones tore apart the buildings around them. After another strike, Serhii and his fellow soldier changed positions, but the next day, a drone flew straight into the house. The building collapsed.
When Boxer regained consciousness, he realized he was pinned beneath a heavy concrete ceiling slab. His head was ringing, blood was coming from his mouth, nose, and ears, and his face and neck were burning from the blast. It later turned out that both his eardrums had ruptured.
The slab kept sinking lower. Summoning what little strength he had left, Boxer braced one hand and one foot against the surrounding structures and slowly wriggled out of his body armor, centimeter by centimeter. Then he heard Tekhnar, who had regained consciousness nearby.
"Tekhnar, is that you?" Boxer called out.
"Yeah. Where are you?"
Tekhnar helped Boxer free himself completely. They managed to retrieve one assault rifle and one mag from the rubble. Dazed and exhausted, the two soldiers moved to a neighboring, partially destroyed house. They lay down beneath a bunk bed, wrapping themselves in sackcloth they found there.
That was where four Russian soldiers caught them. They entered the house and climbed onto the same bunk bed. The Ukrainian soldiers lay on the floor for two hours, trying not to make a sound. Then a drone dropped a munition through the roof. One of the Russians, startled, jumped down and spotted an antenna beneath the bunk bed:
"Oh, what’s this? A radio?"
The second Russian pushed the sackcloth aside with the barrel of his assault rifle, coming face to face with the two wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
The interrogation
"Who are you?" the leader of the group asked the Ukrainian soldiers.
"36th Division!" Boxer replied without hesitation.
"Why didn’t you come out and tell us you were here?"
"I thought you might be Khokhols… Our radio isn’t working. We were caught in a building collapse nearby. Everything was left behind".
The Russian seemed to believe him.
"Come out slowly. Do you have a weapon?"
"An assault rifle".
"Hand it over!"
"Guys, we’re wounded, we can barely hear. We’ll come out slowly. Just don’t shoot".
BOXER HAD ACTUALLY HIDDEN SEVERAL THOUSAND RUSSIAN RUBLES
The Russians began questioning them.
"What are your call signs, and what are your commanders’?"
"I’m Ozornoy," Boxer said clearly. He introduced Tekhnar as Taksist.
"What’s your company commander’s call sign?"
"Guys, damn it, our company commander has been gone for a long time. All we know is that his name is Slavik".
"How many rubles do you have in your pockets?"
"Guys, it’s all in our backpacks, honestly. We can go and get them".
Boxer had actually hidden several thousand Russian rubles he had found among the belongings of the dead Russian stormtroopers.
"Tell me the call signs of some of your senior officers. You didn’t just walk in here on your own, did you?"
"There were Krym and Yaryi. They gave us a ride on a motorcycle to the edge of the treeline. From there, we went on foot. They guided us using drones," Serhii answered quickly and confidently.
"Where are you from?" came another question.
Tekhnar, who struggled to speak Russian, managed to say: "I’m from Donetsk". Boxer immediately backed him up so the Russians wouldn’t start questioning his accent.
"I’m from Horlivka".
The questions came one after another. When one of the Russians turned sharply to the concussed Tekhnar for the tenth time and asked about their company commander, Tekhnar hesitated. Boxer immediately drew the attention back to himself.
"I’m really not feeling well. Everything’s spinning, guys. Give me some water. And our company commander’s name is Slavik…"
The Russian snapped at him:
"Why the fuck are you answering?! I wasn’t asking you!"
"Guys, please don’t shout so much. I’m really feeling awful. Don’t leave us here," Boxer pleaded, trying to distract him.
The interrogation went on for several hours.
The return
Boxer recalls that he played his part so convincingly that he might have believed his own story. To verify the information, the Russian soldier contacted his superior.
"Is Ozornoy wounded?” came the question over the radio.
The Russian soldier looked at Serhii and replied, "Yes".
"And is Taksist a big guy?"
The Russian looked at Tekhnar. "Fairly big…"
The enemy commander was finally convinced that the two men were Russian soldiers.
"Do you know where Point 30 is?" he asked. "The brick shack near the school. Head out to the left, through the bushes, towards the crossroads, then turn right".
As soon as the Russians let the Ukrainian soldiers out of the house, they turned sharply right and dashed from one building to another. It was an exhausting sprint through gardens and across open fields. As they approached a treeline where Ukrainian infantry were positioned, Boxer shouted at the top of his lungs: "Guys, we're Ukrainian!"
A soldier in pixel camouflage jumped out of the trench, the familiar blue-and-yellow patch visible on his sleeve. Once Boxer reached the position, he immediately contacted the battalion commander.
"There’s a school over there, damn it! There’s some kind of assembly point in a building near the school. Hit it with everything you’ve got!"
Ahead of them were an evacuation under the cover of rain in a superb MaxxPro armored vehicle, a hospital stay, and major surgery. Two names could finally be crossed off the list of missing soldiers. Boxer and Tekhnar had made it back to their own troops.
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