They are tirelessly hunted by Putin’s people, their work is dangerous and secret. It is their time to speak
Standing in the doorway of the Russian military registration and enlistment office in occupied Donetsk, Dmytro was glad that the summer sun was to blame for the nervous sweat on the back of his neck. He was barely old enough to vote, but this was the second time Dmytro had sworn allegiance to the flag. His Ukrainian military intelligence supervisor waited with bated breath to see if they would be fooled by President Putin’s ploy.
Last spring, he joined the ‘Resistance of the Nation’ movement, a battalion group of Ukrainian partisans led by ‘Gonta’, a captain of the reconnaissance company of the Azov regiment. Heavily wounded in urban combat during the fierce defense of Mariupol with his unit, Gonta was stuck behind enemy lines, but was supported by friendly locals who secretly transported him from house to house until he could recover.
Starting with this network of good civilians, Gonta has since developed its guerrilla movement. This is one of many groups in the occupied territory of Ukraine.
Today, these men and women are leading Ukraine’s counteroffensive from behind enemy lines: blowing up bridges, destroying supply chains, eliminating collaborators, and identifying targets for British Storm Shadow missiles fired by Ukrainian pilots. The less courageous or less capable are also playing their part, painting graffiti against Russian troops, scattering tire spikes along supply routes, and secretly sending reports on their movements.
They are highly classified and are relentlessly hunted by Russian intelligence services, but together with Ukraine’s military intelligence, the GUR, they agreed to tell The Times about their missions in the hope of recruiting more members before the main assault.
“Now is the time for maximum effort”
“Helping our troops in the counteroffensive to regain our territories is our priority,” Gonta said. “This is the right time for us to do our best, we are trying to inflict maximum damage on the enemy to make life easier for the guys at the front.”
Some actions take months to plan. On June 21, a sabotage group blew up a railroad crossing deep in occupied Crimea, near the city of Feodosia, again severing the peninsula’s railroad connection with Russia after last year’s attack on the Kerch Bridge.
“We have prepared him for a counteroffensive,” Gonta said, adding that the organization took three months and the action was carried out just as Kyiv intensified probing attacks by mechanized brigades at the front. “We want to harm the enemy as much as possible, reduce some of their capabilities on the front line, disrupt logistics, break morale, and give them a sense of insecurity.”
Operation Dmitry took even longer. Russian recruiters paid scant attention to the young man from Donbas on that hot summer day last year. They asked him a few questions about his short life to date and recorded his personal data. He had no criminal record and no public record of any ideology. They handed him a form with instructions to report for duty before basic training, across the border in Rostov-on-Don. Just another Donbas boy for the meat grinder.
But Dmytro was different. After eight years of living under Russian occupation, the transition from hybrid warfare to full-scale invasion gave him a chance to shake off his fascination with the Kremlin-backed mafia that controlled his city, seizing businesses and dismantling entire industries to sell to Russia.
Beatings have been commonplace in separatist-controlled parts of Donbas since 2014, but the full-scale invasion has unleashed a new savagery, with widespread reports of rape, torture and dismemberment.
“This is the story of Indiana Jones”
Using encrypted messages on Telegram, Dmytro responded to a Ukrainian call for partisans to fight the Russian occupiers in the occupied territories. It was a dangerous, secretive job, with no glory or pay, except for the odd cryptocurrency transfer for equipment. Anything else would have given him away to the occupiers. Instructions, locations of weapons caches, and video instructions on how to make explosives will be sent via Telegram. He was alone.
“These people in the occupied territories are taking incredible risks, but we cannot give them a medal, a gift, or an official salary. Now they think they are alone.”Khmel, a Ukrainian intelligence officer who participated in the operation, said. “After this interview, they will realize that people in the West read about them, remember them. They will realize that we have friends.”
Dmytro was vetted by the DIU and proved to be a capable operator, easily completing entry-level tasks such as graffiti and setting fire to vehicles marked with the pro-war “Z” sign. Soon he was bloodied because of the “liquidation” of a collaborator official. The business card of the “Resistance to the Nation ” contains the old emblem of the Azov regiment: a stylized trident, the symbol of Ukraine, over the Cossack symbol “Idea of the Nation,” a logo controversial because of its resemblance to the Wolfsangel used by ultranationalist groups. Russia tried to use this symbol as proof of Nazi ideology, forcing the Azov regiment to abandon it last year in favor of a simple trident.
