Two 16-year-old brothers from Kharkov, Kirill and Daniil Yakovlev, saw a sticker from the Patriots of Ukraine organization at a bus stop back in 2011 and became interested. It was that sticker that later radically changed their lives.
One of the brothers, Kirill, told ICTV Facts how he went from a guy with hot blood in his head to a volunteer in the ranks of Azov, and then a sniper in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
— Kirill, tell us how you and your brother, young Kharkov guys from a Russian-speaking city, ended up in the Patriots of Ukraine organization?
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Back in 2011, my brother and I joined an organization called Patriots of Ukraine. This is a paramilitary organization headed by Andrei Biletsky — Now he is the commander of the 3rd separate assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We were 16 years old then. We had knife fighting training, an obstacle course, and so on.
They told us the history of Ukraine, explained what Ukrainian holidays are. Why February 23 — This is not our holiday. And May 9 also has nothing to do with Ukraine. They said that two military powers fought, and Ukraine only suffered from this. Then my brother and I began to delve into it ourselves, reading literature.
Photo from the personal archive of the Yakovlevs
— How did your parents react to this?
Our mother didn’t really like our hobby. We are 16 years old, we go somewhere, we do something. Mom was not there and therefore did not understand what we were doing there. But then I came to terms with it. Moreover, we didn’t do anything wrong.
— You were at Euromaidan in Kyiv?
Yes, first we were here in Kharkov. But then my brother and I went to Kyiv. We bought ourselves gas masks and construction helmets, sent them by mail, and then went by train so as not to arouse suspicion. My parents were not against our participation in Euromaidan. We were 19 years old then, we studied at the medical college of the Kharkov National Medical University.
We stayed in Kyiv for only a few days — January 19-21, 2014. I remember sitting on the barricades near the Lobanovsky stadium, the tires were burning, and we huddled together and warmed ourselves.
— Then you returned to Kharkov?
And when we returned to Kharkov, Andrei Biletsky gathered everyone and we went to knock the Oplot organization out of their club. Stronghold — these are those who openly opposed Euromaidan and subsequently fought for “DPR”.
In Kharkov, the first clashes began on March 1, 2014. Then we, pro-Ukrainian activists, occupied the Kharkov regional administration, but Anti-Maidan and the so-called titushki attacked us. They received reinforcements from Russian Belgorod.
The second battle took place on March 14, 2014 on Rymarskaya. I wasn't there, my brother was. Then pro-Russian forces, among them the militant Motorola, with weapons and machine guns attacked the office of the Patriots of Ukraine organization in order to occupy this premises. But in the end, Oplot ended up with two 200s. After this, Mayor Kernes arrived and began to negotiate with Biletsky. It was decided that our people were leaving. But as soon as they left, they immediately took everyone to the police station, where they beat and interrogated them.
Photo from the personal archive of the Yakovlevs
— Russian invasion of Donbass. When did you first get to the front?
And already at the beginning of May 2014, Andrei Biletsky said that they could give us weapons, register us in a police battalion and go to the front. He also said that if anyone doesn’t want to go, he will understand. But it so happened that the next day even more people came. And now about 56 of us have already left for Mariupol. I didn't get there — I was in Kharkov, but my brother went. Then they took the so-called Minister of Defense “DPR” Igor Khakmizyanov, Oleg Lyashko later interrogated him.
At the beginning of June, I called the commanders and said that I wanted to fight, because before that I was sitting at headquarters, dealing with mobilization issues. On June 3, I arrived at the base in Berdyansk, and on June 13, Mariupol was re-liberated. I was lucky to get there, because I myself climbed into the car of Dmitry Korchinsky, who was just on his way to Mariupol. So I got to the airport, got out of the car and just got into line. I only had a machine gun, but a normal helmet and no armor
On August 4, 2014, there was the Maryinsk operation, where I was also there. We then, I don’t remember with which brigade, liberated Marinka, and after that it was under Ukraine until the large-scale invasion.
I have a reward for the defense of Mariupol. I didn’t get to Ilovaisk, but I was nearby, helping the wounded. Was in positions near Shirokino.
But in 2015 Azov was withdrawn. I was transferred to headquarters, and until 2017 I served at headquarters. Then I was discharged.
— What did you do then?
I started blogging, we visited orphanages, helped children. They helped fight the raiders and went on marches.
— February 24, 2022 — where did you find yourself on the morning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine?
I was working in Kyiv then. We knew something was coming. My brother calls me at half past four and says: Get up, the war has begun.
The first thing they did was decide to take my mother out, because the locals could easily turn her in for her pro-Ukrainian position. Mom raised local “zhdunov”, gave them a light if they started saying something for Russia. Besides, everyone knew that her sons were from Azov.
Photo from the personal archive of the Yakovlevs
As soon as my mother was taken far into Ukraine, the very next day my brother and I left for Kyiv. It was so surprising, the highway towards Lvov was clogged with cars, and almost no one was driving towards Kyiv.
In Kyiv, at first we helped evacuate people. Once we were asked to take out three 15-year-old girls, they lived near Kiev on Sofievskaya Borshchagovka, and there were already shelling, it was scary.
My brother once left for positions near Kiev without me — Kalinovka village, near Makarov. I went with the SSO officers (Special Operations Forces). We ran into a Russian tank — They went into the forest to make an ambush, but in the end they themselves were ambushed. The Russians began to work on them. The guys miraculously managed to evacuate, although two SSO officers were injured. Moreover, my brother arrived in an ordinary white car, just with a gun. And the guys from the MTR were well packed. As a result, they were injured.
We went to carry out a clean-up operation in the village of Makovishche when the occupiers left there.
For a long time my brother and I couldn’t find a unit to join, but we didn’t want to go through the TCC.
In 2022, we bought ourselves sniper rifles and learned to shoot. Then we went to positions in Velikaya Novoselka, Vremevka, Donetsk region. They almost killed us there.
In Velikaya Novoselka we managed to pull out our 200th, which had been lying there for a month.
— Tell us more…
We couldn't pick him up — the body lay between our positions and the enemy’s positions, exactly in the middle. Well, I came up with a plan: I asked my comrades for fuel, money and a stretcher. I found local alcoholics in Velikaya Novoselka and explained to them what to do. He said that I would give each of the four 2.5 thousand UAH. And they pulled out our two hundredth, even the shelling began, but they carried it out. And they got their money. I wanted to film the drone as they carried it out, but the Russians jammed the drone, so it didn’t work.
The body was returned to his mother, because he had been missing for a month.
— Tell us, we were in very hot places? in Avdeevka, Bakhmut…
We were in Bakhmut last May. We stopped in for three days and worked like snipers.
— It's hard to learn to be a sniper?
The main thing here — wish. If you have the desire, you can learn everything. We bought our own weapons with our own money, we bought the cartridges ourselves. We went to train. I constantly asked my sniper friends for advice. I have a friend who is a sniper from Azov, without a leg. I could pester him with questions for hours. And he explained to me over the phone in dozens of voice messages what and how to do.
Being a sniper is very expensive. If a rifle, for example, costs 100 thousand, and then what needs to be purchased on top of it — worth a million. It would be easier if we gave you everything you need to buy, and you buy the rifle yourself, then it would be much easier. Well…
To say that being a sniper is harder than being an infantryman is also not correct. Infantry, by the way, does the most digging.
— Can you remember some moment when it was very scary?
In Kupyansk a mine almost killed me. We went into position and were supposed to cover the infantry during the assault on June 19th. And before we had time to leave, a drone copied us and aimed a mortar. It's good that everything turned out to be wet pants.
