Why I'm at War

Where are you now?

Right now, I am in a town called [redacted] and it's 20km away from the very front line.

It's a dangerous situation here,
and it looks like the apocalypse.

Sorry, it wouldn't be a very like, war situation because we can't show you the environment around.

Volodymyr Demchenko, or Vlad, is a 34-year-old Ukrainian fighting the Russian army.

He's a civilian who volunteered to protect his homeland.

His training was brief.

We came back to Bakhmut right after interview.

That's happened today.

It's how Bakhmut look like now.

They're firing mortars!

He used smartphones and miniature cameras to film his experiences on the front lines.

I learned about Vlad soon after Russia invaded in March 2022.

I found his videos among the huge amount of footage from Ukraine on social media.

Vivid, up-close records that were very different from media and official military footage.

I was fascinated by the deeply human, personal videos of the soldiers.

When I got in touch, Vlad sent me 500 hours of video he had recorded.

Perhaps surprisingly they began eight years ago.

I think those moments, it was the beginning of like, another me.

I'm pretty sure from those days, from those morning, when those massacre start, till now, almost eight years.

Eight years, actually.

What changed Vlad?

And what happened to him afterwards?

We trace the momentous eight years that changed the life of a Ukrainian volunteer.

Revolution!

February 18, 2014.

Huge numbers of anti-government protesters faced off against security forces.

Ukraine became independent after the dissolution of the USSR.

Violence broke out between pro-Western and pro-Russian groups.

President Yanukovych tore up a trade agreement with the EU at the last minute.

The decision led to widespread demonstrations by angry citizens.

I understand the whole situation with the European Union.

I want Ukraine to be a part of Europe.

The students protest wasn't interesting for me, to be honest.

This is Vlad.

His parents' second, and youngest, child, he was born and raised near the capital, Kyiv.

I just made money out of video-making.

Doing some commercials, doing some weddings.

Right before the revolution start I was pretty regular youth.

The protests were peaceful at first.

But as the crowds grew, things changed fast.

And I was wake from a phone call.

My friend called me and said, Did you watch what they did?

It was six o'clock in the morning.

I turn on the news.

Violence had erupted between citizens and security forces.

Vlad said these scenes spurred him to action.

Don't shoot!

Stop, wait! Stop, stop!

I just start filming everything that going on around.

Unarmed people, all covered in blood.

A bloody nightmare starts.

The sniper's over there.

Violence grow, like, day by day day by day.

I remember I came to the beginning of the square and I saw seven dead bodies around me.

Right in front of me.

Police just killing people.

And it was shock!

I start feeling like what I am actually doing here, right in this moment.

And this is how I decide to be involved in the revolution.

It's important to show this dead bodies.

Those violence.

So in the future, in ten, fifteen years, nobody can say that never happens, or something different was happen.

Eventually Vlad himself became a protester.

I was so angry at police that I basically start fighting with them, full of anger.

A light grenade, thrown by one of policeman just hit my head and didn't explode.

It was kind of miracle.

And I was almost was killed.

The protests continued and President Yanukovych fled to Russia on February 22.

The administration collapsed and a new interim government was set up with the goal of joining the EU.

Hero! Hero!

Over a hundred people lost their lives during the Maidan Revolution.

This is how my life changed a lot.

We realized, each of us, and all country realized we are involved in this process.

Those shocks actually helped me to make my own life better and understand which is my role in history and society and my country.

But the situation escalated.

When the revolution was over and Yanukovych run away it was again another morning when you're waking up and you see Russian helicopters over Crimea and

a column of vehicles and soldiers on your territory.

On your country.

The annexation of Crimea was announced by Russia and declared to have been the majority decision.

President Putin claimed the change in Ukraine's administration was a coup d'etat by an extremist minority.

This revolution was the work of
neo-Nazis and antisemites.

And you're watching news that claims "they are super-fascist and neo-Nazi."

It's - it's unbelievable.

It's like how to call white, and you say it's black.

