In the early hours of 24 February, when Russian rockets started to pound Ukraine, unleashing the biggest attack on a European state since the second world war, Artur, like millions of Ukrainians, grabbed his phone to contact his family.
But while most young Ukrainians were concerned for the safety of their parents, Artur, 27, had a different message for his father, Oleg, a colonel in the pro-Moscow separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
“You assholes,” the text to his father read.
“Don’t pick up a gun. Kyiv will fall immediately,” Oleg replied after some time.
Artur did not follow his father’s advice and quickly enlisted as a volunteer, taking part in Ukraine’s successful defence of the capital, which ended with the withdrawal of Russian forces from the region in April.
He soon enrolled in the regular Ukrainian army and most recently took part in its counter-offensive in the north and east of Ukraine. In photographs reviewed by the Guardian, Artur is seen entering Izium and Lyman, two strategically key cities liberated by Ukraine over the last month.
All this time, he has kept in touch with his father in Russian-occupied Donetsk through text messages that he has shared with the Guardian. “We are literally on the opposite sides of the frontline. But only one of us is fighting for the right cause,” said Artur in a video call from Zakarpattia oblast, the westernmost region of Ukraine, where he was recuperating after months of gruesome fighting.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has ripped thousands of families apart. Because of the two countries’ intertwined and complex past, many Ukrainians have relatives on the other side of the border. Shortly after the invasion began, reports emerged of some Ukrainians’ Russian relatives refusing to believe that Vladimir Putin’s army was bombing civilians in cities across the country.
But few stories encapsulate the family divide as dramatically as Artur’s, the first known account of a Ukrainian soldier whose father is fighting as part of the Russian forces. Artur was born into a military family in Boryspil, a city near Kyiv. His father, Oleg, came from the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region and served a decade in the Ukrainian army until 2011.
After divorcing Artur’s mother that year, Oleg moved to Russia in search of work, according to his son. Struggling for money, Oleg joined the Donetsk pro-Russian separatist forces in 2016, two years after Moscow annexed Crimea and Putin sent his forces to prop up the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“I was shocked when he told me he was joining the Donetsk militia,” Artur recalled. “For me, like for many Ukrainians, this war started in 2014, and that meant he joined the enemy.”
Artur said he had seen his father gradually adopt a pro-Russian stance in the conflict even before he joined the separatists. “Russian propaganda was taking hold of him. I thought he wouldn’t succumb to it, that he would be smarter than that. But I was wrong.”
The two nevertheless kept in touch when Artur, after studying engineering, followed his long-term dream to pursue a career in the film industry in Kyiv. But as tensions between Russia and Ukraine grew in the run-up to the February 2022 invasion, so did the distance between father and son.
In early March, after most Russian troops had been repelled from Kyiv, Artur sent a short video message to his father, mocking him for his earlier warning about the fall of the capital. “I am walking around but can’t see a single Russian. They seem to have disappeared. Can you please advise, I don’t understand where they are?” he said in the video.
Oleg replied that Russia’s fortunes would soon change, once again urging his son to drop his weapons. “At that point, I already saw that his hopes of a Russian victory were dwindling. He started to become more desperate as Ukraine was gaining more ground.”
They talked again after evidence of Russian killings of civilians emerged from the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Oleg said the reports were “fake”, parroting Russian television claims that the images of dead civilians in Bucha were staged and that the civilians had been killed by Ukrainians themselves.
“I told him that I was in Bucha myself, that I had seen everything with my own eyes,” Artur said. “But, I realised he was hopeless. I stopped trying to convince him of anything. It is wasted energy.”
One of the last times the two were in touch was when Artur’s unit helped liberate Izium at the start of Ukraine’s lightning counter-offensive in the north-east of the country.
“Rejoice while you can,” the father texted.
“You are like the bad guys in horror movies. When evil gets beaten, it always promises to return,” the son replied.
A silence ensued when Artur was asked by the Guardian what he would do if he faced his father on the battlefield. “I don’t think I could shoot him or that he could shoot me. Who could kill his own father?” he said, adding that, for now, the grim prospect was unlikely to materialise as his father was stationed at a military base in Donetsk.
In one recent message to Artur, his father said: “You are still my son. I want the best for you. For you to be happy and healthy.”
“But I think he should face some punishment for all of this in court,” said Artur. “I would like to see him witness our victory and his world crumble.”
Despite everything, Artur said he had worked hard not to let anger and hate consume him. “My father betrayed our family, and he betrayed our country. But I am fighting out of a place of love for my country.
“Blind hate would eat me alive, and I would just burn out before this war ended,” he said, adding that after the war he wanted to return to making movies and help soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.
Artur’s story was first told in late September by Help Desk, a Russian journalism startup and support chat for those affected by the war. He said he decided to share his story because he realised many Ukrainians were struggling with similar family issues.
“I wanted to get the message across that you are not responsible for the choices of your family. It doesn’t make you less of a patriot if your father is a criminal.” His unit was aware of his family history, Artur said, but never questioned his loyalty. “They know I am 100% committed to Ukraine.”
