“Vladlen Tatarsky served in the same unit as me.” Mineev – about the words of Usyk, return to battles and the birth of a daughter

Vladimir Mineev is 33 years old, he is one of the strongest middleweights (up to 84 kg) in Russian mixed martial arts. On September 25, a correspondent called Mineev to inquire about the results of the battle between Vyacheslav Datsik and Alexander Emelianenko, but the athlete replied that he had received a summons and planned to return to service military. It was previously known that Mineev served under contract in the airborne forces in Ulyanovsk. Mineev fought one more fight and in February 2023 left for the NWO zone. A year ago, the younger brother of an MMA fighter died in the first battles near Gostomel.

Mineev returns to Ulyanovsk on the occasion of the imminent birth of his daughter, talks to journalists during a press approach and answers questions from for about 15 minutes.

– Volunteer and military commissar Vladlen Tatarsky posted your photo on his Telegram channel on March 22, a few days before his death in the terrorist attack. Did you know each other well?

– We communicated. I can’t say we were friends, because friend is a very serious word, but we were like-minded people. We always had something to talk about and I was waiting for him to come back from St. Petersburg to Donetsk. We spoke on the phone that morning, and in the evening they broke the news to me. I didn’t even believe it at first. We didn’t just talk about life, we talked about the creation of new drones, the integration of new technologies, we talked about the craftsmen who give drones to the front. By the way, he served in the same unit as me.

– He signed the photo with you”[Владимир] I rode with the guys on a delyuga. What it is?

– Combat exit.

“Where do you serve?”

– I serve in military unit 12595, while I am a private reconnaissance sapper. I carry out all the missions provided for by the charter. What else to say? I myself was interested when I lived a civilian life, but now I understand these guys who, after being there, briefly talk about themselves.

– Were you afraid?

– Was. For the family, not for me. The first bombardment, the first rain of mortar. You are helpless, you cannot do anything. Such a feeling.

– You said that you read the memoirs of Soviet pilots. Is there a big difference between what you got and what you imagined?

– I would say this: when you read, it seems to you that everything looks a certain way. When you get there, everything looks different. Time passes, you understand that they wrote about these feelings, and not about what you imagined. You shoot for the first time, it seems strong. And then you get used to it. I come back here – it also takes time to adjust to a peaceful life.

– During the three months you spent there, did you shoot anything other than a Kalashnikov assault rifle?

– Of course: from a machine gun, from a boot (SPG – Soviet anti-tank grenade launcher, – “”), from AGS … 338th rifle, Lobaev’s rifle.

– Was it such that a person was injured in your field of vision?

– It was, yes.

– Shocking the first time?

– Probably, yes, but already on the machine, as in the courses of tactical medicine. You do everything, then you come to your senses. The boy was not seriously injured.

What is the duration of your contract?

– During two years.

– And when the SVO is over, you will remain a paratrooper?

– It turned out like this, I was originally a paratrooper, but my senior comrades from the Veles club from Donetsk, which I represent, said that they would like to see me in their ranks, and I ended up in the special forces of the first army corps. He was in the DPR, and now he is in Russia. So when the SVO is over, I still remain a commando and I stay in Donetsk.

I have certain political ambitions, but I submitted documents for the preliminary vote of candidates to the deputies of the People’s Congress of the DPR. Registration in Donetsk is not necessary for this, but I hope it will be: we are engaged in the restoration of Mariupol. There are companies that help restore sports industry facilities. You see, there’s nothing left of the city because of what happened. The city needs support, builders consult me ​​on certain sports facilities. I think that friendship with builders will allow me to buy an apartment at a good price.

– Do you train in the service?

– For my part, I influenced the sporting life of the unit. At first, I started running for exercises before getting up, because I still plan to return to the ring. And little by little my colleagues began to join me. There are honored sports masters in my unit, with whom I get to train. We organized a small sports corner, we hung a bag, there are weights of 16, 24 and 32 kg. I took wrestling rubber with me. The hammer has been welded, there is a bar and benches. I have MMA gloves in there. I didn’t take big boxers, but the guy has one. You can get everything you need.

There’s never been such a thing to work in the ring. But the work that can be done out of season can be done there entirely.

– We posted a text with the title “Mortar doesn’t care what kind of athlete you are.” Does that sound intense to you?

