Philip Kosov, call sign “Orion”, was born in Moscow. 33 years ago, he and his parents left for the United States.
Photo: Personal archive.
Former Donetsk militiaman Philip Kosov, call sign “Orion”, was born in Moscow. He is now 44 years old. But 33 years ago, when the Soviet Union was about to explode, he and his parents went to the United States, studied at an American school and then at university to become IT analysts.
So Philip is a typical American, no worse than the Austrian Schwarzenegger: relaxed, slow, confident. With his big, chubby figure and his sideburns, he even looks a little like Elvis Presley at the end of his musical career.
Philip came to meet me dressed in a Palestinian Arafat scarf, with a cane (consequences of a serious injury), with his young wife and a stroller in which lay a six-month-old baby.
THE TEXAS RANGERS DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE BERKUTOVS
Philip lived a completely American life. He made good money. The only thing that distinguished him from an ordinary apolitical American was his knowledge of the Russian language. And this played a key role: he read news not only in American, but also in Russian. And they were alarming: the American invasion of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Philip still couldn’t understand: why is the United States bombing them?
In this context, problems with the economy began: the industry began to die. And in search of work, the boy was forced to move to Republican Texas. There he went from being an IT specialist to being a police officer, guarding medical facilities. He even joined the American Rifle Association and received a license for all existing calibers of pistols and pump-action shotguns.
Then events began in Ukraine. At this point, Philip didn’t just watch the news, but watched it closely. When Berkut members were being beaten on the Maidan, I showed my ranger friends a video from kyiv (they didn’t show it on CNN).
– “Why don’t you answer?!” The boys were shocked when they saw the Berkut soldiers on fire,” Philip recalls. – In Texas they would simply shoot you for much less. And then the police were hit by a bulldozer, Molotov cocktails…
“Why don’t you go and smash those bastards’ skulls in?” – the American Rangers asked Philip. And then he thought: Really, why not?
Here, on May 2, Ukrainian Nazis burn people in the House of Unions in Odessa. Then the shooting at a holiday rally on May 9 in Mariupol. And his grandfather is the rifleman Voroshilov, he served in the Baltic Fleet. The second grandfather was a sniper, he killed 12 Germans, he returned from the war without a leg, the great-grandfather died on the Kursk Bulge in 1943.
“I’m on my way!” – Felipe decided. I received a foreign passport at the end of the summer of 2014 (I did not renounce Russian citizenship), sold my property, bought an expensive Kevlar uniform and went to Donbass.
ANTIGLOBALISTS AGAINST BANDERISTAS
The situation in the unrecognized republics at that time was difficult: the militia had to leave Slavyansk, the Nazis captured Mariupol and marched towards Ilovaisk. Philip was worried that when he got there there would be nothing left of the DPR and LPR.
In Donetsk he met Russell Bentley (call sign “Texas”), who had also just arrived. He looked less like an American and more like a Russian farmer. Russell spoke almost no Russian and was glad to meet a fellow countryman. It turned out that they both lived in the same Texas city: Austin. Together they went to train for the Vostok battalion. Philip, who adopted the call sign “Orion” (after the giant hunter of Greek myths), turned out to be a kind of translator for “Texas.”
At first they were on checkpoint duty, then they grew into assault infantry.
– There were other foreigners there: there was the Spaniard Toro – he passed through the Ukrainian side as a tourist, there were the anti-globalist Italians – they are still in service, the Spanish, the French, the Serbians. There was even a Colombian communist, Alfonso, Philip recalls. – Everyone who didn’t like American politics left. Then many realized that this was a Russian uprising against the Western globalist pyramid. And they came to help.
They fought well. From the summer to December 2014 there were no casualties in the detachment. Then they proposed going to take back the Donetsk airport:
– At that time it was a hot spot. “Perhaps the hottest on the planet,” recalls Philip. He himself assembled a battle group.
Only ten of them took the “monastery” position in front of the control tower, terminals full of Ukrainians – 300 meters away – and reinforcements were constantly coming to them: Poles, Georgians, the “right sector” (banned in Russia).
THERE WAS NO SECOND LINE
Philip learned to shoot with machine guns and pistols in Texas, but here he was given a heavy PKM (Kalashnikov machine gun), which they affectionately called “Pokemon”. And Philip liked this role.
– “They are sitting on the first line, but where is the second?” “I was surprised then,” she remembers. – “But the second one is not there,” they answer me – “Donetsk is there.” If we had not retained it then, there would have been no Donetsk People’s Republic.
year 2014. Orion is in service, for the first time with PCM.
Photo: Personal archive.