He just showing what they really want.

Make Russia great, big Russian nation.

They are very chauvinistic nation.

I think Putin is a portrait of collective Russia.

Really.

I think it's a mirror of Russian society.

After the 2014 annexation of Crimea, pro-Russian armed separatist groups sprang up in the eastern region of Donbas.

Ukraine and the pro-Russian militias began what is now called the War in Donbas.

Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the heroes!

Volunteers formed the Donbas Battalion as a way to fight against pro-Russian forces.

Vlad joined them.

I was not sure what I can do, like how I can join.

I was like, totally zero man, zero understanding about weapon, war.

Camera became a real thing because I saw reports from news all over the world and especially Ukrainian news.

And there was no footages from action.

So I wrote a letter to a couple of volunteer battalions, explain that like, hey guys I'm a video - I said, I'm like, super professional guy.

Which was not very true!

I was kind of professional at those moment.

And commander of Donbas battalion wrote me back and said like, you should come.

Vlad joined the Donbas Battalion as a volunteer.

He decided to record everything he saw, and show it to the world.

This is a training session for a civilian volunteer who had never touched a weapon before joining the battalion.

- First time loading a gun?
- No, second time.

- I'm scared!
- Take the safety off.

OK, you're set. Shoot.

I'm really scared.

They buy all clothes and all equipment by themselves.

Only one thing the government gives them: weapon.

That's all.

Don't film this!

Media tried to draw Ukrainians as angels.

No! Just regular people.

But their choice to fight, actually, make them special for me.

Almost a half of guys was telling to their families over the phone, hey, I'm still in the training camp, you know, no, everything's super quiet.

This sound? Oh it's just something fall, like - no, no, no, there is no reason to worry - goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!

He joined the unit and started
filming without telling us a thing.

I found out by chance on Facebook.

I wasn't surprised.
My son has an adventurous, independent streak.

Vlad's footage from the front lines exposed me for the first time to the reality of the battlefield.

A small team of ten went to scout the front lines.

Is that a rifle behind the car?

There's someone there.

I can't see.

There's someone with an assault rifle.

Where are they shooting from?

We've got wounded!

Are they on the ground?

Yes.

Crawl, crawl!

A grenade got them.

Pull him back.

Help!

It was a first experience where I saw actually like, when people are injured, for example, or any kind of battle experience with gunfire.

Other volunteers rushed to the scene, and the group was able to escape.

Although nobody died, four were injured, one so severely he will never walk again.

And it was kind of tough, this is how I first time learn what war is it.

It was just like, shooting around, you don't really understand, you know just the direction from where enemy is shooting at you.

Vlad kept filming even as the bullets flew around him.

Camera, it's very powerful protection of your own mental health from what you can see.

Cos it's a little wall between you and world.

When you face violent like that, just openly, you need to have to deal with that.

You need to have realize why you are here, why you see this.

And what is your role in all this nightmare.

Three months after joining up, Vlad lost one of his companions in Ilovaisk.

It was his first time going through that experience.

It was a guy smiley, his nickname was Smile.

He was so nice with you, he serve you some coffee, you have laugh.

I made his portrait, very nice one.

Portrait of him, of course, smiling.

A few days after his death Vlad visited the site.

Some estimate over a thousand Ukrainian solders died in the fighting here.

Vlad was accompanied by Smiley's comrades.

Our tank was blown apart.

You can imagine how powerful the bombings were.

Parts ended up 2km away.

2km away?

You know his background, so you feel a sense of loss, of course.

Even you not - like, not was a big friends for your life, you know him like, for a couple of weeks.

This is the Ukraine war.

Ah, a mine!

Four months later, winter had come, but the fighting continued.

Death was now a familiar companion on the battlefield.

The immortal dog.

Hey, buddy! How are you?

When you point a gun at him, he knows to run away.

You want to go for a walk?

He wants to play.

Vlad's team were part of fierce fighting during the battles to take Donetsk airport, a key strategic point.

