🇺🇦#BarAtWar
A corporate lawyer with a gun, the story of Anatoliy Kyselyov
Anatoliy Kyselyov, a corporate lawyer from SDM Partners, joined Ukraine’s territorial defense at the very beginning of Russia’s full-scale intervention. First, he tried to join the forces in Sviatoshyn and Solomyanskyi districts in Kyiv. In the latter, he even came under Russian shelling. Afterwards, he decided that the best place of service was closer to home. I met Anatoliy in one of Kyiv’s suburbs, a location that potentially can become one of the main hotspots.
By Olena Makarenko, Dima Gadomsky, Olga Panchenko, Conal Campbell. Photographs by Maria Matiashova.
If you want to help Anatoliy and all Ukrainian lawyers to defend our country, please donate us at INDIEGOGO.
“We have three spots to watch day and night. And while our artillery is destroying Russians, we are standing in the territorial defense.”
Anatoliy holds his AR-15 rifle from Daniel Defense. It matches the NATO cartridge 223 rem. The only difference it has from those that US soldiers use is that it’s semi-automatic.
Anatoliy expected the war to start.
“The only thing is that I did not fill up my car with gas in time,” he says.
He received the message about the beginning of the war at 4 a.m. It was his mom who called from Vasylkyv, a town near Kyiv that became one of the hotspots, and said, “It has started”. Her house is located near two military bases.
Anatoliy came to take her and her two dogs out.
“While driving, I saw the wreckage of missiles on the roadside.”
His next step was going to the Military store to buy ammunition.
Still, answering the question about the most valuable thing on him, Anatoliy shows us a small wooden cross received from his Mother in church.
“She kissed me and said that there are no atheists in war.”
Already on the second day of the war, Anatoliy came under sniper fire. It happened just after he took his family out and went to register in the Kyiv Solomyanskyi district conscription office. In some 10 meters, they heard shooting sounds from the industrial area.
“We immediately heard a command ‘sniper works’, there were about 50 of us there, we fell to the ground, and then went in single file to the building of the military enlistment office. Apparently, this was the first shock of the war. And then — I saw the rocket that flew at Lobanovsky street, I just saw it in the air.”
However, he first felt scared later, during his first shift. At first, the place where he stands now was not a checkpoint. It was not ready for it. But it was located in the area where saboteurs landed from helicopters.
On the first night, Anatoliy and his comrades agreed that a person who leaves the building and then comes back knocks on the door and says a password.
“We heard a knock on the door, asked for the password, and there was no answer. We stood with weapons in our hands, aimed at the doors and windows, and I, a corporate lawyer, had a gun in my hand, and I was scared. And all this tension ended with a man knocking on our door. We forgot to tell him the password.”
As well, in the first days of the war, Anatoliy already contributed to the elimination of diversionists. Seeing helicopters flying, he sent the approximate location of their stop to a colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“We used to walk our dogs together.”
Later, Anatoliy received a message saying “Thank you, we’ve engaged in battle.”
“This means my information came to the Ukrainian “Alfa” Security Service, who were sitting nearby in the forest, not far from the landing. They immediately fought to the last of these 40–60 diversionists, according to the location I indicated.”
While having a conversation with Anatoliy, shooting started nearby.
“It’s our guys. They are shooting back. We will join them later. Regarding hell, there is a direction here. It’s not very good. Some time ago, I was not distinguishing our artillery from the enemy ones. It happened just when we were going to this dangerous point. Vehicles of an evacuation convoy were moving towards us. We heard shooting and grenades all around, it felt strange.”
At the frontline, Anatoliy feels he’s in the right place. As well, he still devotes half an hour a day to work questions.
“The employees of the company I work for, SDM Partners, are all courageous people who work under artillery shellings and bullets. They understand that if you do not fight, you have to work — to move the economy forward. One of the tasks of the enemy is to overthrow our economy, while theirs has already been blown away.”
Still, there is pain for Anatoliy.
“My goddaughter, two years old, is now in Dymer, and they can’t be evacuated without an official corridor. There’s a russian orc checkpoint in the middle of Dymer. That’s the only thing that does not allow me to relax.”
Anatoliy is confident to answer what he is fighting for.
“I fight for my state. I already know the tactics. When I have a break, I read books about war. And there is the book called Total Resistance, written by a Swedish major [ed. — Hans von Dach]. It says that we must fight to the last and resist with all the available forces. You yourself are well aware that this war is not to destroy our infrastructure but to destroy us. And if all men are like me, or like you, helping in the rear now, there is no chance, even theoretical, to seize us.”
For Anatoliy, the war would come to an end when it moves to Kuban and Rostov.
“It’s necessary to move a part of the war, it should not end here. Where should we put all our energy and anger? Everything is changing, and when I see photos of our children in this war, it just tears me to pieces.”
Do you have dreams?
“Yes. Today I dreamed that I was holding a car permit from the Armed Forces. But my dreams are very simple, there are no flashbacks with collapsed buildings and dead Russians. Everything is very simple and ordinary.”
If you want to help Anatoliy and all Ukrainian lawyers to defend our country, please donate us at INDIEGOGO.
