Brave Ukrainian soldier who survived grenade blast vows to keep fighting Russian invaders

A SOLDIER who survived a grenade blast as he stormed a Russian trench in Ukraine said the bloodbath battle where he was injured was "for all our freedoms".

Brave fighter Stanislav — known as Stas — had charged through trenches firing his rifle in a terrifying World War One-style assault near the city of Bakhmut.

A helmet camera captured the moment he was blasted off his feet in the close-quarters combat on Wednesday.

A cornered Russian soldier had thrown a grenade from a bunker as 22-year-old Sergeant Stas and his comrade attacked.

Shrapnel ripped through Stas's trigger hand and he yelled in pain and rolled back before spinning around and returning fire as blood gushed over his mangled fingers.

Still wearing his bloodstained trousers, Stas told The Sun on Sunday: "People in Europe need to know this war is very close.

"The war is here in Ukraine and not in your country, not in Europe, because we are standing here and fighting here."

Seconds after Stas was wounded, his comrade ran out of ammo.

Stas threw him his loaded assault rifle and the soldier charged at the bunker, shooting.

Stas dashed over open ground and into a second trench through smoke as artillery and gunfire thundered all around.

With his good hand he grabbed a tourniquet from his body armour and shook it open as he approached a medic.

It was the third time he had been injured since he was deployed to the "meat-grinder" battle of Bakhmut.

Moscow's scorched-earth assault is the longest and bloodiest battle in Europe since the end of World War Two.

Tens of thousands of troops have died and almost every building is in ruins after months of non-stop ­artillery bombardments.

Stas said: "We have to keep fighting in Bakhmut, even though it is totally destroyed, because if not there, then where?

"If we don't fight there, there will just be more places destroyed like Bakhmut.

"Russia never stopped in a territory where it had a chance to keep advancing."

Stas fled his home town of Henichesk when the Russians captured it on the first day of last year's invasion.

He drove through 14 Russian checkpoints with his military papers stuffed in his shoe to reach Ukraine-held Zaporizhzhia.

He said: "I knew I had to leave or I would have been rounded up later in the sweeps."

He joined the now legendary 24th Aidar Battalion and deployed to Bakhmut last summer — as mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group arrived to bolster Putin's forces.

He was shot in the backside on August 24 repelling a trench assault, and recalled: "It felt like I had been hit by a hammer."

Then on March 10 this year he was hit by mortar shrapnel in street-to-street battles against Russian marines.

He said: "I have been fighting in Bakhmut since the last months of summer.

"I saw it like a city in bloom, with electricity, internet, open shops, everything.

"Now I’m seeing a place that is absolutely destroyed." But he insists the battle is "totally worth it".

The latest trench assault was part of a lightning Ukrainian counter- attack on Bakhmut's southern flank.

Kyiv's commander of land forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said it had "stalled the entire Russian army", and the sudden advances of more than a mile had left Moscow guessing if this was Ukraine's long-awaited spring offensive.

He added: "The Russians do not know where the offensive is, where our general offensive is, or what is happening near Bakhmut."

Yet Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin yesterday claimed to have finally captured the city after allegedly pushing Ukraine's defenders from their final toeholds in the suburbs.

Kyiv disputed his claims but said the situation was "critical" as heavy fighting raged.

Prigozhin regularly makes false claims and missed a series of self-imposed deadlines to capture the town for his Kremlin paymasters.

He appeared in a video on ­Saturday dressed in fatigues and said: "Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken.

"We completely took the whole city, from house to house."

But a Ukraine military spokesman insisted: "This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut."

Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said: "Heavy fighting in Bakhmut. The situation is critical.

"As of now, our defenders control some industrial and infrastructure facilities in the area and the private sector."

Prigozhin admits his troops risk getting trapped and encircled if Ukraine keeps up its lightning advances in countryside to the north and south.

He raged at the regular Russian forces for "p**sing away" hard-won ground and said: "Our flanks are collapsing."

The UK MoD said Russian troops fled in "bad order" as tanks and armoured vehicles from the 3rd Assault Brigade launched a surprise attack on May 9. Stas's 24th Aidar Battalion pressed the advantage by seizing high ground near Klishchiivka, just a mile outside the city.

Britain said desperate Moscow has rushed its scarce reserves to Bakhmut to try to stem a collapse.

The MoD said: "Russia has highly likely deployed up to several ­battalions to reinforce the Bakhmut sector. This follows Ukrainian ­tactical gains.

"With Russia likely maintaining relatively few uncommitted combat units in Ukraine, the redeployment represents a notable commitment by the Russian command."

General Syrskyi said Wagner's guns-for-hire, which include ­convicts recruited from prisons, had "climbed into Bakhmut like rats into a mousetrap".

Meanwhile Stas said he was ­looking forward to seeing his girlfriend Veronica.

But he insisted: "As soon as I am fit I want to go back to the front. It's my job — I want to go back to work.

"Of course I am afraid, everyone is. But fear makes us better, it makes us sharper than our enemy, and it helps us to stay alive."

He said moments like when he was wounded "happen every day", adding: "It's just that they aren't all on video."

And he insisted: "I’m not a hero. I didn't do anything heroic. If I die I will be a hero."

But for now he believes there is a guardian angel looking out for him.

He said: "I feel very lucky. I believe there's something up there.

"I believe in angels and I believe in my skills and my experience.

"Together they have kept me alive."