The Veteran Development Centre of Poltava Polytechnic hosted a meeting between students of different structural units, cadets of the Military Training Department of multidisciplinary classical university and representatives of the Third Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who shared their stories of military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the full-scale invasion and told the young people about the peculiarities of the unit’s internal culture. The students were actively interested in the conditions of recruitment and service in the Third Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the beginning of the event, Vice-Rector for Scientific, Pedagogical and Educational Work, Candidate of Military Sciences Anatolii Martynenko introduced the speakers of today’s meeting, inviting the initiative and purposeful students of Poltava Polytechnic to join the discussion and ask questions during the question-and-answer session. The Vice-Rector thanked the defenders for holding such national-patriotic educational events and communication.
The servicemen with call signs “Student”, “Gatz” and “Night” shared their experience in military affairs, telling about the history of the creation, assignment and effective combat activity of the Third Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In particular, a warrior with the call sign “Student” is authorised to work as an instructor, and another soldier with the eloquent call sign “Night” is a representative of the youth organisation “Centuria”, which is part of the Third Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to them, it is extremely important for the defenders to protect civilians, preserve the nation and maintain a strong national spirit. That is why the brigade has a youth organisation called Centuria, which educates young people aged 14 to 18. Only after reaching the age of 18 does everyone have to decide for themselves whether to pursue a career in the military or work for post-war reconstruction.
“When planning our meeting today, we expect to communicate, that is, my friend and I are ready to answer any of your questions about our current life at war, often at zero line, in the difficult situation that is currently happening around our country. There are no wrong answers, just as there are no wrong questions, so we will be able to communicate freely.
Unfortunately, the war touches everyone, and none of us is to blame for the fact that the enemy has come to our land, the enemy invasion is here, not somewhere else, evil is among us and it is everywhere in the world. When we communicate with you, our goal is not primarily to recruit to the Third Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but to value live communication and talk about sore subjects,” – say the soldiers.
The defenders, who performed a number of extremely difficult combat operations in Bakhmut, Donetsk and dozens of other areas, together with students of Poltava Polytechnic, reflected on the deep meanings and interpretations of the concept of “nation”.
For the speakers, the key feature of belonging to a nation is the same blood, so an open handshake just below the elbow remains an important attribute of greeting in the brigade as a demonstration of openness, and, in their opinion, the words of the outstanding Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, who clearly articulated this capacious concept in his famous poem “To my fellow-countrymen, in Ukraine and not in Ukraine, living, dead and as yet unborn”, were truly prophetic.
“Our work is quite simple, we continue the struggle of our glorious predecessors – the Kholodny Yar partisans, the Carpathian Sich cossacks, the Divisionalists, because the war has been going on for more than three or ten years, it has been going on for more than three centuries. Muscovy wants to completely destroy our nation, and together we continue to fight for the existence of our nation. It is actually a great honour for us to continue the struggle of our predecessors, we do it without fear, although sometimes it is scary, very scary, but we continue to persistently beat the enemy.
For us, there is no greater motivation than the struggle for the existence of our nation in the world, and we do not even think about giving up, losing, etc. Because if we lose our Ukraine, we will not build a new Kyiv, Poltava, or any other city, because our history, language, culture, spiritual heritage, and our unbreakable nation will cease to exist,” – shared their motivation defenders of Ukraine.
Afterwards, the students had the opportunity to ask the soldiers a number of topical questions and receive detailed answers, in particular, the speakers noted the power of national and patriotic education of modern youth, their motivation and patriotic attitude. The main messages of the communication included the need to save innocent civilians, as people remain hostages to non-peaceful military circumstances, and for the military to be clear about why they often stand up to protect the state’s interests to their last breath.
It should be recalled that the Veteran Development Centre also hosted a meeting with members of the “Azov” Special Forces Brigade.
Earlier, the Veteran Development Centre taught how to establish communication and legal interaction with war veterans, the defenders learned about the educational, legal and social protection opportunities available at the Veteran Development Centre of Poltava Polytechnic, discussed the peculiarities of communication with combatants and those traumatised by war, as well as held a creative meeting with Pavlo Kazarin.
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National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
