The shaman quickly emerges from the darkness, greets, sits down opposite. He frowns at the sharp light of the lamp, bows his head. In a moment he looks up and begins the conversation. The Shaman's eyes look at you, but do not see the interlocutor. In front of the legendary commander, the Hero of Ukraine - numerous battles, ravaged by Russians in towns and villages, the suffering of civilians, brothers who, with superhuman efforts, selflessly and heroically restrain and destroy the enemy.

"I don't remember the last time I really laughed," said the Shaman, confused when asked if there were any funny incidents that could relieve any momentary tension. However, there is something that can cause a sincere smile of the commander and his fighters. This is an opportunity to call relatives, hear their voices, say "love" to those for whom they are defending Ukraine and fighting for its future.

Yevhen Shamatalyuk, commander of the 95th ODShb battalion, Hero of Ukraine. Since 2014, since the beginning of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, he has taken part in hostilities. He fought in the DAP, Volnovakha, Slovyansk, Dmytrivka and other hot spots in Donbass. From the beginning of March 2022 he defended the country in the Izium direction.

- Eugene, your section of the front is not calming down, it seems, not for a moment. What weapons does the enemy use?

- The enemy works with all the weapons he has. These are infantry, combat vehicles, tanks, artillery, flamethrower systems, such as TOC "Pinocchio", "Solntsepek", and also actively uses UAVs. I used to actively use aviation, now it is much less.

- What is it about?

- With the use of our air defense tools. My fighters shot down one plane, but many aircraft shot down our air defenses. I remember the beginning of March, when we were defending the village of Kamyanka, where aviation worked very often and actively. After they started shooting down more effectively, the number of enemy aircraft decreased many times.

- We see that the settlements near the front were completely destroyed - both by planes and artillery. Until when were there civilians?

- We always try to evacuate civilians. We take out everyone who wants. Sometimes we insist on explaining the need for evacuation to civilians. Unfortunately, there are still those who refuse.

- Are these probably older people?

- Mostly older, but there is also middle age. People are more likely to agree to an evacuation when they see their neighbors being killed or their homes destroyed as a result of Russian shelling. When already close, so to speak. It happens that already during the active phase of hostilities people come and ask for evacuation. Although a week or two before that they refused.

The civilians we are talking to here have witnessed horrific events. And we have seen with our own eyes the attitude of Russians towards the civilian population.

I remember when our units were on one side of the village and the enemy units on the other. To our right is the road that people used to evacuate from Izyum. At that time there was still an evacuation, people were traveling by buses and civilian cars. The enemy was constantly shelling the road. We witnessed a tank shoot at a bus carrying civilians right next to us.

Don't put into words the feeling when you see women, children, elderly people who just want to escape the war, but are being killed… Who do you have to be to just shoot civilians ?! We tried to help, cover people, evacuate that bus, pick up people under fire, provide our equipment, take them to safety.

It would be much easier to fight if civilians left the settlements immediately when we asked them to. Then there would be far fewer casualties among both civilians and the military. But, unfortunately, not everyone still understands this.

We have been defending one settlement for almost two months now, there are no civilians there and there are almost no normal houses left. People bite into the ground and fight. I can't even count the number of units storming our positions, because they are constantly changing. They attacked, repulsed the offensive, the enemy withdrew, rotated… Next, next… After their failed attempts, they either deserted, refused to carry out orders, or were taken somewhere in the rear for re-staffing and so on.

- Do you know what enemy units were here?

- There were already a lot of them… I know that there were landing units, infantry, marines, they even tried to attack units from Russian "schools", from educational institutions. There are a lot of documents that we have submitted to the higher headquarters, where there are numbers of military units, names, lists, call signs and so on. There are also prisoners who told which units they came from.

- What do the prisoners say?

- They say that their commanders set tasks, they say, if you take this settlement, you will be changed tomorrow and you will return to Russia. Their soldiers are so demoralized that this is the only way to raise them to battle. They are very afraid of artillery. Now the number of our artillery has increased, we are constantly inflicting fire damage. They say they have big losses. But the enemy is actively rotating, pulling up reserves. Now the attacks continue.

- If we talk about the weapons that are now coming from the allies, which has already proven to be the most effective against the enemy?

- Javelin, NLAW and various anti-tank weapons are very well used in our department. What we noticed now after the arrival of 155 mm artillery - it gives a normal fire defeat of the enemy. If there was more of it… Because gunner's sweat saves infantry blood. What observations did I make about the enemy? It used to be the best technique. It was bigger and it was newer. Since the beginning of the war, we have regularly seized enemy equipment. If earlier their tanks were equipped with thermal imagers, in relatively good condition, now the equipment we seize from the enemy needs to be repaired so that combat operations can be carried out on it.

- Can we announce the number of seized equipment?

- For my battalion I can say that we captured 3 enemy tanks and 3 infantry fighting vehicles.

- Please tell us about the battle, which is especially memorable.

