ENG
It is the story of two friends, two scouts, two very funny and agile guys.
This is the name of the special purpose group 131 separate reconnaissance battalion named after Colonel Yevhen Konovalets. Cars with BRAVO numbers were driven through the steppes of Mykolaiv and Kherson region, performing extremely difficult tasks.
Their war was fought in the South. There are sparse landings, fields through which the enemy sees you a few kilometers away. You will not go everywhere, in order to reach the enemy, you need to constantly walk on your feet.
“We're looking for tourists, of course. Well, because we are scouts, we are constantly engaged in some tourist routes, so to speak, but I would like it to happen without risk to life.”- Krava joked.
He was constantly filming what they were doing — on the phone and on the action camera. These videos helped show the reconnaissance battalion, although usually no one knows about it.
The group had its own logo.
The guys made videos and taught to remind them that the war was going on, that the army needed support and collected money for equipment for the unit.
Most of the stories about the group's operations still remain untold.
Andrei Orlov, 39 years old, sergeant 131 ORB. Originally from Poltava. ATO participant — in 2014-2016 he served in the battalion “Donbass”, graduated from sniper school. By education — teacher. He worked in international trading networks as a manager. When the full-scale invasion began, he was in Baghdad, but returned in March to fight against the Russian invaders. Initially, the reconnaissance group was located near Transnistria, but in early summer 2022 moved to the South.
“I'm here for the first time in my life. I visited many regional centers of Ukraine, almost all of them. Until this year, I was not only in Nikolaev and Kherson. And this year I visited both Nikolaev and Kherson”- Andriy Orlov laughed, talking about his war.
At home, his son was waiting for him, it was Sarmat who called him when he became a Hero of Ukraine.
Dmitry Kravchenko, a fighter of 131 ORB, lived in Vinnitsa, together with his wife raised a son. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, his wife was in Mexico. Kravi had to wait for her lover to return to hand her baby and finally go to war.
He was engaged in business and dreamed of returning to his business after the end of the war. He was Sarmat's deputy and wanted people to know about their intelligence team. It was Krava who told me about the battles in which their group took part.
“The most difficult place was the village of Andriivka, it is small, but it was difficult. He simply could not be arrested several times and the different brigades changed because many guys were wounded and killed. Now Andreyevka has been released. It is on the border of the Nikolaev and Kherson regions, right under the river is located. Nature helped us, the weather conditions helped because we moved there were times of rain, that is, the drones could not see us, because the weather conditions did not allow them to do it.” - he told, realizing that even people living nearby may not know where exactly the village he is talking about.
“Difficult because of the terrain here, because there are some fields, narrow landings, and everything looks through, mainly artillery and drones work
The scouts worked in small groups, this made it difficult to evacuate and complete the task if wounded appeared.
“We had a difficult situation, we were investigating the intrigues of David Brod during his assault, and from our group 5 men moved forward, Andriy (Sarmat — ed.) was already wounded by a shrapnel and then during the tank shelling one man was killed, another was seriously wounded. One of them is of medium weight. And I miraculously met my acquaintance from Vinnitsa, a scout, he helped us and the three of us carried out the evacuation, and it was very difficult to carry out the twenty and the wounded. This friend of mine died three days later, his name was Maxim, call sign Kong. I haven't seen him in 8 years, it was just a miracle that I met him in such a situation and he helped us.”.
One of the most difficult operations is the battle in the village of Mala Seideminukha, in the Kherson region. During this battle, the scouts came into direct contact with the enemy in the village. They were shooting, and cows were tormenting nearby.
“The problem with this village is that it is in a pit, and on top of it was another settlement, and there was a large gathering of Russian troops, the positions in them were on top. But we managed to go there covertly, they did not see us and we rushed to defend the settlement and there in small groups worked together with the 73rd center”, - recalled Dmitry.
In order to distinguish their own from strangers in battle, they shouted the word “burner” - they knew that the Russians could not pronounce it.
In this battle, Sarmat was wounded — his ear and neck were injured. Krava defeated his brothers, barely persuaded to evacuate and took command of himself.
In three small groups, they destroyed 36 Russian invaders.
Krava walked around the village and shouted to his own: “BRAVO, follow me!”
On November 10, the Bravo group hung a blue-yellow flag in the liberated Snigirevka. The occupiers “joined” this settlement in the Nikolaev area to Kherson region. The guys from BRAVO went there because there was information that there were still occupiers there.
