The explosion at the entrance to the trench, the smoke, the grenades, the shouts, the insults, the shots among the splintered trees and broken branches, lying down on the ground to avoid being hit.

The horror of war captured in first person by a Ukrainian soldier in Bakhmut: this is the impressive video released by the Ukrainian battalion "Da Vinci Wolves", which shows the harsh reality of a trench warfare for control of the city in eastern Ukraine .

In the video, Kiev soldiers defend what is now known as the "road of life", the link between Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar . The images come from the camera attached to a helmet of one of the soldiers of the battalion, who bears the name of Dmytro Kotsiubailo, 27, one of the youngest commanders of the Ukrainian army killed on March 7 near Bakhmut . "Da Vinci" was his nom de guerre.

In the footage a soldier, call sign "Tihiy", is seen crossing a no man's land before taking refuge in a trench with a group of other soldiers. Here he finds the body of a dead Ukrainian soldier. « Shit, one more. Is dead. Rest in peace. Yes, brother, this is war ,” he says in the video.

Moments later an explosion is seen in the trenches, hitting the soldier closest to the entrance. “Lekha, are you okay? Lekha, are you alive?” someone asks, and the stricken soldier gives a thumbs up in response. Soon, the soldiers receive a radio message that the "orcs" - as the Russians are referred to in the video - have "jumped into the trenches" of Ukraine .

The soldiers emerge from the hole and an intense firefight ensues, with artillery shells exploding in multiple places . At one point, a Russian soldier is seen throwing a grenade at the trench, and Ukrainian soldiers respond with sustained shots. A fight so close as to be within earshot: «What's up orcs? It's our camp, fuck you», shouts "Tihiy" towards the Russians .

The video is about 11 minutes long, here we publish an excerpt: published on the battalion's social channels, it immediately went viral.

(Unioneonline/L)

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