KYIV (Nettavisen): The bullets hail between bright green deciduous trees on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine. A helmet camera films the drama from the perspective of a British ex-soldier fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
In the middle of the exchange of fire, the alien warrior discovers that his friend is badly injured.
“Come on, Deano!” Come on, Brother! You’ve got this. We gotta move now or we’re gonna die! ». (“Come on, Deano! Come on, brother! You can do this. We have to move now, or we’ll die!”, Journ. Note)
The clips – which are exclusively shared with Nettavisen and The Telegraph – show British, American and Ukrainian soldiers carrying their comrade away from the front line and the bullet rain, while doing life-saving first aid.
Triggered by girl screams
The ex-soldier behind the camera is Ben Grant, whom Nettavisen met at the train station in Lviv only a few days after the invasion started in February.
He then told Nettavisen that he had not yet said anything about the plan to his mother, Helen Grant, who is a recognized minister in her home country.
– It started with me watching a video from the war on social media. The video shows a fighter jet firing a rocket into a residential building, and then you hear a little girl screaming, Ben said then.
This was what triggered him to go down and fight with Ukrainian forces.
The fighting in the east
Now – almost three months later – Nettavisen meets him again, in central Ukraine.
– It has been some “crazy” weeks, I must say, says Ben, while he looks at a couple of the friends in the unit.
Ben’s unit now consists of between 10 and 15 ex-soldiers from Britain and the United States. Several were among the gang Nettavisen interviewed in Lviv, while others travel to the war at a later date. For several weeks, they have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian soldiers, and have had success in the counter-offensive against the areas around Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.
Several members of the unit have now taken time off from fighting in the east to visit their best friend, Dean, who is in hospital.
Dean is the man who is rescued in the video.
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Thrown down
– We went through a thick forest to prepare for an attack on Russian forces in a village north of Kharkiv, Ben begins to explain.
The mission was to break through the line of defense of the Russians, and take back the village. But the Russians were prepared.
– My team was in the front, and we went in one row when the contact happened.
The bullets began to hail, and Ben’s unit threw itself down and fired back. Dean was at the back of the line, and ran out to the side to get a shot.
– Dean went on his knees right next to their outer defense. Someone must have fired a remote-detonated mine, and Dean just happened to be right next to one of them – blowing half his leg off.
In the video you can see the moment Ben realizes that it is his friend who is injured. By then, an ex-soldier from the USA has already had a tourniquet (tight belt that stops the blood supply, so that a person does not bleed too much, journ. Note) on the injured leg.
Ben and another soldier take Dean’s arms over their shoulders and move away from the shooting. Ben constantly shouts encouraging words to his friend. After a while, they lay Dean down on the ground, and you hear him scream in pain.
Watch the full video of the dramatic rescue operation:
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Blasting
Ben Grant has received a lot of attention from the British media since his mother became a British minister. On Thursday, the Guardian wrote that the Russians claim Grant was involved in killing a Chechen commander after pictures of the British in battle in Ukraine. Among other things, a video shows the group of soldiers blowing up an armored personnel vehicle.
Terrified
Ben admits he was terrified.
– I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I was scared, but I had a drive to complete the most important goal – which at the time was to get him and my team out of danger.
– What was so scary was to be limited by carrying someone, and not being able to lift the weapon. At the same time, enemy helicopters are flying over our heads, and tanks are firing through the forest. It was completely unreal.
Finally, the gang gets help from paramedics, who patch Dean together while the bangs resound in the woods.
– We carried him over five kilometers. It’s the most tiring thing I’ve ever done.
The online newspaper will also be shown other video clips of the events afterwards.
After five kilometers, the unit meets an evacuation team that puts Dean on a stretcher. He is then placed in an ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital.
Unbearable pain
– To be honest, there is very little I remember from it – very little, Dean says to Nettavisen from the hospital bed.
After the first treatment at the hospital in Kharkiv, he has now been transferred to another hospital in central Ukraine.
– All I remember is that we went in contact, we started the counter-offensive, I fired a rocket in their positions, and a few seconds later I was on the ground. One of the guys ran straight away and put on a tourniquet.
He describes the pain as unbearable.
– They shot everything they had at us. Grenades, artillery, everything flew around us. I remember the guys grabbing me, shouting “Run, run!”. We met a “medic”, he patched me up, gave me morphine – then I was “good to go”, laughs Dean.
“Real warfare”
Even after the events, he believes it is an honor to be allowed to fight with the Ukrainians.
– They are such a good people. I thought Russia would roll over Ukraine, and that’s why I went here in March.
Dean Arthur, who arrived one week after Nettavisen met Ben in Lviv, has previously served in the Guards Division in England.
– That was what shocked me. What these guys are doing is real warfare. When attacking, you will usually attack when you have better odds than the enemy. The Ukrainians are always “underdogs” and they still win. It is an absolute honor to work with them. You would only realize it if it was your freedom and your country that were threatened, says Dean.
– They do this every single day. Not just those on the front lines, but the volunteers, the hospitals, everyone.
Pour in the accident
He remembers only fragments of the dramatic evacuation.
– You’ve seen the video. The shots hail around us. I remember I was laid on a stretcher the last mile. Then I was put on a pickup, then an ambulance, and hospitalized.
– I was a lucky boy, after all. People tell me; “Oh, it’s so awful what’s happened,” but why? There were so many guys who did not come home that day. We won the position, but then the artillery was called.
Now, three weeks after the incident, he sees that there was luck in the accident.
– My wounds heal well. There is no nerve damage – it was the muscles that took the hit.
He takes a break.
– Muscle growth is quite painful, he laughs.
He is clearly moved when he talks about the other ex-soldiers he works with.
– They’re my guys. This type of camaraderie is only created in these situations. When you are under fire, the man on the right and the man on the left are your whole world. If the coin was flipped, if it was one of those guys, then I would get them out, says Dean, who is sorry for not being with the device yet.
– They’re my family. I have one mission – to get myself well again, and come back and help them in the capacity I can.
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