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Open letter of a Ukrainian tank commander to the mother of a Russian tanker

Article by: Alexey Chaban
Translated by: Svitlana Gusak

It so happened that in a tank battle on 22 January 2014 on the territory of my country, our crew was one second luckier than your son’s crew (he is in the photo). We blew up their tank, their operator was confused and your son (the tank commander) and the gunner came out unharmed. When they climbed out of the disabled vehicle all we had to do was push a button in our tank to make the three of them history. But we did not kill them, we let them go. Your son left his mobile in the tank where I found your phone number, so I decided to write a letter to you.

There are a lot of problems in our country, which you can probably imagine or may be aware of. Corruption, unlawfulness, crime, poverty and unemployment affect Ukraine like a cancer.

The people are tired of this. We started our struggle for a better life for us and our children. We kicked out this criminal of a President, Yanukovych, and want to develop a state governed by the rule of law. We simply want a better life. There are no fascists here. We don’t care what language our citizens speak. We don’t eat babies or bullfinches. We don‘t rape the elderly or disabled. We are absolutely normal people. We love our homeland, our children and our life. We are peaceful people. We never ever attacked anyone. Please. Better late than never. Tell your son that earning your bread by killing other people is NOT good. Let him go home and find another job. Let him take one or two of his comrades-in-arms with him. This will make it easier for us. Let him live his life in peace and stay out of this wrongdoing.

Let the skies above you be peaceful.

Yours truly,

Aleksey

I am asking those who have read this Facebook post to pass along this letter to the tank commander’s mother. I only have her telephone number +7952*******. Let other women read this letter whose phone number I found in this discarded mobile. Marina +7920*******, Y Y 8920******* and Golubiatnikova Taniata, residing at Geroyev Serevraykov Street, … in an unknown city.

Translated by: Svitlana Gusak
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