Confessions ofВ aВ fighter. Revelations of a Volunteer

Bondo Dorovskikh

When you believe in something, you have to act. Bondo Dorovskikh set off as a volunteer to the Donbass, because he could not do otherwise. He went to fight for his ideas and to defend people, but in the end he saw that this war was “false”, though the bullets and mines there were completely real. If you know about the Donbass from the media, read, but try to read between the lines and make out what is really going on there..

Confessions ofВ aВ fighter

Revelations of a Volunteer

Bondo Dorovskikh

Translator Jack Doughty

Cover design Maksim Novikov

Editor Artem Pudov

Proofreader Alexandra Ryabukhina

© Bondo Dorovskikh, 2018

© Jack Doughty, translation, 2018

ISBNВ 978-5-4493-0438-4

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

About the author

Bondo Borovskikh was born in 1974 in Dushanbe (Tajik SSR) into a traditionally military family. His great-grandfather on his mother’s side had fought, and his grandfather on his mother’s side was an air force pilot. All the men in the family had been involved in military matters in one way or another. It was not surprising that Bondo should want to be where it was dangerous, where a war was going on, where people and states defended their interests to the death.

Before the war, he led a normal life: school, faculty of chemical technology and cybernetics in an institute. Business. Yes, Bondo started his own business as long ago as 1992. First they sold cloth, then organized cotton deliveries from Central Asia. Since 2000, an oil business has been added: a gas station, a petroleum storage depot…

In July 2014 the family tradition made itself felt. As a member of the “Phantom” Brigade, Bondo took part in armed conflict in the south-east of Ukraine, and later in battles in defense of Nikishino village while in the First Slavonic Battalion of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Bondo Dorovskikh told ofВ what he had seen and how it all was inВ aВ Radio Liberty interview inВ 2015. Subsequently he spoke out inВ various media, commenting on the situation inВ the Donbass.

Since October 2015, Bondo has been recruiting volunteers to support the Kurdish operations against ISIL (an organization banned in the Russian Federation). And on his Facebook page, he solemnly warns of the possible consequences of doing this. “You should remember that to go to help other people, risking your life, is a serious decision. The conflict is relatively intensive by modern military standards, with a death rate of over three per cent. If you are wounded, there will be no medical evacuation to an up-to-date military hospital. There will be no military pension or support. ISIL sets a high price on your head: $250,000 for each volunteer from abroad. And if you’re taken hostage, your chances of survival are very low.

“You will return home alone, with a few photographs to recall your everyday combat life, you may meet new friends, you may have to spend the rest of your life with post-traumatic stress disorder or you may suffer intense depression.

“Think about it. Do you really need this? Is this really your calling??”

At present, Bondo Dorovskikh is living inВ Russia but working abroad. The international crude oil trade, mostly with the countries ofВ West Africa, takes up all his time.

However, the theme ofВ war has not gone from his life: his interest inВ it has not only remained, it has increased. But the author cannot write about that, not yet anyway.

Patriotism inВ its simplest, clearest and most indisputable meaning is, for rulers, nothing other than aВ weapon toВ achieve their power-seeking and selfish ends, and for the governed, aВ rejection ofВ human dignity and conscience, and aВ slavish subordination ofВ oneself toВ those inВ power. That is what is preached everywhere that patriotism is preached. Patriotism is slavery.

В В В В Leo Tolstoy: Christianity and Patriotism.

Prolog

The desire toВ defend my country arose inВ me way back inВ the days when