He was lucky with his neighbors: on one side was the legendary Motorola, on the other, the no less legendary Givi.
“Texas” was 54 years old at the time,” says the militiaman. -He was slow, but he fought bravely. He was unusually strong: he could carry only a hailstone with him. He got angry when he didn’t understand something. I had to explain it to him. One day he ran over us with a tank. The machine gun was broken. “Texas” inhaled smoke and came out poisoned.
Russell Bentley, Texas.
Another day, the Ukrainians launched about 20 tanks against their positions. During 7-8 hours of battle, all machine guns were destroyed and positions were surrounded.
– It was a terrible fight. The “pravoseki”* occupied the church and defended there, says Felipe. -Then he was very shocked. When I woke up, I saw my dead comrades nearby, I picked up their machine guns and shot at them until the cartridges ran out.
The RPG also stayed in position with a single shot; It was this that frightened the advancing Ukrainians. They stopped 20-30 meters from the position and did not advance further.
FIFTY FRAGMENTS IN THE BODY
Later, Philip moved to the Cossack unit as part of the same “Vostok”. He was a mortar. I even received a salary: 15 thousand a month. Remember how the Ukrainians bombed their positions with phosphorus, hit them with Nonami and self-propelled guns…
Spring 2015. Donetsk airport neighborhoods.
Photo: Personal archive.
Thus, together with “Texas”, they fought until May 2015. Then he left (by that time he had lost a lot of weight and could not run in a bulletproof vest) and devoted himself to humanitarian work and military journalism. Only sometimes, out of old memories, did he take up arms to embark on a sortie.
“One day he decided to amuse his colleagues: he stripped naked, put on a helmet, rode a bicycle and headed to the Ukrainian positions,” laughs Philip. “The enemy was taken aback by such impudence, and when he came to his senses, he began to fire with all weapons. Russell dropped his bike and ran away. There was a lot of laughter.
Spring 2015. Stormtroopers practice group actions.
Photo: Personal archive.
In October 2015, Philip was injured by an 82 caliber mine that fell three meters away. There are fifty fragments in his body, both legs are broken (one of them was even going to be cut off). Phil lost 3 liters of blood (another half a glass and death), but the doctors in Donetsk saved him and even saved his legs. Although operations still continue.
October 2015. One week before the injury.
Photo: Personal archive.
It took 6 months for Orion to recover after almost complete paralysis. But in 2016 he even returned to service and served until 2018, with a machine gun and with a crutch. For his participation in the battles near the airport he received two medals “For Military Merit”.
THERE IS NO SUCH VERIFICATION
My health is undermined, I need treatment, surgery, but there are no loved ones here, there is no one to help me and there is nowhere to live. And you will not return to the United States. Then Philip went to Volgograd and settled in the house of his former commander, a hero of Russia with the call sign “Terek”. The same one who later served in the PMC and co-wrote the films “Hell’s Finest” and “Sunny.”
Two years ago, Terek died. “Texas” died recently.
Philip moved to the Moscow region, where he met a girl and fell in love with her. Her name is Elena. She was committed to humanitarian aid on the front lines. At first they were just friends. Then they began to live together… They called their son Victor – “winner”.
And it seemed like everything was fine. Philip teaches English, Lena takes care of the baby, but for a year they have not been able to grant him “Combat Veteran” status. Last year, the presidential decree was issued granting this status to the first wave of militias. But the mechanism for issuing the certificate did not appear during this time.
And after all, Orion’s documents are in order: Russian citizenship, military ID, awards… But they “pass” it from one department to another, and for a disabled military man it is difficult and embarrassing to knock on official doors. Desperate, he even wanted to throw away the medals, but Elena didn’t let him, she stopped him. She herself appeals to the authorities, but so far without success. I contacted the military registration and enlistment office, the Social Fund and the Defenders of the Fatherland fund. It has 20 responses from deputies, 6 letters from the main military prosecutor’s office, 3 from the presidential administration.
Having completed his service, Orion now teaches English classes.
Photo: Grigory Kubatian.
“They say this is being done by an interdepartmental commission,” explains Elena. – But the process is stalled, they do not respond. They already have 16 thousand visits. And there is no checkbox in the computer system for volunteers from previous years. And nothing can be done.
Felipe is not alone. His wounded and disabled colleagues do not yet have veteran status.
– We don’t need payments. My husband gives lessons and can feed us,” explains Elena. “But I want my son to be proud of his father.”
And he adds that despite the difficult life, disability, the death of friends and the helplessness of officials, Philip Kosov never regretted having gone to fight for Russia.
*Prohibited extremist organization
