Heroes of our time. Grad commander and teacher Anatoly Petlevany about the evacuation of children from the front line and the “new people” of Ukraine

He touchingly remembers his plastun students from his native Chertkiv, in the Ternopil region. About how I went fishing with them and went on trips - how the children lit a fire and set up tents. Learned how to care for and repair a bicycle.

“Already at the beginning of the big war, when I served in a security company in Chertkov, we went on a bicycle trip,” says Sergeant Anatoly Petlevany and is touched, “Then, however, instead of 17 kilometers, we rode 37. Everyone pedaled with such pleasure that then we asked to continue our journey.”

But this “more,” unfortunately, will not happen soon, writes the Novinarnya publication. After all, Anatoly Petlevany, a businessman and social activist, is now at the front. Since June 2022, he has been fighting in the Donetsk region as the commander of the BM-21 Grad combat vehicle as part of the 81st airborne brigade of airborne assault forces.

In fact, 49-year-old Anatoly might not rush to the front - he is the father of five children, three of whom are minors. But Petlevany says that he must be an example for children, which means this is not the time to sit at home:

“I really want to win the war, return to develop my business and my hometown again. I would like to return to the children again, go on trips with them, teach them many things (and in the war I learned many new useful skills!), Anatoly reflects, I would like our boys and girls to be better prepared for life than they were We. My goal is to raise new citizens who love and respect their country. This is the only way we will have a future.”

Jeweler, activist, businessman

Before the great war, Anatoly was an entrepreneur; he was in the jewelry business for 20 years, had shops and a workshop in Chertkov. An economist manager by profession, but trained to be a jeweler. He liked this business - he made and repaired jewelry himself, he could sit until the morning over his products in the workshop, he dreamed of his own production. But the war got in the way.

Anatoly was always active and patriotic, participated in both revolutions - the Orange and the Revolution of Dignity. And when the war began in eastern Ukraine, I began to volunteer and help the children.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t fight them side by side with weapons, because I had a lot of loans that I had to repay. But even then I promised myself: if, God forbid, the war enters a deeper phase, if the situation at the front worsens, I will definitely go there,” recalls Petlevany.

There was one more reason that kept him in Chertkov then - children. And not just your own.

“After the Revolution of Dignity, when a wave of patriotic upsurge rolled in, I believed that everything in our state would change. But I understood that it’s worth not just waiting for it - you have to make an effort yourself. That is why my wife Yana and other activists created the public organization “Alternative-Chortkiv”. And they began to work, helping the development of the city.

Then my wife and I organized five scientific and practical conferences on the topic “Chertkovskaya offensive”, which took place in Chertkov, military-historical festivals “Chertkovskaya offensive”, one of which coincided with the celebration of the centenary of this glorious event (the historical name of the offensive military operation of the Galician Army, carried out in 1919, which was one of the most outstanding during the Polish-Ukrainian war in Galicia - “N”).

The festivals turned out to be successful - with the “Galician Fair in Chortkiv”, historical reconstructions, and open-air museums. However, while working on the development of our city, we came to the conclusion that mature, mature people are very difficult to change. Therefore, we decided to focus on raising children - the “new people”. They created, or rather revived, the scout organization “Plast” in Chertkov.

In 2019, on the centenary of the Chertkov Offensive, we tied the first scarves to our nova and youth. By focusing on youth, I have truly seen children change. They see history, nature, life itself differently. And their parents begin to change along with their children.”

Anatoly recalls with light sadness how, on the eve of the great war, he still managed to educate his formation recruits and novices. And on his first leave from the front, he transferred the children to adolescence: “I had two swarms - a girl’s and a boy’s. "Black Panthers" and "Unicorns". Then he transferred them to the “Witchers” and “Sorceresses” circles. That is why I have the call sign “Witcher”.

