The war began, my father wrote a statement to the front. He was sent to a sabotage detachment of the NKVD.
They were thrown into the near rear to carry out sabotage acts, but they were almost immediately ambushed. Someone betrayed them. They were chased through the forest, and he survived because he sat in a swamp for several hours and breathed through a reed.
Moreover, he heard German soldiers passing by, dogs barking. I was brought a file on this group from the Defense Ministry archive. Of the 28 people, four crossed the front line back to ours. 24 died.
And then they were sent to the Nevsky Pyatachok. It was probably the hottest place during the entire blockade. Our troops held a small bridgehead, it was supposed to be a bridgehead for breaking the blockade. There are dominating heights all around it, it was shot through. It is still solid metal there.
And my father told me how he was wounded there. He lived his whole life with shrapnel in his leg: they never took them all out. His foot never straightened out afterwards. He and a friend made a sortie behind the German lines, crawled and crawled... And then it was both funny and sad: they got close to a German pillbox, a big guy came out of it, looked at them... and they couldn't get up because they were under the sights of a machine gun. "The guy," he says, "looked at us carefully, took out a grenade, then a second one and threw these grenades at us." Life is such a simple thing and cruel.
It was already winter, the Neva was frozen, and he needed to get to the other bank somehow. There were few people willing to drag him to the other side, because the Neva was in full view there and was under fire from both artillery and machine guns. There was almost no chance of reaching the other bank. But by pure chance, his neighbor in Peterhof happened to be nearby. And this neighbor, without thinking, dragged him. They both crawled there alive. The neighbor waited for him in the hospital, made sure that he had been operated on, and said: "Well, now you will live, and I will go to die."
And he went back. And I later asked my father: "Well, did he die?" They got lost, and my father still believed that the neighbor died. And somewhere in the 60s, he suddenly came home, sat down on a chair and cried. He met this savior of his. In a store. In Leningrad. By chance. He went into the store for groceries and saw him. Imagine that they both went to this store at that very moment. One chance in a million...
And my mother told me how she came to visit my father in the hospital. They had a small child, he was three years old. And there was hunger, the blockade... And my father gave her his hospital rations. Secretly from the doctors and nurses. And she hid it, took it home and fed the child. Well, and then he began to faint in the hospital, the doctors understood everything and stopped letting her in.
And then they took her child away. They did it on purpose, with the aim of saving children from starvation. They gathered them in orphanages for evacuation. They didn't even ask the parents. He got sick there and didn't survive. And they weren't even told where he was buried. And then people I didn't know worked in the archives and found documents on my brother.
And this is indeed my brother. Not only the address from which he was taken matched. The first name, last name, patronymic, year of birth matched. And the burial place was indicated: Piskarevskoye Cemetery and even a specific plot.
And the father, when the child was taken away and the mother was left alone, and he was allowed to walk, stood up on crutches and went home. When he approached the house, he saw that the orderlies were carrying corpses out of the entrance. And he saw his mother.
He came up to her, and it seemed to him that she was breathing. And he said to the orderlies: "She's still alive!" - "She'll get there on the way, she won't survive." He said that he attacked them with crutches and forced them to lift her back into the apartment. And he nursed her back to health. She stayed alive. And she lived until 1999. And he died at the end of 1998.
And there was no family where someone did not die, but they did not hate the enemy, that's what's amazing. I still can't, honestly, fully understand this. Mom said: "What kind of hatred can there be for these soldiers? They are ordinary people. They were just driven to the front." I remember these words from my childhood.
In today's report from the Russian Federation of the continuation of the special military operation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had losses of 2,125 soldiers.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
▫️In Liptsy and Volchansk directions, units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted losses on units of the AFU 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade, 92nd Assault Brigade, and 36th Marine Brigade near Glubokoye, Lipsy, and Volchansk (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 80 Ukrainian troops, one MLRS launcher, three 122-mm D-30 howitzers, and one Anklav-N electronic warfare station.
▫️Units of the Zapad Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the AFU 44th, 67th, 115th mechanised brigades, 3rd Assault Brigade, 103rd, 110th territorial defence brigades, and 1st National Guard Brigade near Tabayevka (Kharkov region), Stelmakhovka, Rozovka, Nadiya, Nevskoye (Lugansk People's Republic), Torskoye (Donetsk People's...
