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A year in a hole: How a Ukrainian soldier survived under the front lines

2026-07-23 23:13:57Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

A year in a hole: How a Ukrainian soldier survived under the front lines

Serhii Krynitskyi watched his life slip away from the only man who had shared his living hell.

He and his friend had survived nearly a year together in a trench on the front line. They had killed Russian soldiers and scavenged for food among the dead. They had argued and laughed, amidst the horror.

The Ukrainian soldier pointed his phone camera at his comrade's lifeless body, embedded in the pit. A blood-stained leg was exposed. An artery severed by shrapnel from a bomb dropped by a drone.

“In the morning, you’re joking together,” the 42-year-old told the camera, his face stained and tired. “And in the evening, the gates of heaven are knocking.”

The isolated position of men is a consequence of the way drone warfare is revolutionizing the battlefield.

Technology has forced both sides to abandon the old practice of massing troops, artillery, and armored vehicles in a relatively narrow corridor along a long front line.

Such visible targets are easy prey for the cheap drones with which both sides have flooded the skies.

Instead, both armies now have small teams, sometimes just two or three soldiers, spread out in small, deep trenches in the ground along a battlefield about 30km wide, known as the “kill zone” because of the constant threat from drones.

These groups seek to evade detection and penetrate gaps in enemy defenses, often taking great risks for minimal territorial gains. They are usually stuck in their positions for months because it is too dangerous to rotate troops in and out.

Krynitskyi was stationed near the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine from April 20, 2025, to March 31, 2026, he and his brigade said.

He filmed a series of video diaries with a cellphone, occasionally powered by batteries salvaged from downed Russian drones. In profanity-laced recordings, he documented the inhumanity and absurdity of life in a cramped, 10-by-13-foot fortress carved into the front lines of a fierce war.

Reuters reviewed 22 videos, which were provided by his unit to bring Krynitsky's story to a wider audience, and interviewed the soldier after his deployment to piece together this account of his 346-day stint at the front, almost all spent in a dugout, which earned him the country's highest military award.

Ai duroi cikle të tmerrshme dhune: Çdo dy ditë, ushtarët rusë përparonin në këmbë në grupe të vogla, zakonisht dy ose tre veta. Ndonjëherë ata afroheshin deri në 20 metra përpara se ukrainasit të qëllonin mbi ta.

Në mëngjes, bënin shaka së bashku, dhe në mbrëmje, portat e qiellit po thërrasin.

Ai tha se kishte vrarë 23 armiq nga afër gjatë vendosjes së tij. Ai kujtoi më qartë një nga të parët e tij: një ushtar i plagosur nga një granatë. Rusi kishte bërë sikur po dorëzohej përpara se ta shënjestronte me një pushkë.

“Epo, unë reagova,” tha Krynitskyi. “Ai ndaloi së shënjestruari mua.”

Në një klip nga 24 nëntori, më shumë se 200 ditë pas vendosjes së tij në ushtri, Krynitskyi e drejtoi kamerën e tij mbi trupat e dy ushtarëve armik në qetësinë e çuditshme pasi zmbrapsi një sulm. “Budallenj,” tha ai. “U zvarritën aty ku nuk u takon.”

Njësia e Krynitskyit, Brigada e 24-të e Mekanizuar, konfirmoi se ai kishte raportuar 23 vrasje armike.

Ai kishte punuar në bujqësi dhe ndërtim derisa një dëmtim e la në një komë njëmujore. Pas kësaj, ai ia doli mbanë të siguronte jetesën si mbarështues lepujsh.

Në fund të vitit 2024, ai u arrestua nga oficerë rekrutimi në fshatin e tij Bilohir’ya në Ukrainën perëndimore. Ata e hipën në një autobus, e çuan në qytetin e Rivne dhe e trajnuan shpejt.

