Representatives of national minorities who are willing to show their love for Ukraine at the cost of their own lives. The commander says about them simply: "reliable guys".
All of them are mountain storm-troopers, who are serving in one of the battalions of the 128th brigade. The piece of Yevhenia Podobna tells about the fighters of the unique unit.
video source: "Channel 5"
Yuriy Forkash is an ethnic Roma. He has been serving in the army for three years now. He came to defend the east of Ukraine from the opposite end of the country – from the city of Beregovo in Transcarpathia.
"I call myself a Ukrainian, I was born in Ukraine. We have Magyars, and Gypsies… I went and signed the contract, when I realized that Ukraine is in trouble and someone needs to defend it. I believe that if every Ukrainian defends the country, we will all be good," – the soldier says.
After the war, he wants to build his own house and become a border guard. He says he is gettting along well with his brothers in arms, but in civilian life Roma people are doing not so well.
"They are ready to defend the country, each of them. But there are special conditions for them, they are segregated, there are no Roma authorities. That would help a lot. I have been discriminated against repeatedly", – Yuriy admits.
Among the defenders, there is a Hungarian Oleksandr Ur. His house is only a few hundred meters away from Hungary.
"I am from Transcarpathian region. The village is entirely Hungarian. There are less than 10 people who speak Ukrainian. I consider myself a Ukrainian", – the Army serviceman says.
Before the war, Oleksandr worked as a builder, he became a soldier three years ago. He was the only one in his large village, who went to the front. He fought in Shyrokyne, at the Butivka mine, near Horlivka. Despite the fact that he saw the European Union in the windows of his home, he has never even thought about leaving abroad.
"Everyone goes to work abroad, I am the only one from the village, who went to the war. Someone has to go. If everyone goes abroad, what will happen next? That’s patriotism", – Oleksandr notes.
Robert Madyar is another Hungarian. He serves in the battalion as a grenade launcher operator. He fought near Donetsk and Horlivka.
Robert came from Uzhgorod. He says: there are many guys of different nationalities in his battalion, because Transcarpathia borders with four countries. But the unit fights as a single organism.
"We have Georgians, Roma or Gypsies, Hungarians, I know there is a Slovak, Russians, Ukrainians. All fight the same. Everyone came here to fight – some in 2014, some in 2016," – the sodier says.
"There are Hungarians, there are Romanians, Azerbaijani. I would say, they are reliable guys. We are patriots of Ukraine and patriotic minded", – the commander of the battalion of the 128th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Palamarchuk said.
Almost half of the soldiers in the unit have been serving here since the first months of the war. And soon, they will go back to the front.
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