After basic training, he was soon headed to the front lines on a bus with other Ukrainian Army recruits. We traveled part of the way with them, on country roads full of spring rain. At 30, Rogalski still had a boyish demeanor, but he turned serious when we asked him about his reasons for taking up arms against Vladimir Putin’s invading army. Ukrainian soldiers with only two weeks of basic training head to the front lines 02:57 “It’s pure evil what they did,” he told us. He described Putin as having a “mafia mentality.” We stayed in touch with Rogalski via text message. He sometimes sent videos of his experiences, which he also posted on social media. In one video he is perched on the back of an armored vehicle. In another, he and other soldiers enjoy a home-cooked meal in the courtyard of a village house. In May, he received a shrapnel wound in his leg and spent several weeks recuperating, but then returned to his battalion. In a video he shot on the way to hospital, he shows his bloodied and bandaged leg before giving the camera a smile and a thumbs up. This week, we met again with soldier Rogalski, near the city of Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine. More than seven months in uniform, much of it on the front lines, have turned him into a hardened soldier. He won a medal because he was wounded in action and is hoping for a promotion. Ukrainian army soldier Andriy Rogalski speaks to CBS News in the liberated town of Vysokopillia, in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, in early November 2022. CBS News “I saw death, I saw battle, I saw sorrow and I saw joy,” he told us, “and I understand that it was not for nothing.” His experiences have not changed his view of the Russian president. “He made a big mistake,” Rogalski told us. “We will not kneel before him.” Rogalski wanted to show us the small town of Vysokopillia, in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine. Russian forces occupied it for almost six months, leaving many of its houses in ruins. Rogalski said he helped liberate Vysokopillia and described how Ukrainian forces surrounded the town, crushing the Russians until the remaining troops fled in September. On the main street of Vysokopillia, we met 74-year-old Nadia Sabsai as she carried bottles of milk home on her bicycle. She invited us into the basement of her apartment building, where she said eight families had taken refuge during heavy fighting in the city. Sambhai showed us how the children trembled with fear and how they filled the windows with cloth to block the noise. Her car sat outside, an Audi with bullet-riddled doors and shattered windows. Shabsai told us that the Russian troops shot it for fun. They stole other cars and whatever else they decided was worth looting. Ukrainian Army soldier Andriy Rogalski (right) speaks with CBS News’ Holly Williams and local resident Nadia Sabsai in the town of Vysokopillia, in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, in early November 2022. CBS News “I want to bow to the Ukrainian soldiers,” Nadia told us. “I’m proud to see them.” Next to her, Private Rogalski told us her words made him “glow inside.” “I came to war as a call of my heart… I want to help people, I want to set people free,” he said. “It’s not right that they came and took what doesn’t belong to them.” More
