Colonel Rustam Saifullin, the Hero of Russia and the owner of the badge of special distinction — the Gold Star medal, took part in the special operation in Ukraine from the first days. It couldn't have been any other way. Rustam Galievich is a military man with 20 years of experience. He went through Chechnya, Syria, Georgia. In Donbass, the commander of the 40th engineer-sapper regiment of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District was wounded twice. And both times heroically, literally bleeding, he continued to lead the crossing of Russian troops through water barriers to the end.
During the second wound, the colonel lost both legs. Now he continues rehabilitation and passes on the experience of young people as deputy head of the Tyumen Higher Military Engineering Command School. But in the future he is going to return to the front, to the special operation zone. "My guys are there," the commander says.
— Rustam Galievich, do they become heroes or are they born?
— When I meet with schoolchildren and students, I always say: I was also a student, a cadet, a junior officer. For me, the title of Hero of Russia, Hero of the Soviet Union was something unattainable. This is the guiding star to which we must go. I never thought that I would become a colonel, a Hero of Russia, and I believe that heroes are not born, but become. It is very hard work to carry out the tasks set for yourself and the personnel day after day.
I was raised by my grandfather, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Minach Iskandarovich Sayfullin. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1940, and only in 1947 he was demobilized after the defeat of militaristic Japan. Grandfather visited Pyongyang, North Korea. For me, a schoolboy, grandfather was a landmark. His awards are still kept in the family, I know his entire track record. As a senior sergeant, my grandfather returned to the village as a tractor driver and rose to the chairman of the collective farm. Do you understand what kind of people there were! We survived such a war, and then the country was raised. We still have to grow up to them. And in the 7th grade I watched the movie "Officers", the hero of which utters the famous words "There is such a profession — to defend the Motherland." From that moment on, I decided that I would be a military man.
— You come from the village of Vagai, Tyumen region, and have been accustomed to hard peasant labor since childhood. Did it help during the years of service?
— In the village we had a large farm — horses, cows, sheep. In childhood, responsibility is brought up together with difficulty. Because you are a schoolboy and you have to feed the cattle in the morning and in the evening, take them to pasture, and bring them to drink in winter. It's a responsibility. You can't leave cows, horses, without feeding them for a week. You have responsibilities: to clean the flock, take out the manure, put hay. In summer, haymaking: we mow, we throw a stack with a rake. In winter, we don't have gas in the village, we need firewood — I went to the division. The whole structure of the organization of labor as in the army, the meaning is the same. Just a tractor instead of a tank, and a fork and a shovel instead of a machine gun. While you're small, you're on a horse. You've become a little stronger — they trust you with a horse rake, you've grown up - a tractor. That's why it was easier for me in the army. And the bulk of the guys in the army are from rural areas. Work always ennobles.
— In 2005, you graduated with a gold medal from the Tyumen Higher Military Engineering Command School named after Marshal of Engineering Troops A.I. Proshlyakov. Why did you choose engineering troops?
— Engineering troops can both destroy and create. We are armed with engineering ammunition: mines, explosive charges. We can defeat the enemy both in equipment and in manpower, or destroy buildings and structures. But at the same time, engineering troops are building bridges, roads, buildings. That is, you won't get lost in civilian life. A lot of graduates of the Tyumen College are involved in the construction sector, because these are all calculations, drawings.
In my village, the school was only up to grade 5, so we went to study at a boarding school in Karagai. The daily routine is like in the army: wake up, breakfast, cleaning. There were the 90s, devastation. The buses are old: it broke down, then there is no gasoline. We walked 12 km, although not every day. If, for example, the bus did not arrive, then we, the guys from 5th to 11th grade, made a march for 12 km with backpacks to school. I graduated from school with honors, and our region is Siberian, rich — both pine nuts and cranberries. Before admission, I collected 11 bags of cranberries, sold and bought a sports uniform. After graduation, he turned to the village, said "I wish you good health" and went to enroll. There were seven people from our district, I entered alone.
