A Ukrainian soldier who was declared dead after a grenade exploded next to him on the frontlines has turned up alive after crawling for three days through minefields and Russian-controlled territory.
The veteran from Ukraine’s military intelligence unit, Artan, found himself surrounded ‘deep inside enemy held territory’ with five prisoners and two other soldiers from his squad, he told the Kyiv Post.
An ‘intense’ firefight broke out between the opposing forces, and ‘most of the prisoners’ were killed ‘by their own comrades’ fire, the soldier, codenamed ‘Khokhol’, claimed.
As he ordered his men to retreat, the Russian forces targeted him with grenades and RPGs. Pinned down and only able to ‘push deeper into the field’, the lone soldier managed ‘about 100 metres’ before a grenade landed next to him and he ‘blacked out’.
The soldier said he wondered why the men had not tried to advance on his position – until he realised he was trapped in a minefield. He had no choice but to keep moving.
‘It was the beginning of a long struggle to find a way out of this situation,’ he said. ‘It lasted three days and two nights.
‘During this time, I was practically crawling the whole way because I was stuck between two opposing sides that would open fire on sensing any movement… I navigated only by the sounds of gunfire.’
The soldier recounted his brave journey home across enemy-controlled territory last autumn
The small team passed by two enemy positions unnoticed but were confronted as they approached a guard tower
‘Khokhol’, who takes his codename from a Russian slur for Ukrainians, said that his squad had taken the brave decision to go in after his platoon became surrounded sometime in the autumn.
A storm group was set up to break through the enemy line and clear the way to relieve the trapped soldiers.
‘Khokhol’ was tasked with leading the operation on the frontlines of the war, inside enemy-held territory.
On the way back, they found themselves without drone support, and their night vision goggles had been drained of battery.
‘At a critical moment’ they made a wrong turn and found themselves ‘deep inside’ enemy held territory.
The small team passed by two enemy positions unnoticed but were confronted as they approached a guard tower.
‘Our guys were caught off guard. We didn’t even realise at that moment that we were already on enemy ground.’
They were pressed for a password and answered with ‘Khokhol’, leading to a moment of confusion before both sides opened fire.
In the affray, some of the prisoners were killed and ‘Khokhol’ ordered a retreat.
The conflict ensued over a tiny space of just 10 to 15 metres.
Stuck in the middle, ‘right in the crossfire’, he was helpless as the enemy focused their fire on him.
The soldier told how he blacked out when a grenade landed nearby.
The veteran from Ukraine’s military intelligence unit, Artan, found himself surrounded ‘deep inside enemy held territory’ with five prisoners and two other soldiers from his squad
The soldier moved through the forests for days without food or water, or rain
Waking up in a minefield with fragments still lodged in his head and body, ‘Khokhol’ crawled ‘about three and a half kilometres’ over a period three days to safety, knowing that either side could open fire if he became exposed.
He followed the sounds of gunfire and slept in bursts of five to ten minutes as he made his way back from enemy territory.
Nursing a burst eardrum and with no hope of finding food or water, he said his body was ‘running on whatever resources I had left’ throughout the perilous journey home.
Physically and mentally exhausted, he said he was ‘curious’ about how his mission would end, recognising that he was already beginning to hallucinate visions of his wife.
In a moment of despair, he told her that he could not carry on: ‘I’m staying here.’
Even though he knew he was hallucinating, he took comfort from her words of encouragement, telling him to keep pushing.
The teams sent out to find ‘Khokhol’ and bring him home had been unsuccessful.
Not knowing whether he was lost, dead or had been taken prisoner, he was officially listed as being Missing in Action.
But within his unit, he was recorded as being dead. His wife had been told and preparations for his funeral had already started.
It would be another day before ‘Khokhol’ reached safety. But even as he came within metres of his comrades, he still did not know what awaited him.
Charged only by a chance discovery of four walnuts and some water, he gathered the strength to keep moving until he saw movement around a bunker.
He stripped and cleaned his weapon and approached the building not knowing what he was about to step into.
A view of the damaged Lgov town after the Ukrainian army launched attacks in Kursk Oblast in August last year
A Russian self-propelled multiple rocket launcher is fired toward Ukrainian position at an undisclosed location in the Kursk region, February 6, 2025
‘Khokhol’ said he was ‘seconds’ from opening fire when he heard voices in Ukrainian over the radio – and realised he was with allies.
But still the journey was not over. The Ukrainians gave him food and water, but the road to the exfiltration site was still four kilometres (2.5 miles) away and under fire.
It was a week before the lone soldier was able to make contact with command, having gone into hell and back on just fumes, knowing that his chances of making it out alive were next to nil.
His first call was to his wife. He apologised for taking so long.
‘If you hadn’t crawled out, I would have killed you myself!’ she shot back.
Rounding off his incredible first hand account of soldiering behind the frontlines in Ukraine, ‘Khokhol’ told the Kyiv Post: ‘Right now, we all have one goal – to end this war. To clear the sky over our children’s heads. To give them a future.’
Ukrainian forces launched a shock incursion over the border into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, rapidly sweeping through around 18 miles of land.
It was unclear where ‘Khokhol’ and his men were at the time they came under fire last autumn.
Ukraine may have been aided in its attack by ‘detailed intelligence gathering’, the International Institute for Strategic Studies assessed in October.
U.S. President Donald Trump was last night set to finally lift the ban on military aid and intelligence support for Ukraine after cutting off both in the wake of the disastrous Oval Office meeting with President Zelensky in late February.
The reversal followed a plea by Sir Keir Starmer ahead of peace talks in Saudi Arabia to end the three-year conflict.
