The 2 Ukrainian troopers had been trapped. After repelling waves of Russian makes an attempt to storm their small bunker in a cellar close to an deserted home, the enemy was on high of them.
“They surrounded us and began throwing grenades,” stated Pvt. Vladyslav Molodykh, 39, whose name signal is Hammer. “They had been shouting, ‘Give up and also you’ll reside.’ There was no level in surrendering as a result of they’d have torn me aside.”
It was round 10 a.m. on Dec. 14.
Personal Molodykh would emerge from the freezing, cramped cellar 41 harrowing days later — alone however alive.
The battle for the bunker in Avdiivka, in japanese Ukraine, was solely a small a part of one in all dozens of clashes raging alongside a 600-mile entrance. However it highlights how laborious it’s to each defend and assault in a warfare more and more fought in bloody, close-quarter fight, with Ukrainian forces running low on shells and Russia searching for to barrel ahead with brute drive.
A member of the 71st Jager Brigade, Personal Molodykh recounted his story from a hospital mattress the place he was recovering from frostbite and different accidents. His account was supported by his commander, the troopers who rescued him, medics who handled him and unedited drone footage considered by The New York Occasions.
The Assault
Personal Molodykh, a divorced father of two, joined the military as a volunteer six months earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. By the point he was deployed late final 12 months to Avdiivka, the scene of months of fierce fighting, he was no stranger to the “zero line,” the place the enemy might be fewer than 100 toes away and drones are a continuing risk.
On Dec. 13, Personal Molodykh and three different troopers had been deployed to a place at an deserted home within the south of Avdiivka that had a close-by root cellar, usually used for maintaining greens and different meals within the winter. It was in that cellar, a two-room house with out home windows and with entry to the home solely through a slim tunnel, the place the troopers would have interaction in a determined struggle for survival.
Taking a bunker — even one that’s solely minimally fortified, just like the cellar — is bloody work. Whereas Russia has stepped up aerial bombing to ravage Ukrainian fortifications, it wants the infantry to storm positions like bunkers, the place defenders have the benefit.
The home the place Personal Molodykh was stationed was being utilized by Ukrainian forces as an remark submit, they usually had established fortified firing positions there to focus on Russian forces transferring of their route. In addition they had firing positions contained in the bunker.
However when Personal Molodykh and his unit arrived on the web site, the realm had been blanketed with a thick fog for days, permitting Russian forces to strategy undetected.
They attacked the morning after.
“We repelled the primary assault instantly,” Personal Molodykh stated.
Considering that they had time to relaxation, one of many troopers, Pvt. Ihor Tretiak, 38, whose name signal is Terminator, went to the bunker to heat his toes and Personal Molodykh joined him to make tea. The 2 different members of the group, who stayed outdoors, instantly raised the alarm.
The snow-covered streets round the home erupted in a storm of bullets and grenades. The 2 privates stated that that they had been pinned down within the bunker, firing again at about 15 to twenty Russian attackers. One Russian soldier who charged the bunker was shot useless by Personal Molodykh, and he tumbled down into the tunnel entrance, they stated.
The 2 males within the bunker stated they heard one in all their comrades outdoors begging for his life after he had been captured by Russian troopers.
“‘Don’t shoot. I wish to reside,’” Personal Tretiak, talking in one other hospital, the place he was recuperating, stated he heard the Ukrainian soldier saying. “However they only shot him, and I understood that I wouldn’t give up.”
Each troopers outdoors the bunker had been killed within the combating on Dec. 14, and for the following three days, Personal Molodykh and Personal Tretiak held off the attackers. Personal Tretiak, with shrapnel wounds in each legs from grenade explosions and his proper hand ripped aside by a bullet, reloaded magazines for his comrade.
On the fourth day, the deserted home was blown up, blocking the doorway to the cellar and trapping the 2 Ukrainian troopers.
“The Russians utterly buried it to stop us from getting out,” Personal Molodykh stated.