“His legend was good – he was an ordinary boy from Donbas with a job, no pro-Ukrainian history and no outstanding details in his biography – so Gonta asked him to join the Russian army,” Khmel said.
“He had two months of thorough training [with the Russians] in Rostov-on-Don, then the recruits were transferred back to Donbas to a base where they would be assigned to different units. At that moment, they were one or two weeks before the battle with our guys. And they were within the range of our Himars missiles.”
Dmytro told the DIU that there were high-ranking officers at the base, including colonels. According to him, the goal was very significant.
“He sent us a message and coordinates, but the problem was that he also had to be at the station. So he sent us his coordinates, he had no choice – he knew we would strike, but he didn’t know when and where the Himars would come. When the attack started, we lost contact with him.”Khmel said, shaking his head.
And yet Dmytro survived. Three days later, he contacted the GUR from a Russian field hospital. He told them that he was wounded but would recover. Knowing that the Himars would be hit, he left the base as soon as the first missile hit it a few weeks ago, killing other fellow recruits. The explosion of one of the next missiles hit him, but he managed to run away with enough distance between himself and the impact zone to avoid being seriously injured.
“We had difficult conversations with Gonta about this mission, we didn’t know when we chose him how we would use him. But when he told us what was going to happen at that moment, it was a huge chance. We think we killed between 60 and 100 Russian soldiers there,” Khmel said, joking that Dmytro is a good soldier and will probably be promoted in the Russian army. There are other guerrillas busy infiltrating the Russian army, which is also desperate for recruits, he said.
This is the story of Indiana Jones. It’s about risk and adrenaline, and when you want to kill an enemy while growing in our network, you want to surprise yourself.
Over the past month, the counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces has already recaptured about 50 square miles of Zaporizhzhia region, where the “Resistance of the Nation” is operating.
But a successful mission can have unforeseen consequences. On June 11, Gonta’s fighters blew up a railway bridge near the village of Yakymivka, which led to the logistics hub of Melitopol. The railroad was being used to transfer anti-aircraft munitions from Crimea to Russian defenses in the region, and the Russians were furious.
“The Russians turned over all the villages nearby, looking for our people. It’s a different kind of risk from sending coordinates when you’re sitting between your new Russian comrades, but you have to work with explosives, then you have to film the result.”Khmel said. “All the people, I mean all the people [there], were beaten by the Russians. This is their usual practice.”
However, in the occupied territory, guerrillas work at regular jobs and move freely, easily passing through Russian checkpoints. They have ways to conceal their explosives, but the most dangerous thing to carry is a Resistance of the Nation business card, which they leave at the site of a successful mission, Gonta said.
“Russians stopped and searched me many times at checkpoints. This is quite normal, we are used to such things. At first, it made me anxious, but now, since I live in this atmosphere all the time, I just do it with indifference.”He explained. “We don’t throw a lighted Molotov cocktail into a car, we disguise it, we have our own ways, and it usually doesn’t raise any suspicions during a search. But if they find this map… It will be difficult to avoid punishment”.
“All Ukrainians should help”
Gonta’s guerrillas are divided into a smaller group that conducts the most dangerous operations and a broader support base that provides reconnaissance and car bombings, including 27 in the past month, Khmel said. Sometimes their goals are much bigger, and the results are impressive.
On June 2, in the occupied seaside city of Berdiansk, a man in civilian clothes slipped out of his office to take a walk by the sea, drink coffee and cigarettes. When he noticed the FSB counter-surveillance group of the Russian special services parked near the port, he moved along the embankment in the opposite direction. It was unfortunate that he could not see the target he reported – a 50-meter bulk carrier loaded with ammunition – but he could clearly see the port where it was unloading.
He paused and put the phone away. His video missed the Storm Shadow cruise missile, but captured its aftermath – a powerful explosion and a mushroom-shaped cloud. The missile was on target, he reported via Telegram, and left the scene.
Each such action will save the lives of soldiers during the main assault of the counteroffensive, the DIU said, calling on more Ukrainians to join the national resistance.
“We have a unique moment to gather active people in the occupied territories, and it has to be now. The counteroffensive will last for more than a week: it will be difficult, it will last until the fall.”Khmel said.
All Ukrainians should help our soldiers liberate our country, it is not the responsibility of any colonels or brigades. This is the work of all Ukrainians this summer to make the counteroffensive successful.
Translation: InfoLight.UA Research and Analysis Group
