Illustration: #OksanaDrachkovska
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After failure on the battlefield, the Russian army often has to abandon its equipment and flee. In such cases, Ukrainian civilians hurry up and try to find a worthy use for the enemy vehicles: for example, they hand them over to the Ukrainian military.
Svitlana lives in Velyka Dymerka, Kyiv Oblast, where the Russians stopped in March 2022. Once, she noticed a Russian fuel truck on the highway with a flat tire and shot doors and decided to see what was inside. A key was left, so Svitlana started the car and drove off. There was also a hose behind the vehicle that the Russians used to refuel their tanks. The girl drove off the road into a field but didn't risk going further by herself. Instead, she asked her neighbor Valentyn for help. Together, they hid a fuel truck with about 700 liters of fuel left.
The neighbors learned about it quite quickly and began to take fuel little by little for their own needs. Svitlana and Valentyn wanted to find a better use for their "trophy", so they took the fuel truck to the nearest hospital, where there were many Ukrainian soldiers. The doctors were left with enough diesel fuel to operate the facility for a week.
Oleksiy committed another noble theft from Irpin. His acquaintance had called him and said that there was a broken enemy column on the bridge, and there were intact vehicles with running engines. The man decided that everything could be used in the household, so he went to the bridge despite the fear. He found a lot of weapons, documents, and walkie-talkies in one of the KAMAZ trucks: the occupiers had fled so quickly that they had left all their belongings behind and hadn't even shut down the engine. Next, Oleksiy surprised the Ukrainian military at the checkpoint when he drove his prey to them. He was awarded a call sign for this - Krasava (Good Fellow).
Such help from civilians was crucial for the Armed Forces of Ukraine: the Russians in Kyiv Oblast had significant problems with supply columns, as they often lacked fuel and provisions. Therefore, destroying them or stealing fuel tankers and trucks significantly complicates the life of the occupiers.