Yevhenii L. Telnov (Usach)

Yevhen Lvivovych Telnov was born on November 20, 1961, in Kirovohrad. Until May 1982, he served in the 472nd convoy regiment of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (military unit 7429, Kyiv). He was awarded the badge "For Distinction in Service" of the II degree. After being discharged, he worked as a lathe operator at the Kirovohrad radio manufacturing plant, and from 1989, he was a CNC machine setter. At the same time, from 1984 to 1987, he studied part-time at the Kirovohrad Institute of Agricultural Engineering, majoring in "Metal Cutting." From July 1991 to February 1992, he worked as a sports instructor at the Kirovohrad DOSAAF. Subsequently, he engaged in entrepreneurial activities. With the onset of Russian aggression against Ukraine, Yevhen Lvivovych closed his business, and on June 10, 2014, he signed a contract to serve in the military reserve of the National Guard of Ukraine and was assigned to the special forces battalion "Donbas." From July 13, he was on a mission in the ATO area, participating in combat operations to liberate Artemivsk, Popasna, and Ilovaisk. On August 24 in Ilovaisk, he sustained a shrapnel wound to his left arm but did not leave his unit. During the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Ilovaisk, when the battalion's column came under heavy fire near the village of Chervonosilsk, he destroyed two enemy tanks as part of his unit, and later, together with a comrade with the call sign Brest, destroyed two enemy BMD-2 armored personnel carriers, killing or capturing the crews of these vehicles—servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Finding himself surrounded by the enemy in Chervonosilsk, he refused to surrender and, along with Brest and a small group of other fighters from "Donbas," broke through, armed, to his troops and reached the battalion's base in Kurakhove on August 31. In October 2014, Yevhen Lvivovych participated in the extraordinary parliamentary elections, running for the People's Deputy of Ukraine from the single-member district No. 100 in the Kirovohrad region. In one of the interviews before the elections, he said: "I am often asked why I went there at 52 years old? To be honest, this question continues to surprise me. If not me, then who? Our children? If everyone thinks 'It doesn't concern me,' 'I don't need it,' soon foreign troops will be standing under Kirovohrad. In our battalion, there was a guy from a small town near Donetsk (he is now in captivity), and when his hometown was shelled, he said: 'They deserve it.' I was very surprised, and he explained: 'When there were 20 separatists in the city, I called: 'Let's go beat them up, drive them out of our land.' No one wanted to intervene, to get into a conflict; everyone thought it would be fine without them. It wasn't fine…' So I think the same: you can't sit and wait for someone to do something for you—you have to go and do it. Otherwise, it will be the same with Kirovohrad." At the beginning of 2015, he was re-enlisted in the unit as called up for military service by mobilization. On February 15, near the village of Shyrokyne in the Novoazovsk district of Donetsk region, when a column of one of the battalion "Donbas" units fell into an enemy ambush, soldier Telnov saved a seriously wounded comrade with the call sign Aver, pulling him out from under heavy fire. That same day, during the battle, Yevhen Lvivovych died a hero's death. Aver: "I am currently in the hospital and crying. Usach is the only one who went to pull me out when I was wounded. I lay unconscious, with a bloody arm, and then saw all the equipment turning back. At that moment, I realized that I had been left behind because I was the last near the separatist post. I lay there thinking that my mission in this war was over. Around me, mines, AGS grenades, and RPGs were exploding. The machine gunner and sniper did not stop firing at me for a second. Nearby was a KrAZ, from which I jumped, and in that KrAZ was my friend Tsar. A sniper hit him right in the left eye. I lay there for about 1.5 hours. And suddenly I heard a familiar voice: it was Usach. He shouted: 'Who is left ahead?' You won't believe how happy I was to hear that voice. I shouted that I was still alive, but I couldn't move, to which he replied: 'Lie down, I'm coming.' It was about 100 meters to go. I shouted: 'Don't, the sniper and KKM are working.' I looked and saw him coming half-crouched. I don't know where I got the strength, but I crawled to meet him. When we met, he took me under the arm and began to pull me back while shooting. Coming towards us were Sviatoslav, Svyat, and Karpo. They put me in a BTR and sent me to the rear. After arriving at the hospital, I learned that Usach had died. I swear to everyone I have—I will not forget him. He saved my life. Rest in peace, and may the earth be soft for you. Glory to the Heroes!" Senior Sergeant Dmytro Babkin, commander of the platoon of the NGU "Donbas": "I had the honor of personally knowing both Oleksandr Fedorchenko (Brest) and Yevhen Telnov (Usach)—ordinary men, true heroes, without pathos and unnecessary words! When Ivan Sotnyk and I, still in Petrivtsi, learned about Usach's death in Shyrokyne, we were in such shock that it's hard to convey… Without exaggeration, I can say that by that time, Usach had already become the face of the battalion, a legendary person, a talisman, if you will. The photo of him, unshaven and tired, sitting in a field with a cigarette in his mouth, probably circulated through all the media. People then saw the real warriors who defended Ukraine, and they were not muscular young guys, but ordinary men, simple and sincere… Ivan Sotnyk had only 2 months left to live… And he would die 300 meters from where Usach was killed—in Shyrokyne…"