It turned out that when you graduate from high school with honors and enter the college, you can choose two exams instead of four. I didn't know that. He passed physical education, physics and mathematics with "excellent". Then an officer comes up to me and says: "Applicant Saifullin, how many exams have you passed? That's it, you don't have to go to the fourth." And I replied, "You don't want me to enroll, I'm going to take the exam." And so he did. He spent five years at the school in kirz boots, footcloths and a soldier's overcoat, bunk beds, in formation to the dining room, in formation to classes. It should be so. What did the great commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov say? Before you command, learn to obey. Before you demand, learn how to do it yourself.
I tell everyone, including my subordinates: who is the worst enemy? Reflection in the mirror. That's how you will force this reflection to get up for a run at 6 in the morning, prepare, read, make it obey, in the future it will be easier for you. You need to be demanding of yourself. Take, for example, elementary physical training classes. I am a colonel, the commander of the regiment, in connection with the injury of the deputy head of the Tyumen School now. If I require a subordinate to pull up, I will come up myself, pull up, show you. 18—year-old boys are looking at you - wow, Colonel, he pulls himself up 20 times. Sometimes, a guy comes, he can't pull himself up even once. I say: are you going to get married? There is such a ritual — you have to bring the bride in your arms to the registry office. You can't carry it, you can't lift yourself up, and you'll drop the bride!
— Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has invited you to take the post of Deputy head of the Tyumen Higher Military Engineering Command School. What did you experience when you returned to your native school in a new capacity?
— At first I was offered to stay in Moscow, to teach at the academy. But I said that if I stay in an educational institution, I will only go to the Tyumen School. I have a principle: where I was born, I came in handy there. Our duty is to pass on the experience that has been accumulated over the years. It will save someone's life, someone will perform a combat mission. We, too, were once cadets, lieutenants. The commander of the regiment, the chief of staff, who passed the first and second Chechen, were heavenly for us. They taught us that too. And now I have grown to these heights thanks to my mentors. The right teachers mean a lot.
And now I am informing the cadets: The Tyumen School is a command school, they will be commanders who have platoons, companies, battalions, etc. subordinate to them. The commander is also a person who has difficulties and various life turns. But the commander has no right to show weakness to subordinates, no matter what troubles he may have in the family, in the service, etc. As soon as the commander showed weakness, confusion and vacillation begins in his unit, the commander is not trusted. And in the war, in combat conditions, it does not matter what titles, positions and medals you have. If the personnel don't trust you, they won't follow you anywhere. You can see a person there, like on an X-ray.
— The 40th engineer-sapper regiment participated in the special operation literally from the first hours. You received your first injury in March 2022. Under what circumstances did this happen?
— Our group was located in the Chernihiv-Kiev direction. The barrier line on the way is the Desna River, a serious water barrier. Ukraine has a flat terrain, almost like in Siberia, plus chernozem. The rivers are full—flowing, navigable, deep - a colossal obstacle for the armed forces. There was a serious reinforced concrete bridge on the Chernihiv—Kiev highway. Engineering exploration of the water barrier was carried out personally. I took the guys with me, went to the bridge, launched the quadcopter. They were waiting for us there — there are observers, two tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles in ambush — the enemy is also not a fool, there are favorable conditions for guiding the crossing. Accordingly, if we build a crossing here, no one will give it to us and the losses will be enormous. I have a lot of responsibility: 1,000 people behind me, several hundred pieces of equipment. And the end of February, thaw, chernozem, patency is complicated. A section of 7 km downstream was surveyed, the narrowest point was 141 m. We need to build a bridge as soon as possible, and even under enemy fire. The bridge is a strategic object. When there is a crossing, I have no right to organize a traffic jam, because the defeat of our personnel and equipment by one or more shells immediately increases.
