Despite their age, the young people have experienced enough to last for several lifetimes and more than one adventure movie. They are both military professionals who have never hid behind other people's backs during a brutal war with an insidious enemy. How not to lose your mind when a 152mm shell explodes in the place where your beloved was just performing a task? How do you keep your composure when you read a message that the father of your soon-to-be born son is wounded and may not survive? How do you go into battle with more than one injury and many contusions, and most importantly, how do you let your loved one go on a dangerous mission? Their path has never been simple or easy, but despite all the challenges, they are confident in the future and do not intend to give up on their chosen goal, because they understand how much Ukraine needs them.
How did your first meeting go, when you noticed each other and realized that “this person is different from the others around you”?
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Jan “Kenobi”
It was 2022. The village of Kruglyakivka. At that time, I was an infantry company commander in the Legion. Anastasiia had just joined, she served in a medical center. It happened that another company commander injured his back, and the medics came to help him. That was the first time we met and saw each other.
Anastasia “Acid”
The first time I came in and saw him, he was so brave, you know, so serious. And I took a liking to him. But then Katie, a girl who served with me at the medical center, told me he was married. I decided that if so, we were going to forget about him altogether. But then Katie, “Chaika”, almost the entire medical center told me that “they are already getting a divorce, and he is interested in you, and maybe you can meet?”. I guess that's when I was hooked on him. It wasn't like I needed some time to like him. I liked him at first sight.
How did you manage to combine your relationship with service in combat conditions, how did you let each other go on dangerous missions?
Jan “Kenobi”
We didn't start a relationship right away. For quite a long period of time we just talked. Only when the issue of my divorce was completely resolved, we started dating. As for the tasks, during the first period of time she was in the medical unit. I wasn't particularly worried about it then. I knew that her duties were limited to evacuating the wounded, providing assistance and delivering them to stabilization centers.
But when I was promoted to a higher position and became a deputy battalion commander, Anastasia was transferred to an infantry company. To be honest, it was a bit hard for me at times. Especially when you are on the other side of the screen (video surveillance at the command post - ed.). It is on a combat mission in the field. There were a couple of situations that just made my heart sink.
We immediately set a clear boundary between relationships and performing tasks. There was no such thing as “you will not go there because you are my girlfriend”. We had a division of personnel, who performs what tasks when and how. In Anastasia's case, it was mainly medical support for assault groups during assault missions, evacuation of the wounded directly from the battlefield and evacuation of dead soldiers.
I remember one such moment. I lost the ability to speak for about a minute. I watched them evacuate a soldier, unfortunately, who was killed. She and another soldier. They put him on a stretcher and started to tie him up. And at that moment I saw a large white spot appear on the entire screen. It was a 152-millimeter shell. It was literally a few meters away from them. I thought that was it, that the man was gone.
Anastasia “Acid”
We went to evacuate. The soldier was already dead. We just had to take the body away. We walked quickly. My partner was so funny. He moved very slowly behind me with this stretcher. We didn't take anything extra with us, no medical backpacks, just our first aid kits, because we realized that the soldier was dead and it was too late to help him. He had to be evacuated. There was a landing and an open area. He was in that open area. It was the first time I encountered a recently killed person. That is, when we went on combat missions, no one ever died on my watch. And the corpses I saw were already the corpses of Russians who had been lying for a long time. But to be confronted with a dead person like that, right after death, was the first time. And everything happened very quickly. We sat down and began to unfold the stretcher. And, by the way, I think these stretchers saved us, because we started to unfold them. I cut off the tile carrier. And we were right above the ground when it came. It was very fast: you turn around, there's some smoke. I look up: “Zulu”, that's the call sign of that guy, he's already running. I thought: I see, so we have to run somewhere. But we were still pretty much shell-shocked. And then we heard it on the radio: “Come back! Come back!”
And then we came back. On my part, it's always on adrenaline. And you don't think about what you think on the other side of the screen.
When I was wounded, I also didn't think about how much people are worried on the other side of the screen, who is in charge of this operation. You think about your fighters who are here and that you need to take care of them because you are a medic. And when I was wounded, I was the only medic on the landing.
Ian “Kenobi”
And then, literally 30 seconds later, the next guy on duty shouts on the radio, tries to contact them. They answer him. The weather helped there. Moisture all around, mud, and the shell just buried itself in the ground. The main shock wave went upwards. They were heavily contused at the time. We evacuated the soldier and retreated.
Anastasia “Acid”
The first time he went on a combat mission, when we were already talking, but not yet in a relationship, it was the year of the full-scale invasion. And he went out as a company commander with his guys because they needed to raise their morale.
Jan “Kenobi”
To put it simply, it was the anniversary. It was February 24, 2023. And the guys were a little apprehensive. They thought the enemy would launch a massive offensive or something else. We know that the enemy likes to use such significant dates and do something bad on these days.
Then I went with the guys on a combat mission. On the way, we were fired at with cluster munitions, a mortar caught us, and then remote mining. Thank God, we got to the position. Everything was standard there: We were “nightmarized” a little bit by the shelling. At that time, they were not very popular, but drones were already operating with ammunition drops. The position itself was shelled.
Three days later, when we switched, the road back was also “fun”. Repeated remote mining, the route was changed four or five times while moving to the exit point. All these remote mines started exploding.
A funny thing happened when we were reaching the exit point, a friendly unit's BMP passed us. Apparently, the enemy decided to fire on it. But it was a very bad decision for us. The fact that they wanted to “kill” the “beha” with an 82-millimeter mortar.
