By: Nazar
* Nazar is a businessman from Vinnytsia currently serving in the armed forces of Ukraine.
‘I don’t want to be a commander — I’d rather join the infantry as a soldier’
This was the wish of a company officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They rarely sit on positions or in the field, and suffer less from physical hardships, see less of the enemy’s muzzle, but they have many other difficult duties; sending soldiers to their deaths, saying: ‘We must take it at any cost…’, saying: ‘there was no order to retreat!’ when it is known that the forces are unequal, “raking” from senior commanders and many other psychologically difficult things.
But there is one more mandatory function that few people talk or think about… it is different from all the psychological and physical challenges. Sitting near a pile of mobile phones left by dead soldiers and looking for “Mum” in the list, calling and hearing on the speaker:
“Son, at last… I’ve been waiting for you ……”
P.S. To all parents
I bend the knee to all the parents who have been waiting for this ‘+’ text on their messengers for weeks. I am a father myself and I would not want to change places with you. All the soldiers know how you wait every night and can’t sleep, so forgive us…
We were left with no choice!
I have a very tough story.
We were loading a dead guy into the truck, and at that moment his phone rang many times. Over and over again, it wouldn’t stop. It irritated us. My colleague said:
“turn off the damn phone”
The other guy took the phone and with a bewildered and worried look, he pointed at it.
We just saw:
“Мама”
Then everyone was silent for a long time and did our work.
I will never forget that phone call. Sometimes in the silence, I can hear it. And I know that I have to call my mom.
电话
作者：Nazar
2025年2月13日
* 简介—Nazar是一位來自Vinnytsia的商人，目前在乌克兰武装部队服役。(译者注)
“我不想当指挥官——我宁愿以士兵的身份加入步兵。”
这是一位乌克兰武装部队连级军官的心愿。他们很少在阵地或野外驻守，较少遭受肉体上的艰辛，也较少直面敌人的枪口，但他们有许多其他艰巨的任务；派遣士兵去送死，说着：“我们必须不惜一切代价…”，明知兵力悬殊的情况下说：“不会有撤退的命令！”，受高阶指挥官的“训斥”，以及许多其他心理上难以承受的事情。
但还有一个很少有人谈论或想到的强制性职责...它与所有心理和生理上的挑战都不同。坐在死去的士兵留下的手机堆旁，在列表中寻找“妈妈”，拨打电话，听着扩音器传来的声音：
“儿子，终于…我一直在等你……”
附：致所有父母
我向所有战士的父母致敬，他们几周来一直在手机“信使”上苦等新信息。我自己也是一位父亲，我不想与你们互换位置。所有士兵都知道你们每晚的等待、以至无法入眠的心情，所以请原谅我们…
我们别无选择！
我有一个非常沉重的故事。
我们当时正把一位阵亡的士兵抬上卡车，就在那时，他的手机响了很多次。一遍又一遍，它不停地响着。这让我们感到不知所措。我的同事说：
“把这该死的电话关掉。”
另一个人拿起手机，带着困惑和担忧的表情，指向它。
我们只看到：
"妈妈"（手机上来电显示）
然后每个人都沉默了很长时间，默默的做完我们的工作。
我永远不会忘记那通电话。有时在寂静中，我会听到它。我知道我必须给我妈妈打电话了。
阅读更多关于Nazar的，并找到他其他的作品，请点击这里。这篇故事由 Galyna 和来自 Balakun 的 San 编辑。