Ai u caktua në Brigadën e 24-të të Mekanizuar dhe u dërgua në frontin në lindje, ku ushtria pushtuese e Rusisë, që e tejkalonte ndjeshëm atë të Ukrainës, po sulmonte të ashtuquajturin “rrip fortese” të qyteteve strategjike në rajonin e Donetskut.

Ai dhe dy ushtarë të tjerë gërmuan pranë Chasiv Yar në prill 2025. Atje, ata gërmuan një gropë dhe më pas Krynitskyi do të kalonte pothuajse një vit duke jetuar nën tokë ndërsa forcat armike po afroheshin.

Burrat e dinin se sa më thellë të gërmonin, aq më të mira ishin shanset e tyre për mbijetesë. Krynitskyi bëri shaka se nuk dinte nëse ta quante gropë strehë apo varr.

Kur streha e tyre u godit nga dronë, ata duhej ta gërmonin përsëri zonën. Një shok u vra në fillim të vendosjes nga një sulm që e la Krynitskyin me tronditje dhe përkohësisht pa dëgjuar.

Krynitskyi dhe shoku i tij i mbetur luftuan gjithashtu kundër elementëve, duke mbyllur vrima për të bllokuar korrentet e ftohta të erës dhe duke i kufizuar turnet e vrojtimit në dy orë. Çdo zgjatje ishte e padurueshme.

Ndonjëherë, kalonin tre ose katër ditë para se një dron furnizimi të kalonte përmes zjarrit të armikut. Për të mbijetuar, Krynitskyi mblidhte ushqim dhe gjëra të ndryshme nga rusët e rënë në luftë.

Ushtari i këmbësorisë, i cili ka dy fëmijë adoleshentë, filloi të filmonte ditarët në gusht 2025, për t’u treguar njerëzve kur të kthehej në shtëpi se çfarë kishte përjetuar dhe për t’i kujtuar vetes.

Në një video, në shkurt të këtij viti, ai vëzhgoi cigaret që kishte mbledhur nga trupat e vdekura të armikut: Camels, Winstons, Chesterfields dhe të tjera. Ai ishte i fiksuar pas paketave, “siç mbledh ndonjë idiot pulla”.

In another video days later, he showed off mud-covered "trophy" rifles he had seized.

"This is my little arsenal," said Krynitskyi, proudly counting the 13 firearms, arranged in a row.

Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022 caused extraordinary carnage. While neither side discloses the death toll, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates Russian battlefield casualties at 1.4 million, including killed, wounded, and missing, and Ukrainian forces have suffered between 525,000 and 625,000 casualties.

Krynitskyi dug his trench in one of the deadliest parts of the killing zone. On March 11, he heard an explosion outside.

He rushed out into the fresh spring air and found his comrade on the ground, hit in the leg by a drone strike. Krynitskyi dragged him back into the pit and furiously tore at his thick cotton trousers to find the wound. He applied a bandage. It was too late to save him.

By radio order, Krynitskyi was ordered to abandon the position as the Russians moved in. That night he emerged from the pier for the last time to join several other infantrymen hiding nearby for nearly three more weeks.

Then came a perilous march to safety 25km away, made more difficult by his weakened condition after months underground.

He left behind the body of his friend – a man he had come to know deeply through countless conversations between enemy attacks.

In May, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy awarded Krynitsky the Hero of Ukraine medal for personal bravery.

Ukraine's military is full of men like him who have endured the unthinkable, said Andriy Derun, a military manager at the leading Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive, which provides equipment and other support to the armed forces.

"It can completely destroy a person," said Derun, who often speaks to troops on the front lines.

Back in Kramatorsk, the eastern city he returned to after his time at the front, Krynitskyi described the mental strain caused by the marathons at the front: “Many guys have gone crazy.”

Nearly two months since he left the front line, the wounds inside are showing on the surface. He fights back tears. His hands are shaking.

During recent visits that Krynitskyi made to schools near his home to talk to students about his experience, he began to better understand how others could benefit from his sacrifices.

“I realized there, in those schools, that it was not in vain that I protected our land and these children – so that they could study, see the clear sky.”


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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