Oleksandr Ivantsov

Why didn’t Skhid leave with everyone else?

In May 2022 the defenders of the Azovstal steelworks were ordered to save their lives and began leaving the plant for russian captivity. A soldier with the call sign Skhid (“East”) decided otherwise: he stayed behind in the occupied plant to make his own way back. This is Oleksandr Ivantsov from Luhansk.

From Luhansk to Azov

Oleksandr was born on 3 October 1994 in Luhansk. In 2014 he joined pro-Ukrainian rallies in the city, and when russian security services took an interest in him he had to leave. After learning that two of his friends in Azov had been killed, he joined the unit himself in early 2015. He fought in the anti-terrorist operation and the Joint Forces Operation, left for the reserve in 2020 and took a job guarding civilian ships against Somali pirates.

By helicopter into a besieged city

Oleksandr only learned of the full-scale invasion on 26 February 2022, at sea. He broke his contract at once and came back to Ukraine. On 14 March he was back with Azov, and on 25 March he volunteered to fly into encircled Mariupol on an Mi-8 helicopter, in a special operation run by military intelligence. In the city he fought off attacks on the left bank. At one point his group was surrounded, and its commander decided to surrender. Oleksandr argued for breaking out in small groups; only one young conscript agreed to go with him. For three nights they made their way through the ruins until they reached their own side. The National Guard brigade commander Denys Shleha shook Oleksandr’s hand and thanked him for “bringing the conscript out”. “I told him I hadn’t brought him out, the two of us got out as a team,” Skhid recalled.

A week underground

When the garrison began leaving for captivity, Oleksandr asked his commander to keep him off the lists handed to the russians, so he was recorded as missing in action. Under a sewer hatch on the plant’s grounds he set up a hideout 1.2 metres high, 5 metres long and 2 metres wide. He had planned to hide there with a comrade, and the two of them brought in mattresses, blankets, food and water. At the last moment, though, his comrade changed his mind and walked out with everyone else. So Oleksandr spent the week alone, thinking through how to get out. On the seventh night he changed into civilian clothes, hid his weapon and set off into the city. In 18 days Oleksandr reached territory free of occupation: he got through filtration in a russian camp and walked, by different accounts, from over 100 to about 200 kilometres.

Back in the ranks

After rehabilitation Oleksandr went back to the army and joined the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade: as of September 2023 he was flying aerial reconnaissance missions with it. On 13 June 2025 Junior Sergeant Ivantsov was made a Hero of Ukraine, the country’s highest title; the award was presented at the Constitution Day ceremony. As of June 2025 he was destroying russian equipment in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Flashback: Mariupol

On 15 November 2025 the Third Army Corps launched his memoir, Flashback: Mariupol, at VDNH in Kyiv. Oleksandr wrote it himself. It is a true soldier’s story with a streak of adventure: about the football fan movement, working for a private military company in Africa, pirates and love. But at its heart is Mariupol: how in 2022 he flew into the city by helicopter, fought at Azovstal, and then walked 200 kilometres through occupied territory to get back to his own side.

Why it matters today

Oleksandr Ivantsov could have stayed in a safe job far from Ukraine, but he came back because he would never have forgiven himself for staying out of the fight. Surrounded, he didn’t abandon the young soldier beside him, and he didn’t go into captivity even when there seemed to be no other way. He showed that even in a besieged city and on occupied land a person can keep their will and their faith that there is a way out. His road from Luhansk through Mariupol and back to the front is a reminder that you don’t give up your land, even when it is taken by force.