– It is clear that no one will go hand in hand with the enemy now, now everything is completely different – rarely and you find yourself in a direct collision with small arms. Now everything is driven by artillery, and that’s a big threat. If we’re talking about support from behind, there’s a lot of help out there from the guys who make chain link netting to fit over the trenches. In terms of electronic warfare, there is a big one coming from Russia: drones are literally improved every week and the rear is not far behind. Today in Saransk I was at Moscow State University. Ogarev and met with the guys who are engaged in the drone reconnaissance system, determining that he flew into the contact zone. We agreed that I would hand out prototypes to our guys, we would fill out questionnaires and give feedback. Food heating and personnel heating systems are being developed, which could operate covertly from thermal imagers.

– Is it wise to ask yourself about sport, for example, by 2023?

– Kamil Hajiyev is in no hurry to let me go from sports, he offers to compete in kickboxing and do it in September. To be honest, I agree. I think it will be possible to come to an agreement with the management of the unit so that they give me a month and a half to prepare. I will try to keep myself in shape, in the unit there are masters of sports in boxing, ZMS in hand-to-hand combat.

– One of the most popular Ukrainian athletes, Oleksandr Usyk, who has always been good to Russia, recently went live and indulged in outright insults against Russians. You have a different position in relation to the enemy – wouldn’t you insult?

– We respect our opponent, those guys who fight with us. We do not respect the position. A lot of guys we used to train with at the same club are now on the other side. I think there is no need to lose a human face, because what distinguishes us from our enemies: we have a task – we carry it out, honestly, purely without deviating from the course. And we often come across the fact that they act against us despicably, they don’t just kill the guys, but laugh at them, torture them. And not only soldiers, but also civilians. Why do we say that the holy war is the Second World War? And now it continues. We are not fighting with Ukraine or the Ukrainians, we are fighting with the values ​​they are trying to impose on us from the West. There are people who profess pure Satanism, and it shows on the battlefield. I have now managed to see many things with my own eyes, and I have not changed my mind: we are fighting for truth, for orthodoxy.

– Do you open private messages on social networks after you leave for NWO?

-VS [социальной сетью, признанной экстремистской] I haven’t been friends since the start of the NWO, we just keep covering events there out of inertia and nothing more, but now I’ve entered the negotiation phase with VK, I think you can just settle there and make it your primary Resource.

As for posts, I have this attitude to this: if a person has time to write some kind of comment and also discuss this topic, then, in principle, he has nothing else to do. And how can a person who has nothing to do criticize me. There is a sentence: “Those who are better than us, they do not depend on us.” So comments are written by those who are worse than us.

When are you going back to the war zone? And with whom do you find it more difficult to talk about it: with your mother or with your wife?

– With my mother, of course. She found out only at the last moment and thought that I was in a training camp in the Moscow region. Then she calmed down. Now I have a layoff until June 16, so I can meet my daughter and come back. I hope my wife will not let me down in this regard.

– Have you thought of a name?

We want to call her Vera. Because faith is the only thing that saves us. We are expecting the end of May or the beginning of June, myself I am already asking my wife: “When, when?!” Today I will leave for Saransk for the festival of the Association of Student Sports Clubs of Russia. It is symbolic for me, Saransk is the city of my childhood, we lived there a lot with my family, there are many people who have supported me for a long time.

Did you manage to witness at least one battle at the front?

— I watched the kickboxing fight between Enomoto and Shlemenko. It’s a big trend that MMA fighters are starting to fight in kickboxing. This fight and Marif Piraev’s fight are proof of that. Our kickboxing federation attracts an untargeted audience.

– Your kickboxing opponent Artem Vakhitov has switched to MMA and will fight at Open FC. What awaits a kickboxer who makes the switch to MMA?

– It suggests that Artem supported the trend when forwards moved to MMA, like Adesanya, Pereira, like I did once. As for Artyom, I still don’t know who he is fighting against. I think he will objectively win this fight, but it will be possible to talk about his level when he fights with normal opponents, and not with “bags”.

– You had a quote in one of your old interviews that there are three main qualities for an MMA fighter: spirit, arrogance, discipline. And in front?

Probably the same thing, but in different proportions. I also probably talked about me, and I had such a recipe. But there, the installation works very clearly: sweat saves blood. The better prepared you are, the more you study this or that specialty, the easier it will be for you. They say the strongest are lucky, so you have to be strong to be lucky.

Watch the UFC Fight Night 223 tournament on and Match! Fighter”. On “Match! Fighter” live will start on May 20 at 22:55 Moscow time, on “” – on May 21 at 02:00 Moscow time. The broadcasts will also be available on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.