An Escape
Contained in the cramped bunker — one of many rooms was about 12 toes by 12 toes and the opposite was smaller — the Ukrainian privates quickly ran low on meals and had no technique of speaking with the surface world.
“We ate as soon as a day,” Personal Molodykh stated. “Half a can of canned meat or some porridge.”
After two weeks, Personal Tretiak determined that if he didn’t make a run for it, he would die from his wounds.
“I decided for myself: Both I depart now, or we each die,” he stated. “I even thought that if I got here out they usually shot me there, at the least it might be fast fairly than dying of starvation or thirst.”
Personal Molodykh determined to remain.
Personal Tretiak discovered a weak spot amongst some collapsed ceiling beams. He pushed them apart, cleared the soil and climbed out.
Quickly after, Personal Molodykh heard “a number of bursts of computerized hearth” and feared the worst.
“I believed he was killed,” he stated. He wouldn’t know that his comrade had survived till greater than three weeks later, when he left the bunker.
As Personal Tretiak emerged into the daylight, he stated he felt a quick second of euphoria, respiration recent air for the primary time in weeks. Then he heard gunfire. He dashed for a close-by quarry, dislocating his shoulder as he dove for canopy.
He wandered by the devastated streets of Avdiivka, hoping to seek out Ukrainian troopers earlier than Russian troops discovered him. He recalled how he had performed useless when a drone circled overhead. The drone swept in shut, however he stated he didn’t flinch.
When the whir of the drone light, he stored strolling, scavenging for meals and water in deserted houses.
On the second day, he noticed a soldier approaching. “Within the first seconds, I didn’t perceive who it was,” he stated. “I believed it was a Russian and it was the top.”
However it was a Ukrainian from a distinct outfit. Personal Tretiak was secure.
Alone within the Darkness
Within the bunker, Personal Molodykh huddled at nighttime after his comrade left because the earth round him shook with near-constant explosions.
One evening, he heard Russian forces discussing his destiny. They may set hearth to the place, he stated he heard them say. And so they weighed the dangers of digging him out to kill just one particular person.
Personal Molodykh ultimately ran out of meals, after which needed to attain his emaciated arm out of the opening Personal Tretiak used to flee to assemble snow for water. He ready to die.
“There was darkness in entrance of my eyes,” he stated. “I virtually misplaced consciousness.”
Then issues obtained eerily quiet. For 2 days, he didn’t hear the Russians. The explosions outdoors subsided.
At 8 a.m. on Jan. 23, he heard somebody calling his identify.
The Rescue
A 21-year-old Ukrainian non-public, who requested to be recognized by solely his name signal, Gerych, in accordance with army protocol, stated the Russians had been pushed from the realm after a brutal struggle. The Ukrainian troopers had been advised that one in all their comrades might need been alive on the place, however it had been weeks since Personal Tretiak’s escape.
When his unit reached the bunker, he known as out: “Hammer, Hammer, that is Gerych. Are you there?”
“Sure, it’s me,” got here a weak voice from underneath the particles.
Sergeant Anatolii, 37, a medic who handled Personal Molodykh, stated the person who emerged was simply flesh and bones, mentally exhausted and barely alive.
“How a lot can one particular person endure?” the sergeant questioned.
However, Gerych stated, “His eyes had been shining with happiness that he had lastly reunited along with his personal individuals.”
Personal Molodykh tried to make sense of what he noticed round him. When he went into the bunker, there had nonetheless been a neighborhood above floor.
“Now, there was just one home left on the finish of the road,” he stated. Russian corpses had been in all places, he added.
The struggle for Avdiivka was intensifying. Quickly after Personal Molodykh was rescued, the defense of the city collapsed and Russia captured the ruins of the bunker the place he and Personal Tretiak had holed up. Each troopers stated they anticipated to return to the struggle.
“If we don’t maintain them,” Personal Molodykh stated, “they’ll be in all places.”
Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting from throughout Ukraine.
