Canadian fighting in Ukraine describes the 'hell' he witnessed

all right so okay you've just come from roughly where from the east yeah we were uh in the eastern front uh in the dumbass region what was that like i have one word to describe and it's just hell yeah hell and why because every day you're getting casualties every day you're getting your friends getting killed and it's days after after days and most of the missions actually of my uh my friends that they come from the marines from the states it was just going to recover dead bodies other friends that were killed in action from their previous patrol so yeah it was life over there for us what has what has been your main job there uh for me i was just used as a some as a infantry soldier actually i was paired up with the kensington sniper wally so i was his teammate so we were always together and i made i was making sure to help him as much as i can and i was always following him everywhere i was carrying ammunition so yes mainly that was my my main job over there did you find yourself in direct contact oh yes oh yes you want to take me through that but you're not talking about just artillery you're talking about direct contact so do you so are we talking about just the ease how can i talk about it you're going to talk about wherever you want yeah thank you yeah so i mean me and wali's first missions in european it was to go into a apartment apartment building and set up a sniper position from there so we go up we set ourselves and then we start observing and then maybe like 10 minutes after it's like huge explosion the building shakes all the window breaks and then i find myself on the ground and i i remember i said what the hell is that and then i just like crawl into like a safe room you know so we just got hit by a tank he shelled the building just above us like just like he missed us by like three meters and then me and wally we meet in the room and then after that uh we started to uh to get someone on small on fire to us and then we got out of the building and then after that huge firefight i haven't that was my first firefight we had the russians they were like 50 meters from us uh bullets flying everywhere everywhere we could not do anything and actu they actually tried to surround us right and at that point we had one casualty uh one of our friend got shot at the shoulder by a russian sniper so in his right hand he was carrying his pistol and then he was like covering his wound like that bleeding everywhere and just like and he kept running and stuff and then yeah bullets flying everywhere and then one of our ukrainian friends said all right like we have to to get the lr out of it because we were not controlling the situation we were the one that got into fire so anyway like it was like total chaos right and then he shot that guy saved sarah live that they he shot rpg to the russians and it gives us enough time to just run for your life right and then i remember i was running and then huge explosion just just at my right i i think it was like motor fire or something bullet just flying and then we had came with with vans you know like vans so everyone get in the event as soon as possible so it was in the van it was uh the guy that that was shot and then after that my friend wally and then after that me but like we all had our kit on us right so for me my right hand was holding the head panel of the the the passenger seat and i was holding the other other l panel right but we were too much in the van so i couldn't close the door so my back was outside the van and i was holding like that and that guy was driving like 100 kilometers in like a really residential street right and and then if i had left i would just fall and just like fall on the ground and then i had like the the passenger guy was still shooting at them when we left so and then we just uh by it's a miracle like we just made it out of there but i mean yeah and that was our first our first special our first mission and then from there it just it was from there it just got worse worse yeah that's what i would say how long ago were you in the east in donbass i was about maybe 10 days ago we did approximately one week there because at first we were fighting in european then after that we with our group we freed the city from the direction and then me and and my me and william and our unit we got sent uh to fight in the east and then yeah in the east well it was a total different um experience because in european it was mainly urban fighting but in the in the east it was like the vibe was like world war two it's like rain mud fields um trenches um yeah and it was hard because they were there was an entire russian tank tank regiment on the other side of the valley but we could not really do anything because we only add like we add one javelin with us and actually wally learn in two hours out to operate the javelin and then just like that we became a javelin operating crew like me anybody so after that we were we were always sent on missions with the the javelin right but the things they were like they were too far away to uh for us to engage with the japan um so every time we would go out they would just shoot at us and then there was one morning that one morning uh me and wali we left the mission was to go on a one-day mission right like in the little forest um to observe if things approach we engage them with it with the javelin so five o'clock it's me and wally we walked there we walked there it was like 1.5 kilometers in the mud and stuff and then we are we arrive on on our position and there was like a trench and they were already two of our friends ukrainian in the trench right so wally looked at me and he said everybody like can you just stay in in the trench like you don't need to be to be outside and i was like alright man you know like it's pretty boring to just sit in a trench when you're your body like is he's doing some work but you know i listen to him and then i go in that trench and then the two uh korean are two occurring ukrainian friends uh they come out of the of the trench right and then wally said to them hey guys go back in the trench and they just did not listen and they were just smoking just beside the trench and stuff and then while he went a little bit further to uh to observe like the the russian tanks uh with the equality with his with his binoculars and then for