A video shows a Ukrainian battalion fighting off Russian troops in close-
combat trench warfare.
Soldiers from the "Da Vinci Wolves" battalion shoot at enemy soldiers, who
throw a grenade from mere feet away.
The video might be disturbing to some, and viewer discretion is advised.
A dramatic video shows Ukrainian soldiers dodging grenades and fighting
Russian soldiers in close-combat as they defend the last road to Bakhmut.
The video, filmed by soldiers from a renowned volunteer battalion called
the "Da Vinci Wolves," shows the realities of WWI-style trench warfare,
which has become a feature of the bloody fighting to control eastern
Ukrainian city.
In the video, filmed on a camera attached to a helmet, a soldier can be
seen crossing a barren no man's land before taking shelter in a dugout
with a group of other soldiers.
A body of a dead Ukrainian soldier is also lying in the shelter. A voice
on the recording is heard to say: "Fuck, one more than. He is dead. Rest
in peace. Yes, brother that is how war is."
Moments later, the trench is struck by a massive explosion, knocking down
the soldier who was the closest soldier to the entrance.
"Lekha, are you okay? Lekha, are you alive?" one soldier asks, and his
comrade gives him a thumbs up in response.
Soon, the soldiers receive a radio message that "orcs jumped into our
trenches," using a common derogatory nickname that Ukraine uses for their
Russian invaders.
The soldiers emerge from the dugout and an intense firefight ensues, with
artillery shells exploding at several points.
At one point, a nearby Russian soldier throws a grenade at the trench, and
Ukrainian soldiers respond with sustained gunfire.
More Russian soldiers can be seen crawling away on the other side of the
trench, and Ukrainian troops continue with the onslaught.
Russian soldier can be seen rolling on the ground, appearing injured as
smoke billows around him.
Much of the rest of the video, around 11 minutes long, shows Ukrainian
soldiers continuing to spot and target Russian soldiers amid a war-scarred
landscape of splintered trees and bomb craters.
"I've killed all orcs," one of the Ukrainian soldiers says.
The video has over 1.7 million views. Comments are full of praise for the
squad leader, with the call sign "Tihiy."
"Good leader. Gets his men out to fight, steadies and calm them down,
gives them info, clear, short orders, places his men, gives them firing
arcs, and willing to do what he demand from his men,"says one tweet.
The intimacy of the close quarter fighting is captured when "Tihiy"
shouts, amid a series of explosions, to the Russians, in a nearby trench:
"What's up orcs? It's our field, fuck off."
Moscow claims to occupy most of Bakhmut, but Ukraine still holds a vital
road connecting the city to nearby Chasiv Yar.
This road, dubbed the "road of life," is critical for Ukraine to transport
troops and supplies.
The "Da Vinci Wolves" is a battlaion of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, a
military wing of the Ukrainian nationalist movement the Right Sector that
has been intergrated into the Ukrainian Army, according to The Kyiv
Independent.
The battlaion is part of the 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade.
In March, the battalion's commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo, whose callsign was
"Da Vinci," was killed in fighting in Bakhmut. At 27, he was one of the
youngest commanders in Ukrainian history, according to the local outlet.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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