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CNN Sunday Morning

Soviet Remnants Remain in Kandahar

Aired January 27, 2002 - 07:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: One American serviceman at - in Kandahar, Afghanistan is actually from Ukraine. His father was a veteran of the old Soviet army and now, he wears an American flag patch on one soldier. From Kandahar, CNN's Martin Savidge tells us about old wars and new soldiers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are ghosts at the Kandahar Airport. They dwell in the outer buildings and linger in the shadow of a still-growing U.S. military presence. At this former hub of another army, of another time, the shadowed remnants of the failed Soviet occupation bleach beneath the Afghan sun. Russian planes that once roared for the runway now rest beside it in a mass grave.

Not far away, there's spare engines still stacked in the crates they came in. A former barracks reeks of dust, decay and defeat. The Soviets do not appear so much to have left but fled.

(on camera): Signs of a hasty Russian departure can be found everywhere. In this room, it is piled two, three feet deep with old uniforms, a Russian gray coat, an old suitcase here, part of a harness for a uniform, bandages, lots of bandages, even an old boot.

(voice-over): Next to where the American forces now burn their garbage lies a junk yard, stacked 50 feet high with Soviet vehicles as abandoned as the empire that built them.

For the modern day occupiers, the past is just an oddity -- except for one.

Meet Andriy Kononenko. As a boy growing up in Soviet Ukraine, he dreamed of joining the Army, but never in his wildest imagination did he envision it would be the U.S. Army.

KONONENKO: Here we go. I'm ready to strike.

SAVIDGE: Six years ago, he moved to New York. Three years later, he was wearing the uniform of the Army's 101st Airborne. Now he stands on the parameter of America's war on terrorism. Recalling a recent conversation he had with his father, a Soviet Army veteran, when Andriy said he was heading for Afghanistan.

KONONENKO: He actually got -- I can't say scared, but he got very nervous about it.

SAVIDGE: History is not lost on the 26-year old. From his post, Andriy can see the demise of Russian domination. He can also see the irony.

KONONENKO: Who would think that in all the countries that I've ever been and will ever be would be Afghanistan. It's amazing.

SAVIDGE: Andriy is prepared to lay down his life for America, saying he chose to be here. That freedom to choose, he says, makes all the difference between the soldiers here today and the ghosts of the past.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Kandahar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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