When asked "When did the war begin for you?" Volodymyr, a fighter with the 72nd Brigade with the bright call sign "Irishman," replies that the conversation about this will be long. Because, as Volodymyr admits, after serving in the 72nd Brigade in 2011-2012 and at the beginning of the anti-terrorist operation (2014), he was assigned to the 26th Berdychiv Artillery Brigade. He held the position of senior gunner. After leaving the service, he headed the ATO veterans' union in the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv and graduated from the institute. He worked as a head of department in a security structure.
"But I have always been a 'field commander'. Even when performing security duties, I tried not to sit in the office, but to be close to the guys," says the Irishman.
From the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, he, his comrades and employees of the security agency arrived at the Kyiv hydroelectric power station (Vyshhorod) and, as part of the 72nd Brigade, met Russian helicopters flying towards Hostomel. Then came the battles for Kyiv and the liberation of Irpin. In June 2022, "The Irishman" was also deployed to the Donetsk region as part of the 72nd Brigade, where the defenders held the defense of the adjacent territory of the Vuhlehirsk thermal power plant. Then he was wounded, but returned to the front again. He is currently in the Donetsk sector.
In the conversation, "The Irishman" touches not only on the combat path he and his comrades went through, but also on how to rebuild a trade union organization. He is currently an active member of the All-Ukrainian Trade Union of Defenders of Ukraine, Athletes and Workers of the Spheres. He believes that the trade union should be structured, and the main task is to create conditions for social protection of the military, veterans and their families.
Volodymyr recalls a case when he was involved in the work of a commission that was issuing apartments. Among the candidates was a guy who was seriously wounded during the ATO and lost his leg. There were also other applicants for the apartment. The "Irishman" explains that he respects people who have been disabled in civilian life or who are applying for social welfare. But, in his opinion, the decisive argument should still be whether people have all their limbs and can still provide for themselves in some way. Volodymyr believes that priority should be given to those people who have been severely injured and are limited in their actions.
"It will always be important for me to help people with disabilities and their families. That is why the trade union is the embodiment of my desire to be useful not only here at the front, but also in civilian life. I want to have concrete results of such activities and see that it is possible to change lives not in words but in deeds," says the Irishman.
