Superhuman defiance in Azovstal. Why Mariupol’s defenders are our heroes forever

For 79 days the Azov Regiment, 36th Marines Brigade, 12th National Guard Brigade and border guards have displayed a kind of superhuman strength and defiance that we have only seen in Hollywood blockbusters staring Tom Cruise, Daniel Craig or Bruce Willis. They have smashed the best of Russia’s forces: Marines, special forces, air force, paratroopers, Kadyrov’s men and even the Somalia battalion from the so-called ‘DPR’. 

We've been looking for the elite for so long that we didn’t notice it was right here: Denys Prokopenko, Sergiy Volyna, Svyatoslav Palamar, Illya Samoilenko and others. Their faces remind us of Pinsel’s sculptures: the living personification of the heavenly host, if there really is one. Every interview with our heroes from the depths of Azovstal gives us a glimpse into a horrific reality. It plays out like a dark, twisted, reality show. Like putting a living person in a coffin and listening to him asking for help for a very long time.

People from Azovstal have done the impossible. Not only in military terms, they saved civilian women and children who sought shelter there with our defenders. They made the UN and the Red Cross to remember why they exist and even that they have a decent budget to address the ‘humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.’ Previous evacuation attempts of civilians were very hard, three Azov fighters were killed. One of them, top Ukrainian sniper VItaliy Blazhko ‘Khvat’ I knew personally.

From Odesa, a former Berkut member, he recalled his Ukrainian roots, his family history – how they suffered through “dekulakisation” (when the USSR removed remaining land, property, agricultural goods from people – Ed.)  and went to kill Russian invaders. 

In 2019, he lost his feet on the Svitlodar arch, but received American carbon prostheses and went to the front again.  I know that in those two months he took out many high-ranking officers - that was his forte. He knew exactly what he was doing. 

I remember him saying in 2020: "Wars like ours with Russia can’t end in a truce. Someone has to step back and completely give up. It’s impossible to agree somewhere in the middle, because this middle simply doesn’t exist. Either Ukraine will be here, or Russia's puppet state. It’s absolutely obvious that Russians don’t need Donetsk or Luhansk separately. Except for Crimea. But they need Donbas only to give it to us on the rights of some autonomy. Which would send a certain number of deputies to parliament, which would systematically interfere with all Ukrainian initiatives." He was right and remained true to his principles to the end. ‘Khvat’ knew very well what our politicians were afraid to say until February 24 so just not to lose their ratings.

My friend ‘Khvat’ dreamed of military institutions to train new snipers. In summer 2020 he would joke that his mission isn’t completed, because the war isn’t over. Now it looks like he had done all that he could. Thank you, our Hero.

Azovstal is bombed and I know how eager the relatives of those under siege are to see them. Recently I received the hardest request in my life. A beautiful woman Taya wrote to me. Her only son Mykhailo Nikonets now is in that Azovstal hell. This mother’s wish was terrible. I was shocked and cried for half an hour. It sounded like this: "I don’t ask to save him, I realize that it’s impossible, I understand, just don’t let him be killed unknown!!! My biggest pain is that no one knows about my son or no one just wants to."

Mykhailo will turn thirty soon. He left home when he was 16. He works at the station in peacetime. In 2014 he was on the Maidan and then went to ATO. His mom didn’t know for a long time where he really was. "I learned from his friends who showed photos. He lied that he was working in Kyiv," says mother. He came to Mariupol when it became clear that the situation there is very difficult. Mykhailo was one of those who broke into Azovstal with Marines. Since then he has held the bastion. On May 8, his mother saw him on ‘1+1’ channel. She recognized that one guy with bandaged hand was actually her child.

I try to reassure her that there is little chance of prisoner exchange, but Taya says the hard truth. "Yes, I know how it’s going to end!!! But the worst and the most painful for me is that my son is going into oblivion, heard and seen by no one. I don’t need his honor, I need everyone to know that there was a defender at Azovstal, a guy from Uman. Brave, honest, fair, who couldn’t sit at home in his apartment, but voluntarily went to help his comrades," says the Ukrainian mother. Who am I not to fulfill such a request.

Mykhailo is fighting like a lion. Fighting with the last strengths. He is our Hero. He is the elite we've been looking for, but it was so close. These are the recent messages he sent to his mother at night.

I think about this family, about other mothers and their children who generously throw bombs and think about the great injustice. All 8 years Russian propaganda and its local henchmen loved to tell that the Ukrainian veterans in Donbas are alcoholics, abusers and ignorant migrant workers. But it turned out that Ukrainian defenders are well educated, speak English and can give non-stop interviews to SkyNews. Medvedchuk’s channels were talking about ‘external control,’ ‘Azov.’ They called them neo-Nazis, but it turned out that they are NATO’s star unit. Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Staff and any other brigade recognizes this.

We need to interview mothers and wives of Mariupol defenders Mariupol and ask them to give a masterclass on family relationships. Not an Insta-girl with silicone in her brain. What is worth the single story of a girl from Azov and a border guard, who got married in the Azovstal dungeon and were together only for three days? I don’t know any more heart-warming stories.

All Mariupol defense teach us a lesson, which we haven’t fully understood. How to stay a person even on the edge of hell. How to love your neighbor wholeheartedly. They gave a lesson to all religious denominations in the world. How to deal with a situation where the other would give up, surrender and die in the first days of war.

The Azov Regiment, 36th Marines Brigade, 12th National Guard Brigade and border guards made the world believe in us and lend us a hand, not a finger, as they had earlier. They made Ukrainians open a second wind and fight. Beat this rock to victory. I thank them all for not being silent. Although I know how they dazzle the eyes of many politicians who care only about ratings. It was our Mariupol defenders who gave us Land-Lease and respect. The most important thing is that they are Ukrainians not in words, but in deeds. When you are more than a flag on the profile photo. We owe them an eternal debt of gratitude.