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- A soldier with luck: how a Russian tanker managed to capture the enemy after being blown up by a mine
A soldier with luck: how a Russian tanker managed to capture the enemy after being blown up by a mine
After the explosion on the mine, the Russian tank was immobilized, and the crew was forced to leave the car. The driver, hiding from drones, got to a Ukrainian observation post, where he was captured by the enemy. But, waiting for the right moment, the tankman rushed at the enemy and managed to win in hand-to-hand combat, and then he captured the Ukrainian and brought him to his own. The Izvestia correspondent found out how events unfolded after talking with our hero and his captured Ukrainian opponent.
"I went straight into his arms and immediately found myself under the gun"
The driver of the T-80 tank, junior Sergeant Maxim Grigoriev, was sent to perform a combat mission in the village of Skudnoye. There, he, along with other tankers, had to support the actions of our advancing troops with fire, going to direct fire and entering the gray zone.
Having hit a mine, the tank lost a track, so the crew was forced to quickly leave the immobilized vehicle, taking refuge in the nearest landing. In modern conditions, such a tank becomes a target for all means of air destruction of the enemy in a matter of minutes.
— We were chased by "birds" with discharges through the forest belt. To make it harder for the enemy to aim, we moved around so as not to be in one place. As a result, we ran so well," recalls Junior Sergeant Grigoriev.
In case of such circumstances, the crew has long had a plan to go out to their own separately, so as not to create a group target visible from the air, the fighter said. That's exactly what the tankers did: the commander and the gunner went towards the village to hide in the ruins before dusk, while Maxim went under cover of trees along the highway. There he saw a ruined building and chose it as a temporary shelter — he had to study the map and choose a route.
— The Ukrainian observer was lying in these ruins. Of course, he heard me and was waiting for me. I came straight into his arms and immediately found myself at gunpoint," said the driver.
It was also a junior sergeant, but of the 141st brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Nikolai Moskalenko. He immediately radioed his command and reported on the situation.
According to the captured Ukrainian, the command replied to him after reporting on the situation: "Do whatever you want." Maxim Grigoriev remembers more accurately the words of the Ukrainian commander, which he heard from the enemy radio: "Solve the problem yourself."
"He doesn't want to kill me inside the building so he doesn't have to drag the body away."
The Ukrainian militant was in his position alone and could not escort the prisoner without an order, because this would mean that he voluntarily left the position. Probably, the Ukrainian commander was hinting to his subordinate in this way about the murder of a prisoner of war. However, Moskalenko himself claims that this was his first combat mission, and he did not understand such a hint, because before that he had served as a driver in the rear for two years, and considered all media reports about the killings of prisoners to be fakes.
— He was surprised and said into the radio: "How am I going to solve the issue?!" And they answered him.: "In short, don't compost your brains, solve the problem yourself." And then he told me to leave. I figured that he didn't want to kill me inside the building, so as not to drag the body away later," Maxim Grigoriev recalls hearing the Ukrainians' dialogue. Our driver-mechanic clearly understood the command of the Ukrainian chief.
Realizing that if he started to leave, the Ukrainian militant would shoot him in the back, Maxim decided to enter into a dialogue with him and slowly began to approach him closer. As Moskalenko later explained, he wanted to scare our fighter by shooting at his feet. But when he tried to load the machine, the cartridge was misaligned. It is likely that out of excitement and lack of experience, he did not release the bolt carrier, but pulled it back with his hand.
— I have a thought in my head: "What am I standing and waiting for?!" I picked up a piece of concrete from the ground, threw it in his face and, while he was dodging, rushed towards him. There were about six meters there. Due to this throw, I got close to him and got into a hand—to-hand fight," the junior sergeant explained.
The Ukrainian fighter is noticeably more massive than Maxim, so the tanker understood that he would not be able to withstand a long duel. He tried to attack the enemy in the eyes, and when he covered himself, he tore off his helmet and hit him in the head with a brick fragment. So they switched places and the Ukrainian was already captured.
Then there was the road to our positions, which took more than four hours under the attacks of drones and artillery. The Russian soldier immediately warned the Ukrainian prisoner that if he did not try to escape, he would not touch him and would bring him to his own people. He even left a bulletproof vest and helmet for the prisoner so that he would not die on the road from accidental fragments. They moved together for several kilometers, Maxim holding a weapon a few meters behind the enemy, until they both reached the positions of our infantry.
Today, Junior Sergeant Maxim Grigoriev, a soldier of the 3rd battalion of the 5th Separate Guards Tank Tatsinskaya Red Banner, Order of the Suvorov Brigade, is presented with a state award for this combat episode. And Nikolay Moskalenko has already stated his desire to refuse the exchange at least until the end of hostilities.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
