Oleg Sentsov, the filmmaker-turned-soldier who shot down Russian helicopters

Calm, determined, Oleg Sentsov, during the war, is transformed into a real soldier. These days, he patrols the “grey zone,” as he calls it, in the Bagmut and Lisitsansk regions as part of a unit that shoots down enemy helicopters. “They fly very low. So when a helicopter appears above the trees, Sensov says, You only have two or three seconds at most to fire the rocket. »

Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker who had been a symbol of Maidan’s “revolution of dignity,” was for five years one of the most famous political prisoners in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. 2018 Sakharov Prize, committed to regional security on February 24, this army of volunteers joined Ukrainian forces in the face of Russian aggression. Discovered by world, After two weeks of clashes, near a checkpoint in the kyiv region, the world-renowned artist is heading to Kramatorsk, Donetsk province, this time after four months of war. Sentsov left the territorial defense. “So boring [son] taste”Join the special forces.

Since the first days of the war, the Ukrainian filmmaker and activist from Crimea has shown signs of impatience to go to war. After a week at the checkpoint, 45-year-old Sentsov, without any military experience, became the deputy commander of the division commanded by Colonel Arkadych and joined the mobile regional security group that roamed the first front line. A Russian army ultimately failed to capture the Ukrainian capital.

“Maximum Specialties”

Oleg Sentsov is now roaming the front lines of the Donbass with Stinger missiles. His special forces unit roams the fringes restlessly, sometimes trying to infiltrate the no-man’s land between the Ukrainian and Russian borders to carry out reconnaissance missions. “Catch a Helicopter”. The artist takes the war very seriously: he returned from a training course in the west of the country, shooting Stukna and Javelin anti-tank rocket launchers. “In war, to be useful, He observes, It is necessary to get maximum specials. »

As many Ukrainian fighters have encountered since the February 24 invasion, and unanimously after the end of the Kiev battle and the first Russian military defeat, Oleg Sentsov is part of a long war logic. “To be or not to be is the only question. [Etre ou ne pas être]. “This is a war for the survival of Ukraine.”He said in March. “I hate predictions, but I think it will take at least two to three years to liberate all Ukrainian territories”He made the comments today in Kramatorsk.

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