From Donetsk to Kiev, the route of the missing soldier

Vladislav L. He was 17 years old when the war in Ukraine started “War before war”, The Donbas, which began in the spring of 2014, in the east of the country. At the time, he lived in a village near Donetsk, one of the largest cities in the region, which quickly came under the control of Russian forces and Ukrainian separatists. He served with them for three years before switching sides and joining the Ukrainian army. Vladislav L. in the black and white world of conflict. In the gray area, one of those soldiers lost between the front lines that no one wants to see. Neither Kiev nor Moscow.

This January, a young man appears for ‘participation in a terrorist group’ In front of the court of the capital of Ukraine under snow and bombs. His lawyers, Nazari Vovki and Ivan Bernatsky, both court employees, are his age, 26 or a little older. “Generation of War”. They are the ones who tell his story.

So, in 2014, when the conflict started in Donbass, L.’s family lived small: sick brother, deceased father, house with 150 euros from mother, caretaker. Vladislav L. addressed all the companies in the region. nothing. In the region, coal mines or steel industries, local prides from the time of the former Soviet Union, continue to crumble. At thirty, we are fighting for the position of a welder.

To make matters worse, he has a dangerous reputation: pro-Russians suspect Vladislav L. In pro-Ukrainian. They were also arrested, interrogated, beaten and finally released when the mother came to the checkpoint crying.

A friend advises him to apply at 7^e Separatist regiment in Donetsk. On June 25, 2015, the day he turned 18, he became a grenadier for 15,000 rubles (about 200 euros) a month. He served until 2018, and then left for Russia in search of a new life. Came back penniless three years later after a couple of construction jobs. Vladislav moves to live with his aunt in Zaporizhia, on the bank of the Dnieper. This is where the war will take him, this time on February 24, 2022.

A former separatist soldier decides to return to work. But not in the pro-Russian ranks: he presented himself at the Ukrainian military recruitment center in Zaporizhia. In the frenzy of the first days of the invasion, everyone who knew how to handle a rifle was drafted without further examination: Vladislav L. He was parachuted in as the commander of the 36th Division, 60th Brigade. In Donbass, his name de guerre. was “a little flower ». He chooses “Malotru” by changing his form, just like the hero office of legends French series.