They were told to observe enemy movement from the control tower, which had a clear view of the entire airport.

Where are they shooting from?

50 to the left.

Wow!

Bullseye!

Did we get it?

Yeah!

Look at that smoke!

Two young solders, aged 19 and 20, were on duty in the tower.

It's a luxury room, you could invite a girl up!

Only they'd need to climb up.

Even pizza delivery turned us down.

Will we be shooting today?

Sure.

The enemy's not coming.

Unlike us they don't want to get up early for work.

But then...

Everybody can see from every side.

Yeah, it was targeted every day.

So everybody who have a weapon was just dream about to kill guys in those tower.

It was extremely dangerous.

They were saying "Hi!"

A morning greeting.

Let's make soup.

The water's boiling.

Since they are under constant attack, meals have to be eaten in moments.

They cannot leave until their shift is over.

Hey, that was close!

Why are we laughing?

And they're real bullets, too!

In the video when the explosion is happening,you need to understand that we laugh because it's very good protection from fear, which is actually inside of you,

eating your brain at that moment.

Sometimes you lose control of yourself.

I saw a lot of people freezing out.

That happened to me once too.

I saw people panicking and like, running around screaming.

Tricky thing, those laughs are sometimes nervous laughs and nervous smiles.

And I think laughing and smiling is the only one weapon that human beings have against death.

Vlad says he was always thinking that the next bullet might hit him.

He spoke of an incident he can't forget.

I been around the camp of tenth brigade, and telling that, like, hey I'm from, like, local, from a small town called Desna and they said, hey, there is a guy

from Desna, right in the next tent.

And we was glad to see each other and I tell him, like, you know what, I will get home soon, like, in a week and I can bring your wife a message from you.

Let's record a message to her.

Go ahead!

Hey Mom, Dad, Alyona, and my girls!

Papa's all good in Luhansk.

I'll be back soon!

Glory to Ukraine!

He was killed before I bring those message.

That was awful feeling when I came home.

And I went to meet his wife, my leg was actually shaking.

I don't know how to - I don't know how to give her this card with a video of her dead husband.

But a huge surprise was waiting for me, because she was super happy to see me.

She was telling me, like, thank you so much for this video.

I still have this weird feeling when somebody who I make portrait of, or video of, are dying.

And I know them very well.

It still make me feel like, weird.

This is what I remember from those days.

War had tainted everyday life.

Vlad found his mental health suffering.

And I know that guys are dying right now in Ilovaisk.

I came back home for three days and I met my friends.

They were drinking beer, singing songs… Are you're able to go to a nightclub and have fun

when there are 20 funerals in your town today?

With soldiers sitting on the front lines watching their citizens you're just having a nice beer in the evening?

I understand that it's normal, like, this is how it's supposed to be.

Normal life without war.

And I was lying in a park and just crying and can't stop.

I was almost in a panic.

I don't know what to do, it's the first time in my life I have such kind of experience.

Vlad continued to film on the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

February 2015, a year after the Maidan Revolution.

A ceasefire agreement was reached, with Germany and France serving as mediators.

"On your path, dear Kozak" "Someone will always give you a place to stay"

Vlad left Donbas and returned to Kyiv.

Life is not ever the same for you.

Because things that were important before are not important anymore.

So, you come back home and see
people doing their daily routines.

And you think, how ridiculous is that?

Going to work, raising your kids,
paying the bills… You don't feel it's important at all.

When he came back, he was a different person.

Seeing young soldiers at war
made him determined to film them.

The war changed his life.

Eight months passed after his return.

I realized that I had a dream before the war.

I have, like, from my childhood I have a dream to travel around the world.

Vlad decided to travel the world.

I'm not used to selfies.
I'll do my best!

Vlad visited 42 countries between 2015 and 2020.

I start hitchhiking, sleeping sometimes on the floor, just under the sky.

And I was super happy and okay.

I don't have money in those moments, but war helped me realize that actually I can survive pretty shitty circumstances without having money.

This is the Sahara desert.

