Ukrainian soldier Serhii sits in his hospital bed at a public clinic in central Ukraine. He has small pieces of shrapnel embedded in his legs that doctors can’t remove. Despite the pain, he says he feels fine.
“I can’t believe I’m now in the hospital and not in the trenches. I didn’t think I would survive,” says the 36-year-old.
Serhii is an infantryman in the 80th Air Assault Brigade. He joined the army shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, leaving Finland, where he had lived and worked as a handyman for the past ten years, to enlist. In an allusion to his past, he was given the code name “Fin”.
A month ago, on October 27, you and your unit were assigned a mission: to hold the trenches on the eastern front line, on the outskirts of Bakhmut. This mission was supposed to last three days, but it lasted for two weeks, after the unit was trapped by enemy fire. For some it would be the last mission they would attend.
The unit had been under constant shelling for several days when a mortar shell exploded near the shelter where Serhii and two other men were, isolating the group as they were about to change position.
“We were all injured. I was injured in both legs and I immediately touched them to see if they were still there”, recalls Serhii.
The other two soldiers were left with broken legs and jaws. One of them was so shocked that he wanted to kill himself, so the others took the gun from him. When the evacuation team arrived, Serhii insisted that they take the other men first and that he would wait for the next opportunity.
But that opportunity never came. Whenever other units arrived, constant Russian bombardment kept them trapped and unable to reach Serhii.
Several evacuation teams attempted to reach Serhii over the next two weeks, but none made it through and some died trying.
“We were under constant enemy fire. The enemy seemed to be looking for our weak points or testing our resistance,” he recalls.
With Serhii confined to his trench, his commander used a drone to deliver him essential goods such as water, painkillers, chocolate bars and even cigarettes.
“Water was a big problem because, firstly, the drone couldn’t pick up large bottles of water. Therefore, the drone dropped small bottles wrapped in paper and tape, but not all bottles survived the fall and often broke. I enjoyed every sip of water,” says Serhii.
At the same time, Russian drones were targeting the shelter with heavier loads, with one of them dropping a grenade right next to Serhii, who had been joined by another Ukrainian soldier who had been isolated.
“It exploded near the other soldier’s back and two feet from me, near my feet. We were injured, but we were lucky to survive. It was only possible to evacuate one seriously injured soldier. At that moment I realized he was alone.”
Surrounded
For the next three days, Serhii hid in his shelter, surrounded by the enemy. With each hour that passed, Russian troops approached their position closer and closer. Serhii could hear his voices and knew his plan.
Believing he would not survive, Serhii contacted his commander via radio and whispered the enemy’s coordinates – essentially calling for artillery strikes against his own position.
Thanks to Serhii, Ukrainian artillery carried out several accurate attacks, but more Russian soldiers continued to take up positions around them.
“I was surrounded by enemies,” explains Serhii. “When they didn’t hear me, I would whisper the coordinates into the radio again and our artillery would fire at them.”
At one point, Serhii thought it was over when a Russian soldier entered his shelter. The soldier asked Serhii where he was from and the Ukrainian replied in Russian that he had suffered a head injury and asked for water. The Russian soldier did not give him water, but crawled out of the trench, apparently still unaware that Serhii was Ukrainian.
“I still can’t understand how he didn’t realize I was from the Ukrainian military. I was wearing a Ukrainian uniform. My pants were in pixels. Yes, they were dirty. But it was obvious that the boots were Ukrainian”, describes Serhii.
After all efforts to remove Serhii had been exhausted, his commander ended up telling him that the only way to get out was to crawl and pray.
“I had to crawl through the shelter where the Russians were. Holding the radio in my left hand and resting on my knees, I began to crawl. I came across a wire with a grenade. I could hear the commander on the radio correcting me, but I couldn’t reach him myself. The battery was almost dead. The commander shouted at me that I had to advance. Eventually I reached the Ukrainian positions. ‘Fin, keep moving’, they told me.”
Serhii has been recovering for over two weeks. Sitting in the hot hospital ward, he remembers how he would lick the rainwater from his trench and dream about every sip.
Telling his story to CNN, Serhii sees nothing heroic in his actions.
“You should see what our men are doing on the front line. As they fight, retreat and save their comrades. Our men are paying a very high price. They pay with their blood. All I want is to go fishing with my friends, drink a few beers and sit in silence.”
By CNN, Daria Tarasova-Markina and Anna Coren