Locals gave them flowers, hugged, cried and shouted “Glory to the heroes”.
Snigurivka manages to take prisoners. They are loaded into the body of a pickup truck blindfolded, and the locals try to feed the hungry (there was no time to eat) scouts with chebureks.
Sarmat then recalled, barely holding back his emotions:
- They did not expect us, they were very surprised, and after 5 minutes people with Ukrainian flags were already running to us. That is, somewhere they these 8 months, somewhere they kept these flags, somewhere they were waiting for us and... I can't just when your grandmother runs to you with a flag...
- Did you cry or laugh?
- I laughed, I laughed, but I think that when we go to Donetsk, I will cry...
Sarmat with the Ukrainian flag in his hands goes to the flagpole. There hangs a Russian tricolor.
Within a few minutes, the Russian rag is burning on the ground.
On November 11, a group of scouts from the 131st Reconnaissance Battalion enters Kherson. A crowd with blue and yellow flags is buzzing in the square. The Bravo group signals and shouts joyfully to happy people.
“The liberated Kherson region is once, and this will not happen again, no. Our children will be educated, it will not happen anymore.”- when Andrei Orlov told about it, he was already glowing with happiness
This holiday did not stop for several days in a row.
Krava called Kherson the most important point to which he wanted to reach:“It was a very difficult road to him, many children were killed and injured. Well, it was difficult for us to give this Kherson. The moment I walked in, I felt incredible euphoria, well, we were quite tired, because we had not slept normally for three days. Many passed a lot on foot, because everything was mined, and the equipment could not pass. And when they came to Kherson, there was such an uplift, the strength appeared to go further. And people charged us with their energy.”.
He never put the star on the uniform. I dreamed of wearing it after the victory, and that someday the grandchildren must play as a reward. The very first photo of the award was dropped by his son, so that his Denis would find out about it first.
Faithful friend Dmitry Kravchenko this day, as always, was nearby. And, he assures, he was not at all jealous that the award went to his brother:
“I know it's a credit to our unit, our group. Andrei - he is just modest, he does not tell, he constantly, when he was wounded several times, he did not want to go out for evacuation and wanted to constantly perform his actions.”
When we drove with Sarmat and Krava in Kherson, Sarmat was constantly looking on the map, where in this city there is a memorial square for his deceased friend.
“I can't find here the square of my friend, who died in 17, Denis Loshkarev, he was the leader of the local self-defense in 13-14 years, and then he went to the ATO and we met him there”.
The monument to Denis Loshkarev was painted with red paint by the Russians during the occupation. Sarmat still found it. Seeing the painted monument, he returned there again and washed it.
“Now Ukraine, everything, we need to clean up such things.”
Krava and Sarmat knew how to rejoice in the conquered territories. They proudly displayed the new billboards in the city, remembered that when they entered, the billboards announced that “Russia is here everywhere.”
“You come to Chornobayevka, you come here to Kherson and you see what happened, you understand “Wow! I'm here, I'm here, I've reached,” and we'll get to all the places like that. We will reach the border like this.”Sarmat shared his impressions while we were driving around Kherson.
In early January 2023, they hung the flag again. This time on the island Potemkinsky is an island between the right and left banks of the Dnieper in Kherson.
After the liberation of Kherson, the war became even more difficult — part of the tasks had to be carried out by moving on boats. The invaders had to be driven out of the islands. In its telegram channel, the BRAVO group wrote: we are working.
On September 6, Sarmat and Krava took part in a combat exit in Beryslav district. They faced an enemy sabotage group, were ambushed. Andrey Orlov received multiple injuries and died in a local hospital on the same day.
Dmitry Kravchenko with severe injuries was able to be evacuated to a military hospital, the fight for his life lasted 5 days. On September 11, Krava died.
When we met in Kherson, I asked to say something important, such that they would like every Ukrainian to hear.
Krava says: “I dream that the war will end, that we will return to the borders of the year 91 and live peacefully and plan our future. I want to say that we will give peace, well, I promise, and I want everyone to believe in our victory.”
Sarmat says: “The whole country, believe in the victory of the Armed Forces, just believe us, we will do it all. We need a strong rear, we need your support, your moral, mental - anyway - help, your faith in us. Believe us, we will win for sure and believe me, we are trying to do it as soon as possible. We are trying to cover you, we are trying to make you safer. We do it here. We know how hard it is for you, how hard it is without light, without gas, without water, but do not stop, believe in us. We will win, and there is no doubt about that.”.
