For days, an Israeli documentary team slept, ate, and lived alongside Evgeniy “Dodge” Markarov, a Ukrainian drone operator, as he went about defending his country from Russian attacks.
The footage of the 39-year-old formed a core part of a powerful documentary that was broadcast on Israeli TV last week, showing life on the frontlines of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
But a day before it aired, the filmmakers got a painful call.
A source in Ukraine relayed the news that Markarov had been killed by Russian artillery fire.
“He was killed a day before the broadcast,” said Itai Anghel, a seasoned war correspondent with UVDA, Israel’s leading current affairs TV program, during an emotional conversation with Insider.
“It’s difficult because you don’t have time to mourn,” Anghel continued, adding that the team had to temporarily put emotions aside to work quickly on editing a new version of the film for the following day.
‘This life may be finished at any moment’
Markarov, who once worked as a sound technician for rock bands, was not dissimilar to many of the young Ukrainians who rushed to defend their country after Russia invaded last February, risking their lives in the process.
An estimated 100,000 Ukrainians, many of whom had never picked up a weapon before last year, have been killed or wounded during the fighting.
Markarov, who received a Ukrainian military award for his service, had a wife and young daughter. He was described by Anghel as down-to-earth, easy to talk to, and often upbeat.
But Anghel said that Markarov had also long ago come to terms with the fact that he may die in the fighting.
One of the most poignant things about his death was a foreboding statement he gave to the filmmakers.
“This life may be finished at any moment, everything may be finished at any moment,” Markarov said in the film. “But, I think, maybe in that moment, I will know everything about life.”
Anghel said this answer was typical of the soldier, who he came to know well after being embedded with his unit in November last year. Filming largely took place in trenches near Toretsk, which at the time was at the epicenter of the fighting in the region.
“He was sort of a philosopher all the time,” said Anghel of Markarov, adding that he now regrets asking Markarov the leading question.
“In a strange way, I almost blame myself for asking it,” Anghel said. “I don’t have a mystic bone in my body, but when you get such terrible news about him getting killed, you think about everything.”
Indeed, when the journalist offered to send him footage from the documentary when it was released, Marakov gave both his cellphone number and several additional numbers belonging to relatives.
“He was like: ‘I might not be here, people are dying all over, and my six best friends were killed. So, take the phone number of my father or my mother or my wife,'” Anghel recalled.
Markarov was one of four members of the 5th Separate Assault Regiment who was killed last Wednesday. Insider was unable to verify the number of soldiers from the regiment who have died since the outset of the war.
Anghel said the UVDA team re-edited the documentary in time for its broadcast, adding an ‘in-memoriam’ section to Markarov, and is in the process of creating an edit specifically for his family.
“It is a comfort [to know] that he would have a legacy,” Anghel said.
Credit: Yahoo News