«Every man has to do it»: a resident of Mykolaiv spoke about his participation in the battles in the east

Yevgeny from Mykolaiv volunteered for the army in 2022. Before the war, he worked as a surveyor and had no military experience, but quickly mastered the skills of a grenade launcher. He served as part of the 81st Airborne Assault Brigade, defending the country in the east. One day, enemy mortar shelling nearly cost him his life.

The story of the military man was published on the page of the Mykolaiv Regional Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support.

«There was mortar shelling, the 120th mortar landed behind my back. It cut the left side,» Yevhenii remembers.

In the battle, the man suffered numerous injuries that could deprive him of his hand. However, amputation was avoided.

«At first I applied the tourniquet, it was a shock. Then he realized that his hand was not working, decided to relax, felt his hand, squeezed again — repeated this several times. The hospital said that this saved the hand,» says the soldier.

On the front line, Yevhenii repeatedly saved a bulletproof vest damaged by shrapnel. He was pulled out several times in hospitals, but it was not possible to get all of them at once.

«Already when I was in Mykolaiv for rehabilitation, I felt that my fingers began to go numb. Our neurosurgeons extracted the fragment from the bone itself,» says the man.

Today, Yevhenii works in the regional procurement center in Mykolaiv. After the injury, he moved here, but morally, he says, it is not easy.

«Sometimes people say, why didn't you die there? It is very difficult to survive. Here, in the Territorial Recruitment Center, we are all temporary, I think that we will be transferred to the front anyway, because there are not enough people,» suggests Yevhenii.

Despite everything, he is ready to continue defending the country, as he did in 2022. His decision to voluntarily go to the army remains a principled one for him.

«Every man has to do it, first in his head. Because if they come home, he won't be able to do anything,» emphasizes the soldier.

We will remind you that earlier a military man from the Mykolaiv region spoke about his participation in the defense of Voznesensk: «There is a tank 70 meters away from me, its muzzle is directly at me.»