Bonkus Norwegicus

A father attacked his own son with a tank. And then called him and said: “Son, come over to our side.” This is the story of 21-year-old Oleksandr, a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle commander with the callsign “Kach.” He was born in russia. At the age of seven, he moved with his mother to Kramatorsk. He had never seen or known his russian father, who had abandoned the family before Oleksandr was even born. Oleksandr volunteered to join the Ukrainian military. In his very first battle in 2024, his crew destroyed two russian tanks. A photograph of their crew spread around the world and eventually reached russian social media. The russians announced a bounty on every member of the crew, offering especially large rewards for Oleksandr, their commander. Soon afterward, an enemy tank scored a direct hit on their Bradley. Miraculously, the entire crew survived. The day after the battle, Oleksandr received a phone call from a russian number. On the other end of the line was the tank operator who had just fired at them. It was his father. “Son, come over to our side,” he said. His father claimed, “As soon as I found out you were there, I stopped shooting.” He promised to spare his son’s life and told him to come to a tree line near Robotyne at noon the following week. “Our guys will let you through. They’ll welcome you as one of their own.” But Oleksandr refused to betray Ukraine. “The guys I go into battle with are much more like family to me than a father like that.” A week later, he connected two facts: on the very day his father called, the russians had published an announcement offering a reward for his crew. The tank operator simply wanted the money. The touching story of a father and son reuniting was nothing more than a cheap trap. Later, Ukrainian intelligence officers told Oleksandr that his father had most likely been killed. His T-90 tank had reportedly struck russian mines near Robotyne and was subsequently finished off by a Ukrainian FPV drone. Oleksandr did not bother trying to confirm what had happened. He felt no sympathy for a man who had first tried to kill him and then apparently died inside his burning tank. Oleksandr explained: “A father isn’t the one who conceived you. A father is the one who raised you. A father isn’t someone who wants to kill you or hand you over to collect a reward. A father wouldn’t do that. That’s why I cannot consider him my father.” For Oleksandr, his real family became his crew – the men who would never betray him, who stand shoulder to shoulder in Avdiivka, defending one another and all Ukrainians. The hunt for “Kach” continues to this day. Whenever the russians hear his callsign over the radio, they direct all available firepower toward his suspected position. But Oleksandr and his fellow Ukrainian soldiers continue to wreak havoc on the enemy, bringing Ukraine one day closer to victory. Source: translated from Oleh Bairak.