A special "Hi," from Victoria Falls!

Unbelievable power!

But which trip made the biggest impact on him?

A journey from Kyiv to Namibia.

He traveled 22,000 kilometers during his travels across Africa.

I'm probably in Tanzania now.
I just crossed the border, apparently.

At those moments war became like, not so big and like, I go through some experience as well.

First of all it helped me to fix mental problems after war.

Hey, this is Kampala!

They're following me.
No matter where I go.

What should I do?

They're my buddies!

I traveled around Africa which in people mind is awful place where people are suffering and it's so beautiful.

People are very kind and very simple, very humble - it's make me believe that the world is not awful place to live.

You know, when you go to the war there is a very huge possibility that you will hate life and people because you see violence and things are ruined.

But as more I travel, the more I realize that actually there is much more good people in the world than bad people.

In 2020, Vlad came back from his travels and started working again.

He'd returned to ordinary life.

Make any kind of success in my career, it's the first time in my life, I think, when I have enough money!

I was about to start my business, just kind of making my life be real.

Maybe buy a house in the future.

After his trip he said, "Ukraine's the best."

It's not that special.
But Ukraine is Ukraine.

We should cherish our homeland.

Our life was simple. We used to work, raise kids.

We dreamt of a better future for our kids,
imagined having grandkids.

2022, February 24.

Russia began shelling and bombing across Ukraine.

Soon after the Russian army began its attack, Vlad was scrambling to get his mother and girlfriend to a safe location.

Almost everyone's already gone.

No one can bear this.

Ukraine declared a general mobilization.

No Ukrainian man between the ages of 18 and 60 could leave the country.

Vlad decided to return to the front lines.

Why did he choose to return to war?

It was a question I just had to ask.

So, it's kind of really - not stupid but, like, not smart question.

Why? Cos I don't have a choice.

I want to live in my country.

I fighting for a possibility to live normal life.

For possibility for kids in Ukraine to go to school tomorrow.

I fighting for a possibility to go to job, just go to job in a Monday.

When the war started he phoned to say
he'd joined up to fight.

His dad and I were happy about it.

We didn't feel sad about it.

Vlad and other men are defending our homeland.

Right now it's impossible to plan even a day ahead.

But you can always help those in need.

We must all get through this.
We'll be all right.

Russian forces invaded with the goal of toppling Kyiv.

The northern town of Chernihiv became a key battleground.

What's up, guys, this is a beautiful sunrise here in Ukraine.

And today a much more serious plane and much more serious professional's game.

Used to handling digital equipment, Vlad was in charge of piloting drones.

My job, particular job was to fly with a drone, and make a map of targets, like, where Russian vehicles, Russian soldiers, Russian checkpoints.

East 17, South 111.

Using the drone, they spot a Russian tank.

One more time!

Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the heroes!

Chernihiv was briefly occupied by Russian troops before being recaptured by Ukrainian forces.

But Vlad's unit paid a high price.

Two of their comrades went missing.

They begin searching, following tips from other soldiers on the ground.

It happened in a moment.

The car was around here.

It's over there.

This is the car they were driving.

Found a knee guard.

Could be one of Vagner's.
Completely destroyed.

They might have crawled here.

With busted legs, maybe.

Although they found some of the men's belongings, there were no bodies.

Talking to local residents gave them their first clue.

- To the right?
- Yes, over to the hospital.

Russian soldiers ordered this woman's husband to bury the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers they'd killed.

She said she saw everything that happened.

He buried four Ukrainian soldiers here.

DNA tests later confirmed that two of the bodies were the missing soldiers.

You're thinking about those last moment when you saw this person, like, you think, why this happened to him, not to me.

Why? How that works?

Because if we will cry right now, we will just get mad, like, we will lose our - our sense of reality if we wouldn't protect ourself from this kind of thought.

And what we saying here in Ukraine: We always promise to cry our tears after the war, about everybody who was killed.

As Vlad taught me about the basics of war, he was always calm and honest.

