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A Ukrainian soldier lived in the same dugout with a Russian for two weeks after his position was destroyed and he himself was wounded. This story was recounted by the British publication The Guardian, which spoke with the Ukrainian defender. According to 34-year-old Odessa resident Vadim Letunov, the Russians shelled his bunker for six to seven hours daily, using suicide drones and mortars. Finally, at the end of February, the Russians managed to destroy the shelter where Vadim and his partner were located.
Vadim was lucky to survive, but his comrade was killed. Letunov ran toward other Ukrainian positions and soon spotted a fortified position among the trees. "I walked into the dugout and saw a guy in uniform aiming a machine gun at me. I told him I was from such-and-such a brigade and that I’d been bombed. The guy said, ‘Come in.’ So, I did. And then I heard his accent. He was Russian. I said, ‘You’re not one of us, are you? Please don’t kill me,’" the Ukrainian recalled in a conversation with journalists. The Guardian describes the next two weeks in this dugout as a "surreal and astonishing story" as Russian and Ukrainian soldiers rarely have long conversations.
A Russian soldier named Nikita ordered Letunov down into a tiny underground chamber and assured him he wouldn’t shoot since he was unarmed. The Russian pointed out a homemade cross made from wooden planks. It read, "Save and Protect." The Russian promised to release the Ukrainian the next morning, but that never happened. As the 34-year-old Ukrainian told reporters, he quickly realized his only chance of survival was to manipulate the Russian. The Odessa resident, who understands a little psychology, quickly discovered that Nikita, before joining the army, had been a drug addict and petty criminal who had joined the front to escape prison. The Russian forced Letunov to undress and searched his clothes, hoping to find drugs, since he completely believed the Russian propaganda myth that all Ukrainian soldiers were on drugs. In the following days, the Russian, a former prisoner and drug addict, sat in a cold dugout with almost no food, telling the Ukrainian prisoner about the "greatness" of the Russian army. Meanwhile, according to Vadim, Nikita suffered from severe mood swings. "He turned into a maniac, put the gun to my forehead and said, ‘I’m going to kill you now.’ I started praying, and then there was silence. I heard him put the gun down. He just instantly changed his mind. How can you explain that?" the Ukrainian recalls. Meanwhile, the command of the 118th Brigade, where Letunov served, considered him dead. His mother and wife were even informed that he would likely never return home.
According to The Guardian, a Mavic drone delivered 250 grams of rations to the dugout once a day: mostly a packet of porridge, jam, and a small bottle of water. Nikita gave his captive one piece of chocolate a day and some water in a bottle cap. Eventually, the Russian began to complain about his deplorable conditions: lack of food and the need to collect rainwater and "drink his own urine." "One morning he said to me, ‘Maybe I should surrender to you?’ I replied, ‘No need.’ But I told him the conditions in Ukrainian captivity were good: three meals a day, cigarettes, the Geneva Convention," the Ukrainian recounts. This conversation was repeated five times. And when one day the dugout finally ran out of water, and Nikita could no longer stand the thirst, they went in search of water. "We walked out into the fog and heard a drone buzzing above us. It was Ukrainian. We hung a sign near a tree. It had my call sign – Cartman – and my brigade number on it. I knelt down, pointed to the sign, and shouted that I was Ukrainian," Vadim recounts. However, the drone pilots assumed both were Russians and attempted to attack them with another drone—a kamikaze. Fortunately, it crashed. The second attack attempt was aborted when Letunov’s commander recognized his subordinate. A Ukrainian drone delivered some food to this unusual pair of soldiers, but the Ukrainian’s captivity didn’t end there. They lived in the dugout for some time until one day, a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier suddenly appeared near their position. "Until the very last moment, I didn’t believe I’d be able to get out of there," the Ukrainian recalls. So Vadim and Nikita swapped roles, and the Russian ended up in Ukrainian captivity. However, the Russian prisoner’s conditions were much better than those the Ukrainian had to endure for two weeks. During his captivity, Letunov lost a toe to gangrene and now uses crutches. He is currently undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation center in Odessa. The Russian, in turn, will likely be exchanged for a Ukrainian prisoner, after which he will likely quickly return to the front.