We chose a place and started building a bridge. My guys are trained, despite the fact that I formed the regiment on December 1, 2020. The regiment was a little over a year old, and immediately led him into battle. Priority was given to fighters with combat experience: there were guys after Syria and even contract soldiers who served with me in Chechnya. The enemy didn't open us right away, only two and a half hours later. We have special engineering equipment in service, we did everything in the shortest possible time. I reported that the bridge was ready, the troops began to cross.
Then heavy artillery fire began on us. "Dots-U" flew in, there were direct hits in the bridge. I am the commandant of the crossing section and am responsible for everything: the transfer of troops, the passage of supplies, the evacuation of the wounded. And no matter how they hit the bridge, my task is to make the crossing work. And it is easier for the enemy to strike at one place, because if the bridge is faulty, then such a grouping — thousands of personnel and hundreds, or even thousands of pieces of equipment — simply will not be able to cross and the offensive will choke. And those who have crossed will not have the possibility of supplies. Why were the troops withdrawn from Kherson? It was the right decision. How many lives and equipment have been saved. The time will come, as they say.
— You continued to control the troops for 40 minutes, bleeding. You didn't think about yourself, your life, then at all?
— I was just transporting one of the formations of the grouping, "Dot-U" arrived, a cassette. I was hit from head to toe by shrapnel. When there is a fight, there is such an adrenaline rush that you don't feel anything. Then I look — one berts squelches, full of blood. And the troops are crossing. Die, but complete the task. I always say: it is better to die proudly in battle than to live with shame all my life. It's not my last name, but my family, with this last name my grandfather, great-grandfathers went into battle. How can I disgrace the family?
Then, when the connection was forwarded, we were brought to the shed. The nurse girl bandaged us, 10 men, cut clothes. Through wounds — that's how it's supposed to be. A 23-year-old girl a little thicker than my finger was there, on the front line, fighting for us.
The doctors insisted on hospitalization, although he tried to refuse. There was an extensive fragmentation lesion, and now there are a lot of fragments in me, some of them were not pulled out. I was lucky that one of the fragments passed tangentially on my cheek, just a little more, and would have blown off my head. A month later I went back to the front. How else? My guys are there. I wrote a report that I agree, send me, I have no complaints. He called his wife Natalia to his hospital in Moscow. My wife accepted my decision, gave the go-ahead, I went to my guys.
— Do you often remember the terrible events that occurred during the crossing of the Seversky Donets River?
— I am a professional military man with more than 20 years of experience and from childhood I knew where I was going and what it could lead to. During my years of service in the North Caucasus, I had many such situations. We are sappers. These are the installation of mines, the neutralization of mines and improvised explosive devices used by militants to mine buildings and roads in Chechnya. Soon it will be 80 years since the guns of the Great Patriotic War died down, and the demining of the Moscow, Leningrad, Volgograd regions, and the North Caucasus is still continuing. Traces. It seems to be peacetime, and the sapper risks his life even in peacetime. Not to say I wasn't afraid. Only psychos and fools are not afraid. But what is the power? When you can overcome your fear. As a commander, you simply have no right to show your fear and weakness. The price of a mistake in war is someone's life. The worst thing in a fight is to let someone down. Then everything starts to crumble like a house of cards.
Everything is known in comparison, and the intensity of the fire on the Seversky Donets was much higher. Since the events of 2014, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have approached the territory much more responsibly in terms of fortification and engineering equipment. They were equipped with strong points, positions, buried, all in concrete. In particular, the enemy had more artillery units concentrated there.
