“In one day, with dead and wounded, we can advance 400 meters”, wounded soldiers testify to the violence of the counter-offensive

“What’s the matter with you? Tell me…” Lying on his makeshift stretcher, the soldier is shaking all over, in shock. “I have a very bad headache”explains the soldier. “Do you have any other injuries?“, asks the doctor. A few minutes earlier, a missile blew up his tank.

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The Ukrainian counter-offensive continues to recover the occupied territories, but in the east Kiev forces sometimes have difficulty preventing the Russians from advancing. At an advanced medical post in the Donetsk region, wounded soldiers arrive from the front for emergency first aid before being evacuated to more suitable structures. We then witness the care of a wounded soldier:

– “The bleeding from the nose, is it because of the explosion?”try to find out the doctor.
– “Maybe”replies the soldier.
– “Did you vomit?”
– “Yes.”
– “How many times ?”
– “I don’t know, guys…”
– “Shall we put him on an IV?”asks a second doctor.

“This is the truth of war”

Dmitri was in the next armored vehicle which was not hit, but which had to turn around under enemy fire: “With the driver, this is the third time in a month and a half that we have fallen into something like this.” The counter-offensive is often complicated, he confides: “It’s very hard, they are waiting for us”, says Dmitri. This time, however, the infantry are doing well.

Saïd, for several months at the medical station, has seen much worse: “We had a skull injury so severe that the brain was overflowing or abdominal perforations with the intestines sticking out… These are shocking injuries.”

Sitting on a bench, Youra waits for a stretcher to become available. Head in hands, he rewatches the film of his daily fight against the Russians. “In one day, with dead and wounded, by making several attempts, we can advance from 300 to 400 meters”explains Youra.

“Sometimes they run away, but they undermine everything behind them. Our unit is not large, we are 18. In two days, we had two dead and three wounded.”

Youra, Ukrainian soldier

at franceinfo

A terrible, but inevitable result, explains Saïd the caregiver: “If we want to win and liberate our territories, yes, there will be wounded, yes, there will be deaths. That’s the truth of war! But if we don’t resist, they will continue to methodically exterminate civilians.” In less than half an hour, the wounded were taken care of and evacuated. The able-bodied soldiers get back into their armor and go back to the front.