A unit of soldiers is seen repelling a Russian ambush on the outskirts of Bakhmut in dramatic footage from the Ukrainian frontlines.
The 11-minute video depicts valiantly defending Bakhmut’s “Road of Life,” one of the final safe exits from the besieged city, by Ukrainians from the elite “Da Vinci Wolves” corps.
A Ukrainian is seen in helmet-cam film running across a stretch of desolate no-man’s land to meet with a group of soldiers positioned inside a trench bunker to inform them that a colleague has been murdered.
‘Norman….he is dead. Rest in peace’ he tells his squadmates, who respond by saying ‘yes brother, that’s how it is in war’.
The soldiers take a moment of respite in the trench as one – later called ‘Lekha’ – digs into the ground at the mouth of the dug out.
But seemingly without warning, a grenade goes off nearby and Lekha is blasted off his feet and falls on his stomach.
Lekha’s squadmates scramble to assess their comrade’s injuries, and after he gives a thumbs-up to let them know he is uninjured the rest of the unit scrambles out of the bunker and into position.
‘Orcs jumped into our trenches,’ an ally radios in to inform them. ‘Do you copy?’
‘First trench guys, nearest to you,’ they are told, and spring into action.
The Da Vinci’s are considered to be among the best trained and equipped of the volunteer corps, and with little cover they emerge into the battlefield to suppress the advancing Russians, taking positions around the bunker and gunning down targets as they crawl away.
The cameraman- believed to be the squad leader codenamed ‘Tihiy’- moves around the trench, behind a knoll for cover.
From the high ground, he targets a number of Russian soldiers in the prone position trying to get away, and directs his squadmates around the battlefield in an attempt to suppress the assault and conserve ammo.
After repelling the invaders without sustaining any further casualties, Tihiy can be heard triumphantly exclaiming: ‘What’s up orcs? It’s our field, f*** off!’
The Battle of Bakhmut has become the most bloodthirsty conflict of the war to date, which has seen Russia attempt to grind down the Ukrainian forces with endless ‘human wave’ attacks designed to overwhelm the defenders with their sheer numbers.
It has been reported that up to 42,000 Russians have been killed in their ongoing attempts to take the city, which has seen Ukrainians kill them at a rate of 7:1.
Yet Russia has slowly managed to gain control of the area by exhausting Ukraine’s supplies in a deadly war of attrition, and is now believed to control around 80% of the city.
The ‘Road of Life’ is one of the last areas of the city still under Ukrainian control, and is the only safe passage out of the city into the nearby settlement of Chasiv Yar.