"Tired of living in the USA and working for Masons." Brezhnev's great-grandson returned to Russia and was captured by Ukrainians during his first combat mission
"Do you know how people die on the front line now? You're simply eaten. You don't have a grave. Dogs eat you or wild boars."
Anton Milaev was born in Moscow in 1980 into a circus dynasty, founded by his grandfather — the famous Soviet circus artist Yevgeny Milaev, Leonid Brezhnev's first son-in-law.
Galina Brezhneva not only married an acrobat who was 19 years her senior, but also adopted his twin children. Their mother died in childbirth. Although the marriage ended after 10 years, Galina Brezhneva continued to maintain relations with her stepson Alexander (Anton's father) and stepdaughter Natalia.
Anton's father was Alexander Milaev, and his mother was circus artist Irina Kuznetsova. When his parents separated, Irina went to work first in Portugal, and then in Italy. Anton himself stayed with his father.
As a schoolboy, in 1995, Anton moved to the USA with his father. He previously said that due to constant rehearsals and circus performances, he could not properly attend school. In an interview with "I Want to Live," the man says that in the USA he worked on construction sites, as a taxi driver, taking on any job that brought income.
Having lived in the United States, according to the man, for 19 years, he returned to Russia because "he was tired of living there, tired of working for Masons."
Milaev says in an interview with the "I Want to Live" project that after returning, he worked as a driver in freight transportation, claiming to have a secondary vocational education in the specialty "mechanic."
"During the Soviet Union, although I was still young then, I lived better than now. I knew what tomorrow held for me. There were prospects. It was still a country, and now it's chaos,"
— the man notes and later adds:
"The Great Patriotic War united the Soviet Union." However, when asked why Russian soldiers came with weapons to people with whom, according to his own words, they were once one people, he replied: "To see Nazis."
"And did you see them?"
"No, I didn't see them. But we only found that out when we got here (into captivity — NN). I think that to change one's opinion about this war, every Russian (— NN) needs to be here," Milaev asserts and admits that he himself went to war because of approximately one million Russian rubles in debt. That's about $13,000.
The man claims that he signed a contract in 2025 in Kostroma, believing that this would give him more chances to serve further from the front line. After three weeks of training in the Luhansk region, he was sent to the Kherson region as part of the 1st battalion of the 331st regiment of the 98th Airborne Division, where he served for about two months.
As Anton Milaev recalls, his unit was mainly engaged in building fortifications and economic work. During their first combat mission in April 2026, his group was ordered to find an underground parking lot, but, according to him, it was not there. Then he, along with two other servicemen, found a small shelter ("a little corner a meter by a meter"), where they spent almost twenty-four hours.
According to Milaev, their position was almost immediately discovered by Ukrainian servicemen, and by morning they came under artillery fire. Milaev claims that there were a total of eight people in that group, of whom four survived the shelling. Those who survived dispersed in different directions, trying to escape. Milaev himself moved towards a destroyed bridge, but found himself under the observation of Ukrainian drones and machine-gun fire. Realizing there was no possibility of escape, he raised his hands and surrendered.
"The losses are great. I think that from our brigade, when I was there, about 20 people remained. It's a meat grinder there, survival is practically impossible," —
Milaev asserts and states that he now no longer considers money a sufficient reason to participate in the war. According to him, he would give up all received payments just to avoid being on the front or in captivity again.
Reflecting on the future, the man admits that he would like to return to Russia, but understands: after an exchange, he will most likely be sent to the front again. Therefore, he hopes to remain in captivity until the end of the war or a change in the situation. He calls the main mistake in his life not captivity, but the signing of the contract itself.
"Do you know how people die on the front line now? You're simply eaten. You don't have a grave. Dogs eat you or wild boars. (...) Everyone understands well: if you die, you won't make it home. And your bones won't make it. Or they'll collect a bag from everyone: a head here, an arm there. That's what they'll bring. There are no graves, nothing to collect. It's better to stay alive than to die in Kherson for someone to eat you," Milaev asserts.
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ярчайший образец скудоумия.