Serbian volunteers on the Ukrainian front: "Kosovo is defending itself here. So God helped us and the Russian artillery"

"This is what the tent of the Russian army looks like," Serbian Dejann Berić says in the background as he enters one of the tents in the training camp of the Army of the Russian Federation.

Several Serbs who came to fight on the Ukrainian front are housed in that tent. However, before going to the battlefield, they must undergo training. At least six young men from Serbia who are being trained by Russian special forces can be heard on the recording.

"Greetings for Borča," says one of them in a video that was published two days ago on Dejan Berić's youtube channel.

Dejann Berić is a "hardened" Serbian warrior. Since 2014, he has been fighting in Ukraine, in paramilitary formations that were under the control of the Donetsk People's Republic parastate. Or, more precisely, he fought on the side of informal Russian military formations. After Russia officially launched its aggression against Ukraine at the beginning of this year, Berić was given the task of recruiting warriors from Serbia.

"So you come to Moscow. I or someone from the service will wait for you in Moscow. He takes you to the training ground and you sign the contract at the training ground. You serve in the armed forces of the Russian Federation under the same conditions as any other Russian soldier. So you are a contract soldier. Do not exist. volunteers. You get a salary, you get a seniority," says Dejan Berić at the beginning of the recording.

Revolted by the attitude of the Serbian authorities towards him and accusations that he was taking "cannon fodder" from Serbia to the Ukrainian front, Berić decided to make a short video showing Serbian volunteers preparing for war operations.

"Don't be fooled by the fact that the conditions at the deposit are good. However, when you go to war, everything is much different and much more difficult," says Berić as he approaches a group of Serbian citizens huddled around a fire.

Two Serbs agree to have their faces photographed. They show pieces of dried meat and say that they are better off in the Russian army than in Serbia.

 

"I salute the fighters for Russia. Only that God help us", says one soldier, while Berič throws in: "God and Russian artillery".

A young man appears in the tent, whom they call Borčanac.

 

"It's better than in Belgrade. Better than home, brother," says the Borčan.

 

One of the soldiers says that the conditions are "top". He shows the boots under the bed and the ones on his feet.

 

"If I had those when I was in Kiev, it would be over," says Berić.

 

Another young man's voice is heard in the background. He invites other guys from Serbia to join them.

 

"Kosovo is defending itself here. And not down", he ends his call.

Serbian volunteers, as we said, are gathered and coordinated by 48-year-old Dejan Berić Deki from Vojvodina. He has been awarded seven times for his services in Ukraine. He was one of the most famous snipers. He was wounded several times.

 

"First you can lose your life and become permanently disabled. This is not a Play Station game, people die here and think twice about coming. If you are sick and think you won't be able to stand the training, the Russians will send you back and then you will have problems with the law in your countries where you get a prison sentence for being on the Russian side. You bear your own travel expenses and only after three months of signing a professional contract with the Russian army, these funds will be refunded to you. When you sign the contract, you have all the rights as any professional Russian soldier, and your monthly salary is 110,000 rubles or between 1,500 and 1,600 euros, and if you are engaged in the most difficult battlefields, the salary reaches up to 2,000 euros. When you serve six months in the Russian army as a professional soldier, you become entitled to a Russian passport and Russian citizenship. Immediately after your arrival, you must leave the phone of a person close to you from the country you are coming from in order to inform them of your eventual death, for which the Russian state pays the person whose contact you leave seven million rubles (a little more than 115 thousand euros) and takes care of its own expenses transporting the body of the deceased to the destination where you will be buried. In the event that you are wounded, that you are injured (broken leg, etc.) you also receive compensation depending on the severity of the injuries, and it reaches up to 45,000 euros for shrapnel injuries, which are classified as medium-severe injuries. I will be the commander in that battalion and I will not tolerate any alcohol or indiscipline, and the training with you will be carried out in Donetsk by four top military instructors who are already there," explained Berić this fall via his Telegram channel.