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00:00Now, as Ukraine's attempts to repel the almost three-year-long Russian invasion
00:04rumble on, I'm joined now in the studio by Alexei Makarov, a self-described
00:08anarchist born in Moscow who's been actively opposing the current Russian
00:11regime as part of various left-wing movements since 2004, both within and
00:16outside of Russia. He joined the Ukrainian army in the wake of the
00:20Russian full-scale invasion on Ukraine. Thank you so much for joining us in the
00:24studio here on France 24, Alexei. Now, you are a Russian national, you grew up in
00:29Russia. How did you end up fighting alongside Ukraine in the war against
00:35Russia? Well, I'm anarchist and I'm an internationalist, so I think we should
00:42be on side of all oppressed people around the world and even in that
00:47situation when we see Russian aggression towards Ukraine, we should
00:52like, we should defend Ukrainian society against the imperialism, against all
00:59this suffering, against the genocide which Russian troops committed in the
01:05Ukraine. It's also, it's our collective strategy as anarchist movement, as a
01:09revolutionary movement, we should think how to bring our goals, how to change
01:15society and in the post-Soviet state we need to destroy the Russian
01:20imperialism because Russian imperialism, like, destroys all the progressive
01:26movement around the post-Soviet space. We have seen this in Belarus when the
01:31uprising started in 2020 in Belarus, so the Russian support to Lukashenko
01:38spelled, it was very important role in the, that Lukashenko could, like, hold the
01:50power and the revolution didn't win. So to make, to change the society in the
01:55post-Soviet space, we need to destroy the Russian imperialism. And how easy was it
02:02for you as a Russian national to enlist in the Ukrainian army? How did you go
02:06about that process? Well, it's still possible, of course, there is, like, towards
02:12all foreigners who join Ukrainian troops, there is some, like, security-like
02:19measures you have to go through, but it's possible. And when you join the army,
02:25you, like, you fight, you have the same rights as Ukrainian soldiers. So it's,
02:32like, there are some difficulties, but it's still possible. And it's, yes,
02:37very important thing to do, even for Russian people to join the defense of
02:44the Ukrainian society. And once you had been vetted, you had been accepted into
02:48the Ukrainian army. Did you feel welcome among your fellow comrades? Yes, of
02:53course. I was in two units. First, I was in completely Ukrainian units with some
02:59of my anarchist comrades. And we felt ourselves very welcomed because we tried
03:05to be good fighters and do our best in the battlefield. And later I joined the
03:10Siberian Battalion. It's a unit of mostly Russian people in the International
03:17Legion of Ukraine. And also when we were on battlefield and on missions, we, it
03:24was, we were quite welcomed over other comrades Ukrainian and other foreigners
03:29who fight against the Russian imperialism. And you have spent a
03:32significant amount of time on the front lines of this war. Could you paint us a
03:38picture of what that experience was like for you? I was a machine gunner, it was
03:43my task. So I was mostly on assault missions, we attacked the trenches with
03:50Russian soldiers and like, sometimes it was contact is very short distance. It
03:56also a lot of artillery and drones, so which is very dangerous. Yes, many people
04:02die, many people get injured. It's difficult. I lost many of my comrades,
04:09even my anarchist comrades, my close comrade Dmitry Petrov, for example, who
04:15was one of the organizers of the resistance even in Russia, partisans
04:19resistance was resistance in Russia, one of the organizers of combat organization
04:24of anarcho-communists. So I lost many of my friends and comrades. But yes, it was
04:31difficult. But it's also, if you have this kind of commitment, if you feel you
04:36should resist to imperialism to defend society, it's like something you have to
04:41go through. Now, you were, as I've mentioned, born in Russia, raised in
04:45Russia. What was it like for you knowing that the enemy that you were firing at
04:51looks like you, sounds like you? I'm internationalist. So I defend all the
04:56oppressed people around the world. And it doesn't matter for me which
05:00nationalities I have or which passport they have. I just feel the Ukrainian
05:05society is oppressed by the Russian imperialism. And that's why I should to
05:09stay at the Ukrainian society side and defend it against the imperialists.
05:13Now, there is a huge amount of discussion right now about the material
05:17reality of Ukraine's counter offensive against Russia, a lack of ammunition, a
05:21lack of adequate air defences. Was that something that you experienced
05:25firsthand as a Ukrainian soldier?
05:28Well, there is really like a lack of ammunition and the lack of artillery and
05:33lack of air defence. So Russia still has dominance in the airspace. So Ukraine
05:39definitely needs more weapon. Ukraine definitely needs to hit goal seven
05:45inside, deep inside of Russian territory. And of course, Ukraine needs more
05:52ammunition from the West countries. And I really ask the societies on the
05:58West to struggle, to give Ukraine more weapon to defend the Ukrainian society
06:07against the Russian imperialism. I don't like NATO myself, I'm anarchist, but
06:13still, we need this weapon, this ammunition to defend the Russian
06:17imperialism and defend the Ukrainian society and make the world better.
06:22Now you are, as we can see, still recovering from injuries sustained on the
06:26battlefield. Once you are healed, what's your intention? Are you planning to go
06:30back to the front lines?
06:32Of course, especially if my comrades, my movement, if the anarchist movement and
06:39my comrades in our discussion, we decide that there is need to bring me back to
06:45battlefield on Ukraine, of course, I will go back and fight against the
06:48imperialism.
06:49Alexei Makarov, a self-described anarchist, also a former member of the
06:53Ukrainian army, a Russian citizen. Thank you very much indeed for coming on to
06:59speak to us today on the programme.