“Hero”. Ukrainian soldier rescues brother, dies in Bagmut a week later

oh Soldier Maksim had been fighting for 200 hours without rest when he was killed by a Russian sniper in Baghmut, Ukraine.

“He hasn’t eaten or slept in eight days,” his mother Lilia tells BBC News. “I couldn’t close my eyes for five minutes because the sniper could shoot,” he added.

There’s a reason she calls Buckmuth “Hell” now. After all, it was the city that took the life of one son and the life of another.

Maxim and Ivan volunteered to fight last year when Russia invaded Ukraine. At that time, Maxim was 22 years old and Ivan was 18 years old.

Brother Ivan, who still bears the scars, says they are inseparable. “He was always with me and I was with him. For me, he was a very loving person”, she said.

Their last moments were spent in brutal house-to-house fighting at Bagmut. “It is impossible to sleep there. We are attacked 24 hours a day”, he says.

On the day Ivan was injured, a group of brothers were trapped in a windowless room in a building. They had to drill holes in the walls to create firing positions. It was then that they were ordered to retreat.

Ivan recalls the moment before he was wounded: “I remember I reloaded; I came out from behind a wall and there was a flash of lightning. I was paralyzed.” The soldier says he felt the heat of the blood from the wounds on his face. He didn’t think he was going to survive: “I thought it was over, I was going to bleed to death and that was it”, he added.

However, Maxim runs to his rescue and drags him into the shelter building. “He revived me, removed my broken teeth, and began to administer first aid,” Evan explains further, “which included putting a hole in my throat to prevent suffocation.”

There is no doubt that he would have died if not for Maxim’s actions. “My brother didn’t let me die. He saved me”, he asserted.

Maksym urgently called for help by radio. But the first medics to reach him were hit by a Russian anti-tank missile, killing their occupants. It will take another nine hours for him to be rescued.

Then came Maxim’s extraordinary self-sacrifice. Instead of traveling with his brother to safety, he offered to stay at Bagmut to lead his division. A week later, he was killed by a Russian sniper.

According to their mother Lilia, Maxim had the opportunity to leave with Ivan, but he did not want to abandon his younger and less experienced companions. “He is a hero. He is an angel. He is a ray of sunshine. He will not abandon his brother, even if he knows he will die”, he clarified.

It should be noted that the invasion, justified by the Russian president with the need to “denazify” and militarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was generally condemned by the international community. Russia does not refer to the conflict as a war, but always as a “special military operation”.

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