19-05-2025
‘A life of crime taught us how to kill on the front line'
When he pulled a knife and robbed a jewellery shop in President Zelensky's home city of Kryvyhi Rih, the convict and career criminal codenamed 'Makar' was not thinking of a future in the army.
Yet since he was freed from prison along with thousands of other Ukrainian convicts last summer on condition they fought at the front, the 47-year-old, now a respected and wounded veteran of Ukraine's 71st Jaeger Brigade, is certain that his life of crime and prison prepared him well for the stresses of war.
Makar is proud to have commanded three other convicted thieves — Zippo, Alavarez and Dronik — in an assault team sent up against Russian positions near the gutted city of Vovchansk.
'The adrenaline rush I get in crime