- There have been a lot of fights since the beginning of March. For example, we defended one settlement, where the enemy tried to "feel" us, pierce with artillery, tanks, aircraft… We repulsed all attacks. Then he tried to make a breakthrough, bypass our village, go to our rear, but since we had been defending there for several days, all the passages that the enemy could use had already been mined. They didn't know it. They tried to bypass us through the dam and on the main road with the help of a tank battalion and a combined BTGr as part of a motorized infantry regiment, which was reinforced by a military school in Russia. They could not move forward, and behind them was a large number of their equipment. They stood and did not know what to do. Our anti-tank weapons started working, the artillery worked very well. It was somewhere in the middle of March. Then a lot of equipment and manpower of the occupiers were destroyed and they retreated. That is, literally in one day they tried to enter the village from four directions and were repulsed from four directions. As far as I know, BTGr no longer took part in hostilities.

After that, in early May, we captured prisoners of war who said that the commander of their battalion had died in that battle and that another battalion had been completely disarmed. There was also a very fierce battle recently, when the enemy pulled together a reinforced company - infantry and tank - and tried to occupy our village. Russian soldiers were told: "Occupy only the first street, and then everyone will pull up, you will be replaced and you will go to Russia." We launched them on the first street and then destroyed almost all of them. About 20% of the equipment and about 30-40% of the enemy's manpower came from there - this is the first batch of 300s they took away. Those who remained did not leave. From that direction, the enemy did not carry out more attacks, only fired from afar.

- What is your main task as a commander?

- My job is to manage the personnel, unite the fighters, plan the course of action, respectively, all the activities that will be performed. Because the situation is changing very dramatically. We do not have time to constantly ask the senior command what and how to do. It is necessary to make decisions very quickly, to inform them to commanders of divisions, to watch their execution. Because if you do not have time for something, it can lead to very serious consequences.

There was such a situation… We fought with the enemy across the river, we managed to inflict a powerful fire on him in one night and in the morning he began to retreat. It was decided to reject the enemy and clear that part of the village. They withdrew, we cleared the area and planted mines on all possible routes of enemy advance. Literally in the evening the enemy tried to return, but all the passages were already mined, and they just exploded on mines. There is nothing heroic in my work. The heroes are my people. They do incredible things every day, give away the most precious thing they have. But no one doubts the correctness of their actions. In the expediency of defending Ukraine.

- In fact, there are people behind each commander. Tell us about your fellow ...

- I admire my people because they are really heroes. The tasks they perform are sometimes out of the question, but people fight back, fight the enemy, even when the enemy prevails in some direction. The main factor is fighting spirit. My people are fighting to the last. The enemy goes with great force and then retreats. Ours do not retreat. There was a case when a sergeant remained at the position without arms and legs, just gave his coordinates - called the artillery. When he could no longer evacuate, he said, "I'm staying here." Part of the group left when they were completely surrounded. At that time, many enemy forces from a separate reconnaissance battalion of the 106th Airborne Division were destroyed.

There are a lot of heroic cases… When the enemy column broke through in Kamyanets, the calculation of the armored personnel carrier left and started firing Russian equipment. I don't even know how many units they burned… Our armored personnel carrier was also destroyed, people died, but they showed great courage

I used to know a lot about my people, but now, in this war, new facets have opened up for everyone. This is courage, heroism, willingness to sacrifice.

- What gives you strength every day?

- Awareness of the great responsibility for their unit, for their people and for our country as a whole. I understand that others are watching us… My subordinates are watching me, other units are watching my battalion and we need to perform tasks, we need to inflict maximum losses on the enemy. We all believe in victory and try to bring it as close as possible.

- Can you imagine the Ukraine you want to see after the Victory?

- Yes of course. We have a land of dreams, a land of the future. We want a free, independent Ukraine, where every citizen knows who he is, who he wants to be, realizes that he is Ukrainian. Where children will be brought up as patriots, with an understanding and knowledge of their history and what awaits them in the future.

We can talk a lot about Russian aggression, but that would never have happened if our country had been united if we did not have a "fifth column" to help the aggressor. There were no people who surrendered our units, surrendered civilians (who help the Armed Forces). Those who help the occupying forces show them the ways and passages.

- War is a difficult test… Are there, so to speak, funny situations that defuse the situation a bit, or stories that you remember with a smile?

"I don't remember the last time I really laughed." Now people are learning to appreciate small joys that they have never paid attention to before. Every communication with relatives and friends is a smile on our faces людей We are happy when we manage to get in touch with our relatives, to announce that we are alive and well.

The support of relatives is most inspiring and stimulates further struggle. I would also like to thank my loved ones ... My future wife Yana, who always supports, gives confidence and strength in the fight.

What would you like to wish? Meet the next year on peaceful Ukrainian soil after our Victory. This is one wish that is now the most important for everyone.

Authors: Alina Logvinenko, Serhiy Lysenko

Photo: Arsen Fedosenko