A brave Ukrainian soldier caught on camera storming a Russian trench and surviving a grenade blast near the town of Bakhmut has vowed to keep fighting Putin’s forces.
Sergeant Stanislav, a 22-year-old soldier known as Stas, was caught off guard on Wednesday. The moment was captured with a helmet camera.
In the clip, a Russian soldier throws a grenade as he is cornered by the Ukrainian fighters, before the shrapnel rips through Stas’s hand.
Speak against The sun on Sunday, still wearing his bloody pants, Stas said, ‘I’m not a hero. I haven’t done anything heroic. When I die I’ll be a hero.’
He added that the only reason the war is confined to Ukraine is “because we stand here and fight here.”
In the clip, a Russian soldier throws a hand grenade as he is cornered by the Ukrainian fighters before the shrapnel rips through Stas’s hand.
Sergeant Stanislav, a 22-year-old known as Stas, was caught off guard on Wednesday. The moment was captured with a helmet camera
“People in Europe need to know that this war is very close,” he added.
This was the third time Stas had been wounded fighting in Bakhmut, the “ruined” city he described as a “meat grinder.”
But the fighter says he will continue to fight there to keep other parts of Ukraine.
“We have to keep fighting in Bakhmut, even if it’s totally destroyed, because if it’s not there, where is it?”
He added: “Russia never stopped in an area where it had a chance to advance further.”
The helmet images show how Stas falls back from the pain after the explosion. His hand then enters the shot, gushing with blood.
Stas’ comrade is out of ammunition, so he throws him his loaded rifle.
His comrade then charges at the bunker shooting, giving Stas time to run into an open trench to find a medic.
Stas wants to get back to work on the frontline as soon as he’s fit, but admits he’s scared.
“Of course I’m afraid, so is everyone,” he said. “But fear makes us better, it makes us sharper than our enemy, and it helps us stay alive.”
The Battle of Bakhmut resulted in the death of tens of thousands of troops, with almost every building destroyed.
Stas fled his home Henichesk last year when it was captured by Russia on the first day of the invasion.
He stuffed his military papers into his shoe and drove past 14 Russian checkpoints.
He joined the 24th Aidar Battalion and was deployed to Bakhmut last summer, where he was shot in the back on August 24 and hit by mortar shrapnel on March 10.
As his hand continues to bleed, Stas’ comrade runs out of ammunition, so he throws his loaded rifle at him.
The helmet footage shows Stas falling back from the pain after the blast, then his hand enters the gunshot, streaming with blood
He said that when he arrived in Bakhmut, the city was “blooming, with electricity, internet, shops open,” but in his time there he has seen it “absolutely devastated.”
However, Stas insists that the ruin is “definitely worth it.”
Stas arrived in Bakhmut last year just as Russia’s Wagner Group came to support Putin’s forces.
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed today that Russia has taken control of the city after the bloody eight-month battle by Wagner’s private army.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s private army, has now said his troops will leave the city on Thursday and hand it over to the Russian army.
“Until May 25, we will inspect it completely, create the necessary defense lines and hand them over to the army so that they can continue to operate, and we will go to field camps ourselves,” he said.
The Wagner group has been praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces have targeted Bakhmut for eight months. That reports CNN.
Mr Zelensky said he thought Ukraine had lost the city, but added: “You have to understand there is nothing there. She [the Russians] everything destroyed.’
“For today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts,” he said. “There’s nothing here.”