When we were directing the crossing at the Seversky Donets, the gunners later told me — they have serif devices — that they were hitting the crossing from more than 100 directions. Seeing that this does not help, the APU still diligently bombarded us with phosphorus, prohibited ammunition. When it hits a person, it burns like butter. And when it hits the equipment, the detonation of the combat kit occurs. But none of this stopped us. The crossing was made, I was on the opposite bank, because I was the commandant of the crossing. The troops began to cross. And then an artillery shell fell under my right leg, the 120th mortar mine - almost 4 kg of TNT. It turned out that the whole wave went into my legs, both my legs were torn off. And the troops are crossing, plus the crossing is covered with a smoke screen. The guys helped, and he crawled off the roadway as best he could. He tied his right leg with a tourniquet, and his left leg with a belt from a machine gun. He radioed that he was injured, and continued to manage everything for an hour.
— You said that your family supports you and has always supported you in the decision to defend the Motherland to the last. What did the support of the closest ones mean when they were at the front?
— In the military, the rear is 80, or even 90% of success. I have three children, two daughters and a son, and my spouse is almost always with them. Went to work — they are still asleep, came — they are already asleep. I met my wife back in the North Caucasus, in the Chechen Republic. I was young then, a senior lieutenant, and Natalia served in the medical unit. Neither I had anything behind my back, nor she. We lived together, made money, had children. They changed their place of service, respectively. Family is sacred. My wife has always supported me.
I received the second wound on May 10. We liberated the Luhansk People's Republic, celebrated Victory Day there. As soon as the school children finished their studies, my wife sent them to my grandparents and to me - in hospitals for more than three months. I had two operations a week under general anesthesia. I weighed less than 60 kg because I didn't eat anything. Natalia cooked homemade food, agreed with the chefs. She nursed me for three months.
We support the guys in the hospitals too. And I have something to compare with, if we take the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus and the special operation in Ukraine, now there are much more support measures. If during the period of WHO you received insurance for injury, it was already considered good. Yes, no one wants to die, get injured. But if this has happened, then you have significant measures of support from the state, and in addition, measures of support at the level of subjects. In the Tyumen region, 1 million rubles are given for injury. He is being trained in hospitals — soldiers, sergeants, officers are offered a new place of service, no longer connected with combat operations. For example, in military enlistment offices, military schools, so that they were in business and could transfer experience.
We are not fighting for benefits, not for money. But financial literacy is important. Let's say a young man in his early 20s was injured. He was paid funds by the state, the subject. It is important that he does not waste this money, but invested in the business. In my regiment, I told the guys: who was injured, buy apartments, houses, plots. As a commander, I have to keep an eye on this. Then the guys come back after being wounded, go into service. I'm asking. They answer: "I bought a plot, I will build it," "I closed the loan, my apartment is mine." This must be controlled, the guys risk their lives, leave their health at the front. Everything should be for the benefit of the families.
— If you were offered, would you agree to go to the SVO zone now? For example, a staff employee?
- of course. Uniquely. I'm sure I'll be back. I just don't want to be a burden. I don't want to be dragged, accompanied. Now I will stand on my feet more firmly and definitely come back. I will give an example of the Great Patriotic War, when many officers returned to the front after severe wounds. There was one gunner, both his arms were torn off. Doctors helped him to write a petition, he was allowed to return to the front. And he became a Hero of the Soviet Union twice.
And now the guys are coming back. After shrapnel wounds, as a rule, everything. To whom the prostheses are put — the guys also come back. We have a debt, and debts need to be paid.
— What new models were adopted by you in the Russian engineering troops during the SVO?
— In the course of any military operations, new weapons and special military equipment are being tested. The concept of "shield and sword" does not stand still, it is always evolving. Moreover, Russia is now confronting dozens of NATO countries with its institutes, research bureaus. In addition to HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, M777 howitzers, Leopard tanks, Bradley armored vehicles, a very large number of foreign-made mines are supplied there. Now Ukraine is the most mined country in the world. Have you heard about the Petal mine? It was developed back in the Soviet Union, there are also reserves in Ukraine. It is small — 80 g. The mine looks like a petal, the explosive is only 40 g.