He says he had a presentiment that there would be a big war, because he talked a lot with military friends. When there were training camps for reservists and the military registration and enlistment office called with the question “Will you go?”, I always answered with joy. During one of these training camps at the Novoyavorovsky training ground, Anatoly for the first time, seven years ago, mastered the skills of a commander of a BM-21 Grad combat vehicle:

“It really hit me. At the end of the training it so happened that our sergeants were sent to the front. And I remained as an instructor instead. They sent us a new group - guys from the front, ATO soldiers. They tell me: we don’t need this at all right now - let me rest a little. But I tell them: guys, look at the situation. You are fighting, and suddenly you have to work with Grad. What will you do with it? Otherwise, you will have minimal skills and will be able to release at least one package towards the enemy. They became interested. And the next day others come: teach us, they say, too.”

“When things don't go according to plan, the adventure begins. This is how I perceive war.”

On February 24, 2022, Anatoly immediately went to the military registration and enlistment office. At first he served as a soldier in a security company at the Chertkovsky RTTSK and joint venture in his hometown. My wife also signed up for the reserve. Together they set up a volunteer headquarters in their store to help refugees and the military. But I wanted to go to the front - to a combat unit.

“They slowly hid my reports with a request for a transfer, they said in plain text: where are you going - so many children, there is also something to do here - we need people like you on the spot. And then it happened that we went to the shooting range. And representatives of the 81st separate airmobile brigade arrived there to recruit additional personnel. Me and eight other guys went to serve them.”

This is where past training experience came in handy - Anatoly Petlevany went to artillery, as a senior gunner of the BM-21 Grad.

“10 days - and we immediately ended up in a combat unit. And a week later I was already at war. A month later he became the commander of a combat vehicle. I still serve in this position. “I have my own department,” says Anatoly. He remembers this first combat trip well: “We aimed clearly, shot clearly, turned away and... we were no longer there.”

The military man admits that at that time everything looked “almost like in training.” Then there will be numerous shelling in response, and counter-battery warfare.

“Very often, when we are in positions waiting for a command to leave, they attack us with “hogs” (enemy shells), and cluster munitions, and KABs. I’ll tell you, it’s quite unpleasant to be on the other side when they’re working on you with hail.

But one of our worst enemies is the Lancet. When we fire, when we work, the commander of the combat vehicle is always near the gunner. Gives it a command and checks whether it is aimed correctly. That day we shot back, and my gunner Yura Samoilik began making corrections when I heard people shouting to me: “Sky! It's flying!

It took seconds, but I fell, and then I ran back and jumped into the hole. I have a habit: when the Plastuns and I go on hikes, I always list my children so as not to lose them. And so I fly into that hole, I also count my guys, but Yura is not there. I look back at the car - Yura is lying under it. He lies and does not move. I call: “Yura! Yura! And then I realized that he was wounded, and my brother-in-law and I ran after him. They pulled him from the “red” zone to the “yellow” and began providing first aid. Unfortunately, he was then seriously wounded, in particular in the head.”

Anatoly is confident that Plast helped him accept the harsh living conditions during the war.

“It was he who instilled in me such qualities as responsibility and self-organization. Military personnel, as you know, do not live at home - if not in dugouts, then in old basements. But if you, for example, went into our basement, you would see: it is equipped and clean. We strive to provide comfort for ourselves. Because it is very important how you perceive the situation in which you find yourself, how you relate to it.

I always told my children that when things don't go according to plan, the adventure begins. So I try to perceive the war as my adventure.

Of course, there are things that are difficult to put up with. For example, the realization that my children are growing up without me. When you come home six months later, and they have already completely changed, they have become older. And you don't see it. But here the support of your family, your wife is very important - how does she perceive your stay in the war - does she support you, is she ready to understand your decision, your long absence from home.

I was very lucky with this. My wife not only understands me - she brings up our children, who are 13, 11 and 9 years old, and carries out Plast, our volunteer and social activities. And she also has her own job - she is the deputy director for educational work at the VSP “Chertkiv Professional College of Economics and Entrepreneurship ZUNU”.

In fact, women whose men fight have a historical mission: they raise children on their own, support the family, and often run the family business - this is a real feat. And my wife is a heroine for me.”

“There are unbroken cassettes around the houses - and children are running around.”
Love for children and concern for their fate led Anatoly to another page in his biography - guardianship of children living in front-line regions.

