Opinion | I’m a Ukrainian Soldier Who Spent Five Days in a Trench Waiting for Death

The primary, second, fourth day handed. Completely different individuals, heroes, tales got here and went. Not everybody was fortunate sufficient to remain alive. Bakhmut was burning in entrance of us — I’ll all the time bear in mind the odor of the burned metropolis. There have been useless our bodies throughout us — I’ll all the time bear in mind the pungent, bitter odor.

Folks shouted, jumped into the trenches, requested for cigarettes, shared cigarettes, requested for water, shared water. They jumped out, ran or crawled on. When the fifth day got here to an finish, heavy rain instantly started, an virtually tropical torrent. The shelling stopped for the primary time. And the walkie-talkie, whose batteries hadn’t fairly run out, rang with the command to depart.

So I left. Below a downpour, thirsty, moist, exhausted, having misplaced seven kilograms of physique weight and all ammunition, however nonetheless carrying my weapon. Once we bought 15 kilometers from the entrance line, to a transshipment level at a gasoline station, the web connection was restored and we appeared comparatively secure. I wrote to my spouse: My love, I survived. I nonetheless have a tough time believing it.

Did I need to battle? Do a whole bunch of hundreds of Ukrainians need to battle? We now have kids, households, jobs, hobbies, parcels within the mail. And a few of us have an unfinished novel in regards to the adventures of a Ukrainian in America who didn’t need to battle however couldn’t do in any other case. We additionally can’t do in any other case, as a result of our enemies are attempting as soon as extra to remove our proper to reside on our land. As a result of they’re attempting to remove our proper to freedom.

How may I not decide up a weapon right here? For many who lived for a lot of many years within the cozy arms of democracy and freedom, who don’t know the concern of captivity and torture, it’s obscure why such peaceable individuals — who from time immemorial grew wheat, mined iron and coal, and grazed cattle on boundless meadows — defend each meter of their nation with such fury. However I do know the reply. That is our great land. And it should be free.