me what i remember is uh i was in the trench and then i removed my helmet right and then i put it on the ground and like the stone is coming out and like ah it's a pretty good day maybe i will go out and just like talk to those to my ukrainian friends right so i'm about to come out i put my first feet on the little step and then it just happened huge explosion so i fell in the trench on my back and it's just like in the movies like in my ears like like that little song then i'm like what what the hell and then i get up that's and then now and then then i understood what what happened like we just got shot by a russian tank and it was like very precise shot they could they could see us very good right they shot right between our two friends and then i got up i put back my helmet and i look i see one of my friends that is not moving he's not moving he's just lying on the ground is that it's it sure is there like there's no way to to search to survive that and then i looked to the other one it was like just a couple of feet from me and then he was still breathing but no legs he didn't add any legs and then we made eye contact i looked at him he looked at me and then after that his ed just like started to move on on his right and you could see is his his body crisping and stuff so he just like passed away in front of my eyes so i was like all right so uh yeah i just thought two of my friends died before in front of my eyes so and then after after that me and wolly i mean what do you save my my life on that day because he told me to stay in the trench but after that me anybody just got together and then it's funny because what you like was saying things like i wonder if i can get them with the javelin from here and i was like bro we need to get the hell out of here like there's nothing we can do like we need to get out of here and then he said uh i need to go get my my sniper rifle yeah so he crawled back beside the trench the tank shoot once again at the same place he received like like sharpness and stuff but like it's fine and then he uh he took he took a look on the other guys just to double check but there was nothing like they were they were both there right so he grabbed his sniper rifle and then he started running and then we started to run and then we heard the thing shoot shooting again and then we just went back to the base at that point so yeah that was my my last patchwork on the eastern front why are you here so why that's a good question um i'm here to to air right i mean the war started february 24th and i just could not stay uh stay stay at home watching on tv because you know like most most of the western people like they see everything that goes in the news and then they think ah it's sad for them but it's not here so they just close the tv and then they go eat eat with their kids and just keep living their life but for me i just cannot do that and then on february 28th when the president the ukrainian president made a public call for foreign fighters to come help help him i saw that they call it was monday at eight o'clock in the morning and then i was in the plane on monday at 18 1800 in the evening i was on on airplane on my way to ukraine to help what do you think about the ukrainians now that you've been fighting alongside them so they it's they are total heroes like there is no words to describe their their courage they are very good fighters and every single of them is ready to to fight until dead until that to to save their their country so for us we are lucky we can always go back home and like try to live in normal life but for them no like they can like their own is the one at war so that they don't have any choice to keep fighting no matter what happens speaking of back home what do you say to your family i'm i'm saying i am sorry for like all the stress that i am giving you but i think i have a job to do here i want to be to do my part i i want to help those guys um so yeah and i i will be i obviously understand just one thing it struck me because you wear the canadian flag very proudly wait um do you think canada should be doing more of course yes sir we are talking here about a country that has been invited totally by an other country right and we are talking about syrians dying every day in mariopol they had ten thousand civilians dying ten thousand syrians dying like i don't if you realize in i was fighting in european and then we found mass grave in bucha right so um i understand that ukraine is not part of nato right but my feel is that the world has let down ukraine in a war in a hole uh just just you just using the excuse okay ukraine is not part of nato so we will just like sit back sit back and watch and good luck and i mean i would just like to say thank you for like money and weapons and stuff but by at the end of the day um if nato had stepped in the war would have been done in like less than a week right and but but because everyone sit back and watch well we are seeing all those civilians dying and now it's the white of the war and it's still not over um and even the president himself i said that the sanctions are not doing anything like you know like thank you for the the sections the sanctions but it's not gonna stop the war it's not gonna do anything what do we need we need boot underground we need troops we need to unite together and help ukraine that's what we need prayers i'm sorry but it doesn't do anything money yes it helps armaments yes it helps but at the end of the day the ukrainians are are let alone to fight against russia we let the ukrainians fight alone against russia and it's i cannot i like i don't have any words for this i'm just so uh that's why i had to come here to help them because i feel that they will let down the ukrainians

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 2,762,303

Keywords: canadian in ukraine, canadian soldier ukraine, canadian ukraine, canadians fighting in ukraine, canadian shadow, canadian sniper wali, canadian wali, canadian ukraine shadow, shadow ukraine, ukraine front lines, ukraine war witness, irprin, ukraine donbas, donbas fighting, ukraine soldiers, ukraine military, canada ukraine, canada ukraine help, quebec soldier ukraine, ukraine war, David Common, david common shadow interview, The National, CBC, Shadow soldier, Ukraine

Id: zN2NdiFJFh0

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Thu May 05 2022