But he did once reveal a deep well of anger.

It was when they'd entered Irpin, a town adjacent to the city of Kyiv.

Media outlets around the world broadcast images of the fierce fighting in Irpin.

It is next to Bucha, where there were reports of civilians being mass murdered.

When we came there and I was literally shocked.

We see what's going on there.

Vlad was so focused on helping civilians that he had no time to film.

Irpin was one of the toughest experiences I had during this war.

A month after battle began, Ukrainian forces were able to retake the outskirts of Kyiv.

That's where Vlad saw stark proof of the cruelty Russian soldiers had inflicted on civilians.

Bodies tied hand and foot, then beaten.

The dead left in the street, even the bodies of young children.

It is believed that Bucha, Irpin, and other suburbs of Kyiv saw a total of over 1200 civilian deaths.

But the Russian government insisted that the massacre in Bucha was faked by Ukraine.

Are you crazy?

Are you crazy?

They did it, they bring Putin, they was tolerating them.

They was tolerating him, do nothing.

Nothing! Zero.

Was dying in 2014 on the streets, in fighting of police.

It's too late to be a hero.

All these years, from moment when war starts was trying to talk to them over social media, like hey, guys, there's war happening and they was hey, let's don't touch politics, please.

We're here, we're wise, we're an artist people.

Don't touch political, don't touch political.

They not trying to save us.

They're saving themselves.

They doing for themselves, not for us.

We don't need them anymore.

This house was occupied by Russian soldiers.

There, Vlad recorded an unsettling sight.

Feces, on a bed.

That's shocking to see.

It's just a small village house, of old lady, with portraits of her family on the wall.

I don't know which kind of trauma they have, psychological trauma.

Cos I was, I was so angry about what I saw.

I have only pure hate.

If there will be any kind of Russian, he would be killed immediately, like, with no - no thoughts.

Just like [sound effect], goodbye.

Vlad had previously said that young Russians, too, were victims in Putin's war.

I was shaken by the emotion in his voice, and the depth of his fury.

My son is no coward,
so he cannot turn a blind eye.

This battle will go on for a very long time, for years.

But he will pursue his mission.

Late April.

Volunteer fighters like Vlad were integrated into Ukraine's regular military.

Given his experience in the War in Donbas, Vlad was promoted to sergeant.

His job now was to manage military intelligence and offer soldiers moral support.

Now we're real militarists.

I'm super proud of Ukrainian armed, armed force now.

I'm proud to be a part of it.

Vlad's camera continued to capture scenes from everyday life.

Soldiers' lives...

Looks like a small tank.

Look at him! Man, that's scary!

You pose, too.

And here are women supporting the war effort on the front line.

These ladies are cooking for us.
We all love them.

Everything is consist from human and their actions.

The war is humans.

Daily life is humans.

They have their families, they have their jobs, they have their traveling plans.

When you see the eyes of a person, when you hear person talking about something different, in your life.

Not just about the war.

You can make a conclusion, which kind of person is that.

Vlad is very careful to capture portraits of each of his fellow soldiers.

Portraits, it's a very good way.

To explain what is war from our side.

Cos portraits is not lying to you.

And understand what's going on here.

Even now I'm sitting in this garden and it's fall in Ukraine and I feel this beautiful smell of grass around me and I enjoy this moment.

Life is difficult, life is hard.

The world is not the best place for living.

And still love this life, and the world.

I think this is what is real love meaning.

After this interview, we lost touch with Vlad for a time.

Hello, Akira.

Sorry that I disappear.

It was about a month later, on October 15, that he contacted us again, with a video message.

He'd been questioned by higher officials about the video he'd been sending us.

Everything fine.

They realize that we don't give any military secrets.

But he explains that now he's a member of the regular army, so he can no longer send us video.

It's not, like, so easy now to work as a media person while being in the army.

It is my earnest hope that this long war will soon end, and that we will be able to speak again.

"Vlad is still fighting on the front lines in eastern Ukraine."