Ukraine Sbu Alpha - Olena Kiselova shows the death certificate issued by the Security Service of Ukraine for her son Volodymyr Kiselov. He was 32 years old. Photo by Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail • Courtesy of the family
Captain Volodymyr Kiselov had a choice: he could withdraw with his Ukrainian special forces and perhaps live to see his wife and young daughter again, or he could stand under heavy Russian fire and give his men a better chance of escape.
Ukraine Sbu Alpha
In a May 7 battle somewhere in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, 32-year-old Captain Kiselov chose the latter. His unit of crackers, members of the notorious Alpha group of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), successfully retreated as Capt. Sasha” stayed behind to cover the fire. Both were killed.
Ukrainian Sbu Alpha
Oleksandr Reznikov, 31 years old, who served as capt. Kiselov met and became his best friend and said: "Vova and Uncle Sasha saved the rest." They said to the others: Who should do it but us?
Death of Capt. Three weeks after Kiselov sat down with The Globe and Mail to discuss his unit's role in the successful defense of Kiev, as well as the looming battle for eastern Ukraine. He feared that the second phase of the war would be more difficult and dangerous for him and his men - unless the West quickly reduced the supply of long-range artillery to Ukraine.
Details of his latest mission are unclear, and the SBU press office said it could not comment on combat casualties while the fighting continued.
But the family of Kpt. They want his story to be told—at least what they know.
Ukraine Special Forces Sbu Alpha Group\
They also believe his death could have been prevented by faster Western moves to supply long-range weapons, which required special forces units such as Capt.
Only after several weeks of the war, when it became clear that Ukraine was putting up a stiff and successful resistance to Russian aggression, did Canada and other Western allies begin sending heavy artillery into Ukraine.
“If we had guns and missiles that could hit them, we would have won this war. But now we can't reach them and that's why they're going forward," Capt. Kiselov told The Globe on April 21.
Sixteen days after that conversation in a Kiev restaurant — and six days before Ukraine announced it had begun using Western howitzers in the field — Capt. Kiselov was dead.
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Poltava Central Park for Capt.
While Ukraine has released more than 25,000 Russian soldiers it says it has killed since the war began on February 24, its military casualties are a closely guarded secret. It has officially claimed 2,500 to 3,000 military casualties, but Western estimates place the figure at around 11,000.
Last week the mother of Capt. and behind enemy lines.
It's a job Captain Kiselov was proud of - and good at. He and his men played an important role in the battle for Hostomel airfield near Kiev in the first hours of the war. Ukrainian forces, ill-prepared and surprised by a bold Russian attempt to seize the airport with helicopters and paratroopers, thwarted a Russian plan to use Hostomel to land a large force and quickly capture the capital.
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In the process, a group of Alpha Group fighters, along with special forces units from the Ukrainian military intelligence service GUR, local reserves and foreign volunteers, defeated some of the most prominent units in the Russian military.
Before Hostomel, the larger and more technically advanced Russian army was expected to quickly conquer most of Ukraine. Later, both sides knew that Ukraine was capable and ready to stand on its own.
Then, Capt. Kiselov and his men were among the first Ukrainian soldiers to enter Bucha, a city near Kiev that has seen mass executions and organized rape during the month it has been under Russian military occupation. It was an experience that haunted him for the last five weeks of his life.
A damaged street in Buch seen on April 7 after Ukrainian forces retook it from Russian invaders.
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Capt. He was soon selected for the SBU.
The successor to the Soviet KGB has a long and controversial history in Ukraine. It was used as a tool of repression by the Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych, but since its overthrow in the 2014 revolution, it has been undergoing major purges and reforms.
Capt. Kiselov was one of a new generation of SBU officers who grew up in independent Ukraine. They replaced older agents, KGB veterans whose true loyalty was a source of concern for successive Ukrainian governments. For Captain Kiselov, who grew up in the central region of Poltava, this was never a problem. His mother Olena Kiselova said that her son was always extremely proud of being Ukrainian. "He was a quiet patriot. He didn't go around shouting about it, but he loved Poltava and he loved Ukraine," Ms. Kiselova said. "He told me, 'Mom, I want to be in the SBU because I feel we need you there. "
She said her son was a "sick boy" who still wanted to join the army. He developed his strength and abilities by secretly taking kickboxing classes while thinking he was swimming with his friends. "I opened the newspaper and saw a picture of him after a kickboxing match," she said. A sick child grew into a muscular adult with broad shoulders who walks 8-10 kilometers a day.
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After joining the SBU, Capt. Kiselov spent five years in eastern Ukraine fighting Russian proxy forces in the Donbass region in a smaller war that preceded Russia's open offensive this year. It was there that he met MSgt. Reznikov, who said that his friend is a natural leader. "He was always super confident. Everyone wanted to be in his unit because it was a guarantee that you would come back alive."
In 2019, Capt. "I don't know and I don't want to tell you what they were doing there," MSgt. Reznikov said.
In his April interview with The Globe Capt. Kiselov said Alpha Group's role was often to operate behind enemy lines, attacking troop columns and disrupting supply lines.
Such tasks became critical after 24 February. Capt. Kiselov told The Globe that he and his unit were sent to Hostomel just 24 hours before the war began. They were surprised when 30 Russian helicopters appeared on the horizon at dawn - with no ground support or airstrikes to weaken the Ukrainian forces waiting for them.
Ukrainian Naval Spetsnaz (801 Combat Diver Det.), Odessa 2018
"Their tactics failed because they were told there would be no resistance," Capt. Kiselov recalled a battle in which at least three helicopters were shot down and some of Russia's most prominent soldiers were killed or captured. surrounded on the ground.
When the Russian tactics in Hostomel were flawed, what Capt. Seeing Kiselov in Buch really surprised him. MSgt. Reznikov - who was then a reservist of the local defense forces in the neighboring town of Irpin and who entered Bucha with his best friend - has a smartphone full of horrific photos and videos of what they saw on April 1. The streets were black. a jumble of burned vehicles and corpses, including headless torsos and severed limbs.
The family of Kpt. "He really couldn't imagine that they were killing civilians. He really couldn't understand how it happened or why it happened," said his 31-year-old widow, Alyona Kiselova, who had been with the couple for eight months...old daughter since the start of the war Veronika lives outside Ukraine. The family briefly returned to Poltava last week for the ceremony.
Russia's withdrawal from northern Kiev means the main battlefront will shift from the forested outskirts of the capital to the more open terrain of eastern Ukraine. Globe on April 22 with Capt. Several members were killed in a firefight near the Russian-controlled city of Izjum, south of Kharkiv.
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Capt. Kiselov agreed to the interview in order to demonstrate Ukraine's need for long-range artillery, which he believed would be decisive in the second phase of the war. "I don't know why this problem has taken so long," MSgt. Reznikov said
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