A heartbreaking video of a hand-to-hand fight between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, titled "This is the real war. At knifepoint, was published on the Telegram channel “Voin DV“.
The footage shows that the fighters first engaged in a shootout, which escalated into a fight with knives and stones.
When the fight began, both understood that only one would survive.
As military correspondent Yuri Kotenok later reported, the Russian soldier turned out to be a serviceman from Yakutia with the nickname "Tuta".
The clash occurred during an attempt by the Ukrainian armed forces to recapture the village of Trudove from the assault aviation of the 39th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the “Vostok“ group of troops.
The military correspondent of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Alexander Kots notes that the Ukrainian soldier, who lost the battle, asked the Russian not to finish him off and let him die in peace.
The Russian soldier fulfilled this request, after which the Ukrainian fighter thanked him and called him "the best fighter in the world".
Left alone, the soldier from the Ukrainian armed forces hastened his end by detonating a grenade next to him.
The Russian fighter from Yakutia managed to escape alive after a battle on foreign territory and remained outside his combat unit for another six days.
During this time, he repelled the attacking Ukrainian soldiers, set fire to warehouses and hid from drones. Grenades were thrown at him, enemy fire did not allow him to return to his own.
Wounded and hungry, he still managed to return to his company. There, Tuta managed to smoke the last cigarette he had been carrying with him for four days.
“It was a very aromatic cigarette“, the Yakut soldier recalls.