People romanticise war.
In a war movie, it is not the corpses that are the heroes, but the Rambos.
There are many South Africans today who brag about their ‘time on the border’.
Everyone was a recce.

Keep it a secret

More than a year ago, I heard about a young Middelburger who went to Ukraine to fight against the Russians.
I undertook to keep it a secret.
It became more than a year of struggle.
Your word is your honour on the one hand, on the other hand, the biggest story of your life.
I kept my word until the young soldier was back in South Africa.
In my 50-year journalistic career, it was the most moving interview.

The bucket overflowed

No one comes out of a war unscathed.
We talked for two weeks.
At first, he was reluctant.
Didn’t want anything to be published.
And then the bucket overflowed.
The detail.
The death.
The destruction.
The pain.
The sadness.
The suffering.
Scars on his mind.
Scars on his body.
Words are not enough.
So he asks for the story to be forwarded to him.
Then he adds more detail.
More detail.
Over and over…
He asked, “How can I tell the world what is happening in Ukraine?”

Life after death

On Saturday morning, we meet again in a parking lot.
Another story.
Missiles, hand grenades, corpses, Russian drones, more corpses, trenches, explosions, battles, more corpses, death, death, death… survival.
Every now and then, a light shines.
The Bible he carried in his backpack, through which a piece of shrapnel had forced its way.
His struggle with life after death.

What fear is

The realisation that a higher hand protected him.
But there is also the pain of having to watch how a war destroys happy families.
Ukrainian families torn apart by Russian attacks.
To see a family’s life destroyed by one missile.
You visualise his world.
Family photos on the walls.
A teddy bear in a child’s room.
Pets in the yard.
A half-eaten plate of food on a dining room table.
Blood on the walls…
The difference is, his images are burned into his soul.
Forever!

DEATH!

Suddenly, the tug-of-war between Putin, Trump, and Zelensky became more than just politics.
It becomes death in capital letters: DEATH!
It becomes heartbreaking.
No longer a war fought far away.
A war that one of our own sons fought and survived.
He went to Ukraine because of the injustice done to the citizens of the country.

Not ‘our’ war

And the grensvegters, border fighters, who criticise him because it is not ‘our’ war.
What did we do in South West Africa (Namibia)?
Was it ever ‘our’ war?
As with the Bush War, politics is involved, and it is forgotten who is really suffering.
Innocent civilians.

The reality?

“As we speak, people are losing limbs, people are dying,” he said in the parking lot.
Yes, and while I’m writing, innocent children are being killed.
When we met in the parking area on Saturday, his dark eyes were calmer than the first time we spoke.
When he told me what it was like to shoot someone. The victim’s eyes, his screams…
Screams that keep him awake at night.

Unnecessary war

The unnecessary war between Russia and Ukraine should also keep the world awake.
Peace should be high on the agenda for Trump, Putin, and Zelensky.
Not war.
But you only realise that when you look into the eyes of a 25-year-old soldier who survived the carnage.

ALSO READ:

EXCLUSIVE: SA fighter in Ukraine – “War is not meant for Saints…”

Young Middelburg sportsman injured in Russian drone attack in Ukraine