And now the enemy throws them at settlements. Okay, if a 100-kilogram man comes, he will tear off his foot. And if a 5-year-old child? There, the child can be torn apart. The mines are German, American, what kind of mines are not there. And a mine is such a munition, it doesn't matter to him who steps on it — military or civilian.
And now our engineering troops are not standing still. We are using new means to search for and neutralize mines. Only the Russian troops have a combined-arms mine clearance kit for sappers, where it is completely protected from toe to crown. If the bulletproof vest protects only the chest and back, then here the person is protected entirely. A special helmet with a thick glass visor protects against shrapnel damage. Special shoes for the sapper have been developed. In order, even if he steps on a mine, to soften, to stop the effect of the blast wave from the ammunition itself, in order to more or less save his legs. Plus the same mine detectors.
In the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, engineering ammunition is also being improved. The excellent and well-proven remote mining system "Agriculture" has been adopted, which can set a minefield for a very long distance. Anti-personnel, anti-tank or mixed, thereby preventing the advance or shackling the maneuver of the enemy. We have that too. Nowhere else in the world does such an analogue of a remote mining system exist.
When the troops have liberated this or that territory and the front edge has moved forward, before the builders begin to restore and enter, they need to carry out humanitarian continuous demining. Engineering troops are also engaged in this. We have such robotic complexes for this purpose as the "Uran-6" on a tracked track. He has a working organ in front of him: either a minesweeper or a striker roller is installed there. Under the action of centrifugal force, the strikers unwind and damage the mine fuse. The complex is controlled from a safe distance by an operator.
"Uran-6" was used during the demining of farmlands of the Chechen Republic and is also being used now. Well, and a number of other means of engineering weapons, including engineering equipment: for making passages, for the device of engineering barriers, for directing crossings. New unmanned aerial vehicles are also very widely used for conducting engineering reconnaissance. Our troops are keeping up with the times.
— There were statements in the West that Russia has very serious minefields and our troops have learned to restore them very quickly if necessary. Can I tell you about it?
— Engineering barriers have been installed along the entire front line. Both mine-explosive barriers and non-explosive ones. In particular, the old grandfather's methods that were used during the Great Patriotic War are used — anti—tank ditches, gouges, tetrahedra - "dragon's teeth", concrete structures. Military savvy, military cunning, misleading the enemy — this also takes place. Ukrainians are losing a large amount of equipment and personnel in our engineering minefields, and we see it all perfectly. The system of engineering barriers is linked to the fire system. As soon as the enemy's equipment is undermined, anti-tankers, anti-tank ATGMs, guided missiles begin to work immediately along the column. I can't tell you everything, but we have surprises, and the APU purposefully finds them. After detection, they remain in place.
— What are the main directions of robotics development in the interests of the engineering troops of the Russian Federation that have occurred in recent years?
— This is the detection of minefields of various types, anti-tank and anti-personnel. And, accordingly, their neutralization and mine clearance. Much attention is paid to the preservation of the lives of Russian servicemen. In particular, sappers. All our guys are strong in spirit, but imagine: knowing that there is a mine, our guys go to perform the task. And when, for example, an offensive is underway, a passage must be made in the minefield so that infantry could pass, tankers could pass. There is a sapper in front. If you are in the rear during humanitarian demining, this is our territory, there is no fire on you, you can safely clear mines. And on the front line, artillery and small arms fire is being fired at the sappers.
Russian engineering troops are dual—purpose troops taking part in the elimination of forest fires and the consequences of floods. We have special equipment in service. Let's say an engineering barrier machine based on a tank. In case of forest fires, the heads of the subjects contact the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and we help them, we make a mineralized strip so that the fire does not spread.
The equipment that is intended for the equipment and maintenance of water barriers is also used — floating transporters, boats, PMP. In areas where there were disasters, floods, we helped the civilian population. The crossing was built to take out, to transport goods, to take out patients. The people and the army are united. Engineering troops always provide assistance.
Ekaterina Adamova