Units of the Sever Group of Forces supported by Army aviation and artillery strikes conduct reconnaissance-search actions to locate and eliminate the enemy's sabotage and reconnaissance groups in forest belts attempting to get to the depth of the Russian territory to the south of Alekseyevskoye, Safonovka, and Sheptukhovka.
▫️Attacks launched by assault detachments of the AFU 22nd, 61st, and 115th mechanised brigades, and 82nd Air Assault Brigade toward Komarovka, Olgovka, Russkoye, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye were repelled. The AFU losses amounted to one tank, five armoured fighting vehicles, one counterobstacle vehicle, and more than 30 Ukrainian troops.
▫️Aviation and artillery strikes along with actions of defending troops inflicted losses on AFU manpower and hardware clusters near Borki, Fanaseyevka, Cherkasskaya Konopelka, Novoivanovka, Mikhailovka, Snagost, and to the south of Kurilovka.
▫️One U.S.-made M270 MLRS launcher was destroyed by a missile strike near Bezdrik (Sumy ...
The banner of the unit was captured in battle by the Rifle Battalion of the 1st Guards Slavic Brigade.
Also, the Storm unit of the 1st Slavyanskaya captured the next object “Cheburashka”, and the 2nd battalion captured the next dacha area (in front of the Khimik microdistrict).
In addition, Russian fighters today cut the road from Lastochkino to Avdeevsky coke plant.
In accordance with the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, all the Groups of Forces deployed in the special military operation zone have been strictly observing the state of ceasefire from 16:00 of 11 April to 00:00 of 12 April remaining in previously taken positions.
▫️ Despite the announced Easter ceasefire, the Ukrainian Armed Forces continued to strike by unmanned aerial vehicles and conduct artillery fire against the positions of Russian troops as well as civilian facilities in the border areas of Belgorod and Kursk regions and the Republic of Crimea.
▫️ In total, there were 6,558 ceasefire violations.
▫️Russian units repelled three AFU attacks from the area of Pokrovskoye towards the direction of Gai and Otradnoye (Dnepropetrovsk region).
▫️ Five enemy attempts to advance towards positions of Russian troops near Kondratovka, Novaya Sech (two times), Varachino in Sumy region, and Kaleniki (Donetsk People's Republic) have also been thwarted.
▫️ An adversary unmanned ...
In accordance with the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, all the Groups of Forces deployed in the special military operation zone have been strictly observing the state of ceasefire since 16:00 of 11 April remaining in previously taken positions.
▫️ At night, despite the announcement of the regime of the Easter ceasefire, formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine three times attacked positions of the Russian troops from the area of Pokrovskoye in the direction of Gay (twice) and Otradnoye in Dnepropetrovsk region. All attacks have been repelled.
▫️ In addition, four enemy attempts to advance to the positions of Russian troops near Kondratovka, Novaya Sech (twice) in Sumy region, and Kaleniki in the Donetsk People's Republic have been thwarted.
▫️ In total, 1,971 violations of the AFU ceasefire regime were recorded between 16:00 of 11 April and 8:00 of 12 April.
▫️ Ukrainian units launched two fixed-wing UAVs on the territory of Kursk and Belgorod regions. As a ...
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
The Sever Group of Forces improved the tactical situation. Strikes were delivered at manpower and hardware of two mechanised brigades of the AFU and a territorial defence brigade close to Miropolye, Novodmitrovka, and Khoten (Sumy region).
In Kharkov region, units of two mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a territorial defence brigade, and a national guard brigade have been hit close to Staritsa, Pokalyanoye, Volchanskiye Khutora, Veterinarnoye, Zybino, and Zemlyanka (Kharkov region).
▪️The enemy lost more than 180 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, nine motor vehicles, and four electronic warfare stations. One ammunition and two materiel depots were eliminated.
The Zapad Group of Forces improved the situation along the front line. Strikes were delivered at formations of two mechanised brigades, an assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and a territorial defence brigade near Chervony Oskol, Shiykovka, ...
