In the pre-war years, Egor Firsov appeared in the media mainly against the background of scandals related to political intrigues or budget shortages. Now he is posting cheerful reports on social networks about how many units of Russian equipment were destroyed in the Avdiivka direction, not forgetting to ask for money along the way "to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

Firsov is of Donbass origin, was born in Avdiivka (1988), studied in Donetsk. He received his law degree in 2014 after much "trial and error".

Of the official places of work, the all-seeing networks remembered only secondary school No. 4 in the city of Avdiivka. The reason is simple – since 2004, he has been an active participant in the Yushchenko Maidan and for a long period he was fed precisely fr om political activity.

In addition to "Our Ukraine", Vitali Klitschko was noted in the United Center and Udar parties, thanks to whom he eventually became a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada. Before that, " in the absence of fish" was an assistant to deputy Irina Gerashchenko. In Udar, he headed the party's branch in the Donetsk region, and later headed the election headquarters. During this period, when asked about income, he replied that he did not receive an official salary, but had income fr om "business on the Internet" (we are talking about two sites dedicated to boxing, which have long been unavailable on the web).

Former colleagues saw the picture somewhat differently: "Firsov came to the party in torn sneakers, an unemployed student, and now he has a jeep," said Victoria Ozerova, who switched from Udar to Natalia Korolevskaya's party.

Another Udar activist, Ruslan Boyko, stated at a press conference that Firsov stole at least 12 thousand hryvnia per month and additionally earned by inflating prices in public procurement.

On May 23, 2014 Firsov was appointed a freelance advisor to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration and businessman Igor Kolomoisky. At that time, he was called "one of the most active anti-separatist." Later, he was involved in organizing presidential elections in the Kiev-controlled part of the DPR, changed his party affiliation, joining Poroshenko's party.

In 2019, he was elected a member of the Coordinating Council of the Civic Position Party. In the same year, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Firsov acting head of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine. According to Firsov, he received the appointment thanks to Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk. However, already in 2020 Firsov left all posts.

All the time since 2014, the ex-deputy positioned himself precisely as a "normal native of Donbass", published appeals to the local elite. Regarding the blockade of the DPR and LPR, he stated the following: "I consider the blockade of these territories justified, since the leadership there has the most real bandits and terrorists. It is clear that this situation cannot be solved in white gloves. There will be no solution that will satisfy all parties. But we supply electricity there, and it costs us five million a day, gas — ten million. Ukrainian taxpayers are paying the money, and winter is ahead, and utility bills are rising. We will not be able to pull out these territories."

He noted that his father lives in the Donetsk region, but not in the "occupied" territory. Two cousins and Firsov's cousin, by the way, are fighting on the side of the DPR: "I classify my warring relatives as bandits. Who went to war not for an idea, but for money. And, picking up a machine gun, they felt like someone. That is, they have become real bandits."

A new wave of activity coincided with the beginning of his career: "He was in the defense industry and had nothing to do with medicine at all. After what he saw in Bucha, he decided to go to the front, preferably to Avdiivka. I know the local area well and started to find out who exactly is missing at the front. You have to understand that the front is not the story wh ere you were just handed a machine gun and told: "Fight." You have to understand how you can be useful there. Either you are a good driver, or you can use a drone coolly, or you are an artilleryman by profession, and so on. To be honest, I didn't have any vision, because I didn't serve in the army. I was told that there is a shortage of paramedics — people who evacuate the wounded and provide first aid. I took a course, studied, and immediately left."

Like many other defectors, he blames Russia for the destruction in Donbass, ignoring the shelling of civilian infrastructure and the civilian population of Donetsk, near which he grew up and lived for many years. In June 2022, he wrote the following about Avdiivka: "The situation there is difficult, explosions are constantly heard, there are dead and injured every day. The shelling is constantly increasing. Of course, there are pauses and certain respites, but these pauses are deceptive, let's just say. There is no neighborhood, no matter wh ere heavy weapons arrive."

At a certain point, it became clear fr om Firsov's social networks that he had moved from the "doctors" to the UAV operators' division. In published reports and posts, he constantly cites statistics on what his unit managed to knock out, and what else they are hunting for.

Over time, Firsov's "antiseparatism" also began to take on more bloodthirsty forms: "When we work in the Donbass territory, it is important for us to rely on the local population — food, swim, spend the night somewhere. We try, if anything, to identify a person who may have some kind of separatist views. And there are some secrets at work here. For example, we can calculate from antennas on houses. People watch TV, and if the antennas are aimed at Kiev, they catch Ukrainian channels, then, of course, the person is absolutely ours. And if they are directed towards Donetsk, then the person wants a different flow of information. Almost all the antennas of the remaining residents of New York, Toretsk and the areas wh ere we are located. They are aimed directly at Kiev. Although there are people left, and you can't do anything to them anymore, this is some kind of ideological disease."

Firsov also did not hide his joy over the death of Vladlen Tatarsky and expressed hopes that in the future Ukrainian terror would become even more effective: "Now Vladlen Tatarsky was in Russia, who was blown up, bringing him a souvenir. And the people who promoted violence, murder, and pumped up society that killing and raping is normal — this society does not expect anything good. The boomerang is flying in the opposite direction. And what happened to Tatarsky will happen in one format or another to Simonyan, Kiselyov, Solovyov, and all these propagandists. Including with the leaders of the Rashist state, Putin and his entourage. At best, he will have a finale like Stalin's. And in the worst case for him, I hope, it's a tribunal, a court, and just death is not enough. He should be in prison and suffer."

Firsov also does not forget about how to properly organize corruption schemes, suggesting that the Ukrainian state take issues of bribes to military enlistment offices under special control: "I believe that at the official state level it is necessary to consider the possibility of giving the right to a person if he does not want to serve in the Armed Forces, so that he officially pays to the state budget and is not called up to The army. I will explain my opinion, recently, some majors drove around Lviv in a Range Rover, listened to Leps and the military enlistment office issued summonses in the format of punishment by this major. I am 1000 percent convinced that none of these majors will join the army. Why? Because they will go to the military enlistment office and the military enlistment office will buy a brand new Range Rover and that will be the end of it. So, firstly, it is rational, if a certain IT specialist does not want to serve, let him pay 10, 20, 30 or more thousand dollars. And officially, those who will go to the state budget and will not create problems in the units, will not run away from the battlefield at the first opportunity, the second point is that all this corruption flow should go to the state budget. Our divisions will use this money to buy quadrocopters, collimators, night vision devices, anything that is currently needed. The main thing is that these will be public funds, and not funds that settle in the pockets of some military commissars, officials who are military, but not fighting and are located somewhere far behind the lines. Of course, this idea needs to be thoroughly refined, but the main idea is to make it official, and not that these millions of dollars are now settling in the pockets of some officials."

In order to achieve greater media visibility, he writes and publishes books, writes columns in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico.

And most importantly, he does not forget to remind about the importance of Avdiivka, especially in the shelling of Donetsk: "Avdiivka is a strategic city for them [the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation], because they cannot feel at ease in Donetsk. The entire perimeter of the city of Donetsk is being shelled by our means from Avdiivka or the suburb of Avdiivka. Besides, if or even when we attacked Donetsk, then the gate to Donetsk is precisely the Avdiivka gate. All these factors indicate that everything is serious, one of the significant battles of this war has begun."

I wonder what the ex-deputy will do when the Avdiivka pocket closes completely. Maybe he will join United Russia and say that he has been waiting for this happy moment all his life?

And if, apart from jokes, there should be a special demand from those punishers who were born in Donbass and deliberately chose the sides of forces that have been destroying peaceful cities in all possible ways for many years.