🇺🇦The man in the photo is our nickname "Zamok", but everyone calls him "Zamochek", because he is an optimist, a joker and, in general, the soul of the company.

🪖In some sense, it can be said that the Castle fights all conscious life. Large scale is his third war.
💬First there was Iraq. Even at the beginning of zero. At that time, I served in the first battalion in Ukraine, which was fully staffed by contract workers. Some of us who agreed to this offer were sent there. They performed various tasks there. There were funny moments. Once we were driving in a column around the city. I was sitting in the armor and now I understand that the bullets hit the armor from two sides. Then it turned out that two warring factions started a firefight, and we drove right between them. It was enough to give a turn from KPVT up, so that everyone ran away. Then there was the anti-terrorist operation - Mariupol, Pisky, "Zenith"... And from February 26 - I was at war again. Third time.

☝🏻The war did not catch "Castle" by surprise

💬I understood that there would be a war. I understood perfectly. I had prepared equipment. Not assembled, but everything sorted, adjusted. On the first day I was with my family. And 25 went to the TCC. I did not manage to break through the crowd of willing people that day. When I came home, I saw that my wife had already packed my things. The next day, I went directly to one of the Kyiv brigades and joined its ranks. All. Since then I have been on duty again.

🤝🏻As part of various "Castle" battalions, many hotspots have passed. Defense of Kyiv, Mykolaiv, beginning of the Kherson operation. But he remembered Bakhmut the most.

💬The fiercest battles were in Bakhmut. It was hot everywhere I was, but Bakhmut in this row takes a special place. Sometimes it happened that the enemy's positions were just behind the fence from yours... but the most memorable for me were the events at the position called "The Pit". It was on the 2nd of April, we were in this position, when we were asked from the command post if we had any communication with the adjacent unit which was standing to our right.

It turned out that they had moved back 400 meters. And then I felt sick. The fact is that at 12 o'clock - the enemy, the building at nine is also occupied by the enemy. And at three o'clock the building is empty. There is no one behind us either. I understand that we have every chance to get surrounded. It became a little calmer when an enemy reconnaissance group entered our building, with lanterns, talking loudly. Of course, they didn't get out of there alive, and besides, we heard their radio for about four hours, but we understood that we wouldn't be surrounded that night. The next guys who replaced us at the position almost made it. Needles slipped into the eye on the way out, they walked along a narrow path that the enemy had not yet controlled.

💪🏼For the second year of its "third war", the Castle does not lose its optimism and motivation.

I have only one motivation - family, children. They must be free men of a free country. That's all. I don't understand people who say "what should I fight for? Let others." Such a position drives me crazy, because in my opinion, family is an extraordinary reason to be in the ranks of the Armed Forces.

🇺🇦Plans for a peaceful life The castle is not yet under construction.
If tomorrow is Victory. Well, hypothetically. I don't really know what I'm going to do. What to do First of all, I will go around all the fallen comrades. And further, it will be seen later.

🫡 Public Relations Service of the 241st Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces

note: Ukrainian «Замок» = English «castle»
translation picture: I have only one motivation - family, children. They must be free men of a free country.
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@ukrainejournal