It is not very effective against armored vehicles. Another thing is that we were walking along this road at the time. The mine landed literally, probably, eight meters away from me. But I was walking in the center of the formation, and the fighter who was walking first, there was probably a gap of two or three meters from him. We were saved by the fact that there were armored vehicles rolling tracks, it was winter, and everything was frozen. We were moving with a night vision device. We saw a flash of a mortar exiting. At that moment, the night vision device was blinded. We turned our heads in that direction and heard a whistling sound. I give the command: “Get down!”. The foreigners understood this command. Because if I fall, everyone falls. We just fall into this rut. I had a slight view from the track, I saw how this mine landed. On the one hand, it was scary, on the other hand, it was very beautiful. To see the mine breaking and sparks going across the ice. The soldier who was walking first, who was the closest to me, came running to me and said: “Sir, my fillings were knocked out by the shock wave”. I said: “Friend, let's get the hell out of here! I'll send you to the hospital later and you can get new ones”.
Anastasia “Acid”
It was his first combat appearance when we started to communicate. Jan did not answer the radio at the time. He immediately said that the group commander would be in touch. And I just kept asking Katya: “Katie, what's going on?” I wasn't on the other side of the screen yet, I was in the medical unit, and we had our own tasks, but I kept asking Katie: “What's going on?”, “Katie, what's going on?”. And she was just working in the radio station and got all the information about the guys. And once again, when I went on a combat mission, I was already five or six months pregnant. I had just gone on vacation. He was already a unit commander.
I was on vacation and did not know that he had gone on a combat mission. I read the messages in the group: “Kenobi 300,” and another guy, also 300. And then they say that maybe “200”. And I was like... (sighs - ed.). This was the second time I learned how Jan goes to the battlefield. And I was not on the other side of the screen either, I did not see them running around.
Jan “Kenobi”
How was it? I didn't run much. I was carried backwards more...
At the moment when the guys were pulling me out, I was thinking more. I was afraid that the child would be left without me. This was really the biggest stress for me at that moment.
At this point in the story, Jan and Nastia's son, who was sleeping peacefully in the cradle, woke up and cried
“What's wrong, son, did your dad go to war?”, Jan jokes, picking up the baby.
Anastasia “Acid”
I will say that I talked to him about it (the injury - ed.) for a long time afterwards.
Jan “Kenobi”
For a very long time! Don't cry! (lulls the child to sleep) I'm not going anywhere else.
The kid was walking without instructions. It's very hard with the first child, and there is no “ZIP”, nothing, guys. You have to be prepared for that!
But to be honest, the first month of his childhood is very much like being on duty at a command post. It's the same: you don't sleep, you don't have time to eat, you don't have time to go on personal errands, even to wash. Someone is constantly shouting something, wanting something from you, you can't understand. The work in the legion with foreigners is very similar, and it's just duty at the command post.
How many injuries did you have while repelling a large-scale invasion?
Jan “Kenobi”
Nastya has one wound and a lot of other injuries.
Anastasia “Acid”
Five contusions.
Jan “Kenobi”
I had three injuries during the large-scale invasion. The last one was the most serious.
Once a year steadily. I hope that this year I will manage (smiles - ed.).
Anastasia “Acid”
By the way, when the 152-millimeter shell arrived, I was already pregnant. I just didn't know it. So the child should be given the status of a combatant (smiles - ed.).
Jan “Kenobi”
I have at least three official reasons to leave the Armed Forces. Honestly, sometimes I have a wild desire. But I simply cannot leave the unit. I have invested a lot of my energy in it. I literally shed my blood in this unit. And I have no intention of leaving it.
Anastasia “Acid”
In fact, he asked me when he initially thought he might resign due to his injuries. And we discussed it once, but then at one point he said: “This is my brainchild, I can't leave it. Can I stay?”
I said: “Of course.” Because I understand him myself. Yes, even though I am a mother, I have a small child in my arms, and he is a miracle, I adore him, I love him, but my soul always pulls me back to the Legion. And I understand perfectly well that I will never deprive Ukraine of such a commander, because I have seen him at work. Despite the fact that we were in a relationship, as Jan said earlier, we separated work and relationships. I saw him as a combat commander.
And I simply cannot afford to take away a commander like him from Ukraine. And it's not just my words. When he thought he was going to leave the service for health reasons, how many people from our Bravo company wrote to me that without Kenobi it was not the same. They can't trust anyone else as much as they trusted him, and without him, this legion will not be the same. How can I tell a person to stay with me? It's not the right time in our country.
People have different family photo albums. Jan and Anastasia's archive of photos and videos will definitely stand out. Life has given them little time for theaters, flowers, ice rinks, or romantic walks. But they will find there: trophy rare weapons and equipment, captured prisoners and enemy flags taken down with their own hands in the settlements liberated from the invaders, shelling, battles and wounds, evacuations from the battlefield. Anastasia retired from military service, but her heart is always with the Legion. When Yan, an outwardly intelligent, fit, even thin young man of average height, is in the unit, many people immediately gather around him. The sincere respect and style of communication of experienced, battle-hardened soldiers from around the world, often much older and more robust in build, is visible to the naked eye. They are worth a lot and speak volumes. One can only guess at what cost and in what conditions such authority was gained and what an officer is capable of when he has to make decisions or act personally.
To the question “What does the Legion mean to you?” Ian and Anastasia answered in unison without hesitation: “Family, family”. And for their small family, it is indeed a big family - the 1st International Legion of Defense of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Patola
Photo from the archive of Jan and Anastasiia
To learn more about the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine, please visit the official website.
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