By Scott McLean, Sarah Dean and Dennis Lapin, CNN
On the outskirts of Kyiv, previous limitless rows of Soviet-style residence blocks, there’s a sterile rehabilitation middle stuffed with Ukrainian troops injured on the entrance strains.
There are sufferers with nerve harm, burns, breaks, even an amputated leg — and it appears virtually everybody’s inked legs and arms are noticed with shrapnel wounds.
Stepan Kaplunov lies on a mattress with a medieval-looking contraption transferring his leg forwards and backwards — each legs have been damaged in battle when a tank shell exploded subsequent to him.
Sporting a shaved head, beard and a sleeve of tattoos, he seems like each different Ukrainian soldier within the room — besides that Kaplunov is definitely Russian. It’s the one citizenship he holds.
Born in Ivanovo, about 150 miles northeast of Moscow, he grew up in Russia’s far north and later joined the Russian navy, serving a tour of obligation in Syria. He confirmed us his identification papers to show his Russian start.
He described himself as an “opponent of the Russian authorities and the presidential regime,” and described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “tyrant who’s pining to revive the USSR.”
But, Kaplunov says, he by no means felt compelled to behave on his opposition, till 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine — seizing Crimea and a part of the Donbas area.
It moved me,” he informed CNN by a translator. “I’m not going to say that 100% of my motivation is precisely justice. There’s a predisposition in folks, individuals who like journey, danger taking. I had been a soldier earlier than and wished to use my expertise, and I had sympathy for Ukraine, I believed Ukraine was proper and deserved to be helped.”
So, he crossed the border, and joined up with the Azov Battalion — then a ragtag militia of Ukraine’s most hardcore fighters, lots of whom have been ultra-nationalists, and white supremacists.
Kaplunov says he was drawn to the battalion as a result of it was the best one for foreigners to affix and he knew folks in it already, versus far-right ideology.
“I didn’t have a lot of a alternative,” he mentioned. “Perhaps I might have gone to a different battalion or a daily Ukrainian navy unit, however I solely had acquaintances in Azov, so I went there.”
Fears of seize
Azov has since folded into the common Ukrainian navy and tried to distance itself from its extremist origins, although Russia nonetheless views the battalion as a band of neo-Nazis.
Civilians who’ve fled preventing through Russian-held territory have reported being checked for tattoos which may point out ties to the Azov Battalion or to far-right nationalism.
Kaplunov, who says he left Azov after two years, and bounced round different models of the Ukrainian navy, proudly sports activities a “Born to Kill” tattoo on his left arm, and the German phrase “Sieg Oder Tod,” that means, “victory or loss of life,” a battle cry broadly used all through historical past, but in addition linked to the Third Reich.
“That’s my motto in life. I preferred the best way it sounded and the best way it was written,” he mentioned.
CNN has contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Protection and the Azov Battalion for remark.
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February, Kaplunov says he discovered himself defending a village within the jap suburbs of Kyiv with a rifle and a rocket launcher. Helmet-cam video he offered to CNN exhibits shut calls, injured colleagues and burnt-out Russian tanks. Ultimately his luck ran out, and he was hit with a tank shell.
“I keep in mind that I used to be very badly concussed, and my ears have been bleeding. Plus, I had concussion of all inside organs and a shrapnel wound in my eye. So once I got here to my senses after just a few seconds, I couldn’t see something,” he recalled. “I attempted to crawl away and wished to blow myself up with a grenade to keep away from being taken prisoner.”
Kaplunov says he would relatively have died than have been captured as a result of he feared if he was caught, he would have been killed, tortured or imprisoned. A regulation handed this month by the Russian parliament on state treason explicitly bars Russian residents from preventing in any navy battle in opposition to Russia — punishable by as much as 20 years behind bars. It additionally outlaws the show of Nazi emblems.
‘I don’t must show something’
In 2019, a preferred pro-Russian weblog claimed that Kaplunov had a tattoo of Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler on his arm, and a swastika on his chest. CNN discovered the declare after assembly with Kaplunov twice. Neither of his arms present a Himmler tattoo, and on a subsequent video name, he denied having a swastika or every other Nazi imagery on his chest, although he refused to show it.
“I don’t wish to pull my shirt off. However I don’t have this tattoo,” he mentioned. “I don’t must show something to anybody.”
He overtly describes himself as a “Ukrainian nationalist” however says he has by no means held neo-Nazi or white supremacist views.
His case illustrates the advanced realities of this conflict, and the ideological and propaganda conflict being waged in parallel to the real-life battlefield.
Russia has sought to justify and impress public help for its “particular navy operation” by magnifying a small minority of far-right extremists in Ukraine. Ukrainian officers routinely accuse Russians of being racists and neo-Nazis bent on wiping out the Ukrainian folks. In April, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry tweeted: “The Russian Nazis declared a conflict of extermination on Ukraine.”
Kaplunov’s determination to struggle in opposition to his personal nation value him some mates again in Russia. He says others quietly supported him. He has additionally earned the ire of the Russian state. His title was revealed by the Russian authorities’s official newspaper on an inventory of greater than 200 folks suspected by the federal government of terrorism, or extremist actions.
His mother and father are nonetheless in Russia, and Kaplunov says they’ve been visited by Russian safety providers, however he’s by no means anxious about their security.
“Russia, in fact, is a rustic of a sure lawlessness, however nonetheless some norms and rights are revered there. So my mother and father haven’t any issues in any respect,” he mentioned.
Ukraine is his house now, and he sees his future right here, although Kaplunov nonetheless doesn’t have a Ukrainian passport, nor does he really feel significantly Ukrainian. He’s nonetheless Russian.
“I like Ukraine very a lot,” he mentioned. “However I nonetheless have mother and father and grandparents. All Russian.”
To Vlad Pachka, his Ukrainian comrade within the mattress subsequent to his on the rehab centre, it doesn’t matter.
“Even if in his nation he’s thought of a legal, a mercenary, there’s at all times a mattress for him in my home, he’ll at all times be fed, as a result of he’s defending my house,” Pachka mentioned.
Kaplunov is aware of he’ll seemingly by no means be capable to return to Russia, nor can he return to the entrance strains anytime quickly. His accidents are intensive. Each his legs have been damaged, he can’t stroll with out crutches, his hand is disfigured, and is eyes are very delicate to mild.
His restoration will take months, if not longer. However he says when he will get again to full well being, he’s going straight again to conflict.
The-CNN-Wire
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