A soldier who survived a grenade explosion while storming a Russian trench in Ukraine said the bloody battle where he was wounded was “for all our freedoms”.
Brave warrior Stanislav – known as Stas – dashed through the trenches and fired his rifle in a terrifying duel. First World Warclose-to-city attack Bakhmut.
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A helmet camera captured the moment he was flung off his leg during Wednesday’s melee.
A cornered Russian soldier threw a grenade from the bunker as Sergeant Stas, 22, and his comrades attacked.
The shrapnel tore through Stas’ trigger hand, causing him to scream in pain and roll back before turning and firing back as blood gushed from his scratched fingers.
Still wearing his blood-stained pants, Stas told The Sun on Sunday: “Europeans need to know that this war is very close.
“War is here in Ukraine and not in your country, not in Europe, because we are standing here and fighting here.”
Seconds after Stas was wounded, his teammates ran out of ammo.
Staś threw him his loaded assault rifle and the soldier burst into the bunker, opening fire.
Stas dashed across the clearing and into the second trench in smoke as artillery and gunfire rumbled around.
With his good hand, he took a tourniquet from his armor and shook it open as he approached a doctor.
This is the third time he has been injured since being put in the “meat grinder”. Battle of Bakhmut.
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‘Meat grinder war’
of Moscow The Burning Offensive was the longest and bloodiest battle in Europe since the end of the century World War II.
Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed and almost every building was reduced to rubble after months of relentless shelling.
Stas said: “We must continue to fight in Bakhmut, even though it has been completely destroyed, because if not there, where is it?
“If we don’t fight there, more places will be destroyed like Bakhmut.
“Russia never stops at a territory where it has the opportunity to keep moving forward.”
Stas fled his home town of Henichesk when the Russians captured it on the first day of the invasion last year.
He drove through 14 Russian checkpoints with military papers tucked into his shoes to get to Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhzhia.
He said: “I knew I had to leave or I would later be surrounded in raids.”
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He joined the legendary 24th Aidar Battalion and was deployed to Bakhmut last summer – as a mercenary from Russia’s Wagner Corporation come to fortify Putinforce of.
He was shot in the back on 24 August while repelling an attack in the trenches, and recalls: “It felt like I was hit with a hammer.”
Then, on March 10 of this year, he was hit by mortar shrapnel during street battles against Russian marines.
He said: “I have been fighting in Bakhmut since the last months of the summer.
“I see it as a city in bloom, with electricity, internet, shops open, everything.
“Now I am seeing a place that has been completely destroyed.” But he insists the battle was “absolutely worth it”.
The latest trench attack is part of a bolt of lightning Ukrainian counterattack on the southern flank of Bakhmut.
KievThe commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said they had “slayed the entire Russian army”, and that the sudden advances of more than a mile had Moscow guessing whether this was an attack. Ukraine’s long-awaited spring public or not.
“The Russians don’t know where the attack took place, where our general offensive is, or what is happening near Bakhmut,” he added.
However, boss Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin Yesterday the final statement was available capture the city after allegedly driving Ukrainian defenders from their last fulcrum in the suburbs.
Kiev denied its claim but said the situation was “critical” as fighting raged.
‘The situation is very critical’
Prigozhin regularly made false statements and missed a series of self-imposed deadlines to take the town for his Kremlin leaders.
He appeared in a video on Saturday in military uniform and said: “Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely occupied.
“We took over the whole city, from house to house.”
However, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military confirmed: “This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut.”
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said: “Fighting is fierce in Bakhmut. The situation is very important.
“Currently, our defenders control some infrastructure and industry in the region and the private sector.”
Prigozhin admits his troops risk being trapped and surrounded if Ukraine continues lightning strike in the north-south countryside.
He angry at the Russian regular forces to “p** sing away” the hard-won land and say: “Our slopes are crumbling.”
The UK reported that Russian troops fled in “bad order” when tanks and armored vehicles from the 3rd Shock Brigade launched a surprise attack on 9 May. Stas’ 24th Aidar Battalion captured advantage by occupying high ground near Klishchiivka, only a mile from the city.
He said Moscow was desperate to move its scarce reserves to Bakhmut to try to prevent a collapse.
“Russia most likely deployed several battalions to fortify the Bakhmut area,” the MoD said. This follows Ukraine’s tactical interests.
“Given Russia’s ability to maintain relatively few permanent combat units in Ukraine, the redeployment represents a remarkable commitment by the Russian command.”
General Syrskyi said Wagner’s gun hirers, including selected prisoners from prisons, “snuck into Bakhmut like rats into a mousetrap”.
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Meanwhile Stas said he was looking forward to meeting his girlfriend Veronica.
But he insisted: “As soon as I get well, I want to go back to the front. That’s my job – I want to go back to work.
“Of course I am afraid, everyone is. But fear makes us better, it makes us sharper than our enemies and keeps us alive.”
He said moments like when he was injured “happens every day,” adding: “It’s just that they’re not all on video.”
And he insisted: “I am not a hero. I didn’t do anything heroic. If I die, I will be a hero.”
But now he believes there is a guardian angel looking for him.
“I feel very lucky,” he said. I believe there is something on it.
“I believe in angels and I believe in my skills and experience.
“Together they kept me alive.”