“It was on the eve of the New Year holidays, two years ago,” the man recalls. “We decided to congratulate the guys on St. Nicholas Day. It was necessary to deliver gifts along the front line. And I volunteered to play the role of St. Nicholas. The guys were very happy with the congratulations, and we were pleased too.

In Seversk we moved from house to house. And we saw a group of people on the street cooking food in the open air - the houses were all broken, no water, no electricity. And children are running around. I say to Lenochka, St. Nicholas’s assistant, who was sent with me: “Let’s give these children gifts too?”

They gave it to one, to another. And then a man comes up and says: we have a lot of children here, I’ll take you to them. My heart sank: there are constant “arrivals” here, everything is destroyed - and a lot of children! We go into one house, then another: there are two, there are three. They took us into one house, and there was an earthen floor, can you imagine? I was shocked because I had never seen anything like this before.

We distributed gifts. And I think to myself: what about those sweets - they need real help. Children are sitting under fire! I call my volunteer friends. I say, listen, we have such a situation here. Tanya Lyulka volunteered. She is a volunteer who helps children on the front line. She arrived, and we went to look for those children again. There were more than fifty of them.

It was hard to watch: some children were so scared that they could not speak. The five-story building is broken down, they live in the basement, there are already Russians standing in the nearest landing across the lake, but mom doesn’t want to go. And no arguments work. We tell her: we’ll find you an apartment, we’ll take you out. And she: no, I worked at a school, and they didn’t pay me my salary for three months. And until they give it back, I won’t leave.

Tanya asks: so how much salary do you owe? - “Oh, I had a very good salary! We owe 36 thousand.” - “So let us collect this money for you. And you go right now, have pity on the child! It flies overhead." We could not persuade them, no matter how much we begged...

One large family - five children! - left. A few days later, their neighbor’s house, where children also lived, was demolished. Fortunately, they managed to leave three days earlier.”

Children who remain practically in a combat zone are a constant pain. Anatoly admits: he can’t wrap his head around how parents deliberately expose their children to mortal danger, make decisions on their own, without taking into account how the experience will later affect the mental state of the children. And that's if they survive at all.

“You can easily see unexploded cluster munition mines around houses there - such things are just lying under your feet. Mines - “petals”, which were literally thrown. And now there are also drones flying there, and the situation has worsened. And in the midst of all this, there are children left there.”

Anatoly says that almost all of those whom he and the volunteers took under their care were able to be taken to safer regions within six months - this took a lot of effort and persuasion. And not one-time visits: “I remember the girl Yana, she was 16 years old,” says Anatoly, “She asked to give her books - she really wanted them about Harry Potter. I brought her a complete set - I took it from my home library.”

It is on children - as a “new people” - that Anatoly pins his hopes when he talks about changing the worldview of the inhabitants of the east. Because there is supposedly no hope for older people who often profess pro-Russian views:

“I remember how we were driving to Slavyansk. I, as a gunner, rode the car on top - that is, “on a package”. And so we are “navigating” to leave, because we need to work, and a guy and a girl meet us - about 20 years old. They greeted us. And it was so pleasant, it boosted my morale! Because just a day later we drive past a stop there, from which some older woman runs out. And he spits and shouts curses in our direction. Completely different emotions fill me - it’s a shame.

It also happened when we were filmed on the phone. The commander of the combat vehicle ran out (and we had just arrived), took that phone, and broke it there in his heart. He says: what are you doing? We are protecting you. Are you giving us away? And to him: get out of here, we didn’t invite you!

Like, “if you weren’t here, they wouldn’t have fired at us. When are you leaving here?

And there are many such people. Will they change? Very doubtful. But children and youth are what we need to work on, what we need to invest time and effort into. Only then can we hope for change.”

Anatoly does not regret his decision to go to the front. He says he feels that he is now exactly where he should be.

“I really liked my job. I was involved in social activities, developed the city - and this was also important for me. But I couldn't sit at home. It tormented me so much: here, in the east, events of historical proportions are taking place!

And the main thing is that we do not miss the moment of the revival of our country. We finally have a chance to stop being victims. And move on to the psychology of winners, fighters. This is a very important transformation that it is a real honor to be involved in.”