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they came in and give us everything they had. before we knew it there were rounds coming down and it was just boom, boom, boom. he tried to shelter in a half—dug trench with a ukrainian fighter alongside. and every time a round would come down, i would lean to the left, he would lean to the right and try and grab each other�*s helmets and get as low as we could and it was only a matter of time and one of the rounds just sort of landed between our legs and blew upwards. i crawled out and then that is when the russians opened up the small arm fire and took out my left arm. what was going through your mind? i was positive that i was going to die. ijust thought, i am going to sufferfor an hour and then die. it is not like the british army where we have got some helicopters to come and pick us up, we've got no morphine, it doesn't work like that out here. it is old school, second world war stuff. but their commander managed to get sharif out alive. he finally got a kozak vehicle to cross open ground under tank
boom, boom. he tried to shelter in a half—dug trench with a ukrainian fighter alongside. and every time a round would come down, i would lean to the left, he would lean to the right and try and grab each other�*s helmets and get as low as we could and it was only a matter of time and one of the rounds just sort of landed between our legs and blew upwards. i crawled out and then that is when the russians opened up the small arm fire and took out my left arm. what was going through your mind? i was positive that i was going to die. ijust thought, i am going to sufferfor an hour and then die. it is not like the british army where we have got some helicopters come and pick us up, we've got no morphine, it doesn't work like that out here. it is old school, second world war stuff. but their commander managed to get sharif out alive. he finally got a kozak vehicle to cross open ground under tank fire, picked us up and drove us away. an hour and 20 minutes i am still gasping for air with two
feel natural. as they learned to become soldiers, it was eye—opening even for those with experience. in the british army i have never come under tank fire, it is not something that happens in the british army. we have the tanks, we have the helicopters, we have the fast air and things like that. here, it is all against you. it was not long before they were involved in intense fighting. once you get the first flyover, you watch videos of fire fights then when you are there, and the rounds do go out, my training kicked in. the first time ever i experienced combat i was in a school. we got hit by multiple missiles and the intel we got, five tanks approaching and we all got out. i remember there was a mud hill and as i looked up, a tank came straight through
— was overwhelming. i've just never seen anything like it in my life. i mean, i've covered a lot of wars, but not wars where you have that force of artillery, of tank fire. just beyond this position, there's only open country. and russians. they've tried to punch through here again and again and again, and they've failed. the ukrainian armed forces are keeping them at bay. everything was being thrown towards kharkiv and to civilians and to the people there. explosion and russia was saying it was only targeting military installations. that was a lie — it was very clear that was a lie. and we knew these were lies because i covered syria for many years and russia helped bashar al—assad defeat the revolution in syria, and did that with absolute brutality, without care
drawn out and intense. the russians took huge casualties there and across that eastern front line. the bbc�*s quentin sommerville witnessed the fighting in the donbas right up close with the ukrainian army. this infantrymen is only 22 years old. he is escorting us forward. he has just told me the village over here is half held by the ukrainians and half held by the russians. explosion. artillery fire. that's two russian shells that have just come in. i think it's tank fire. the safest place for these men is in the trenches. and quentin sommerville is with us now. quentin, we got a flavour
of it there in that clip. what is life like down at trench level? well, frank, it's very muddy and very dangerous. we've just moved from winter into spring, so there was this thick mud all over every battlefront that we went through. and in that particular set of trenches down in the south of donbas, the men have been dug in there for about seven months. and actually, as i was going through that area, they were digging the trenches deeper. and the reason they were doing that was because they're facing relentless russian fire every single day. and the russians are throwing everything at them, whether it's automatic grenade fire, artillery fire, tank fire, grads — everything is being fired at that particular unit. and they're saying that whereas they do respond, they can in no way match the kind of firepower that the russians have. does the artilleryman think russia could win here? translation: it's a good question. l
and it was extraordinary to stand there and hear the shelling and feel the biting cold hear screaming and to remind yourself that this was happening in europe in 2022. it was the scale of the russian attack which was overwhelming. glass smashes. the blunt force that russia was using to smash through neighbourhoods, to get into cities. get in here! get in, get in! that blunt force that russia was using was — was overwhelming. i've just never seen anything like it in my life. i mean, i've covered a lot of wars, but not wars where you have that force of artillery, of tank fire. just beyond this position, there's only open country. and russians.
that we went through. and in that particular set of trenches down in the south of donbas, the men have been dug in there for about seven months. and actually, as i was going through that area, they were digging the trenches deeper. and the reason they were doing that was because they're facing relentless russian fire every single day. and the russians are throwing everything at them, whether it's automatic grenade fire, artillery fire, tank fire, grads — everything is being fired at that particular unit. and they're saying that whereas they do respond, they can in no way match the kind of firepower that the russians have. does dima think russia could win here? translation: it's a good question. this question does need to be addressed to the senior military. oh, that was close. later in that report, dima said to me, the russians have warehouses full of these shells. and certainly russia has lost its capability in some of the most sophisticated weaponry.
dima is only 22 years old. he is escorting us forward. he has just told me the village over here is half held by the ukrainians and half held by the russians. explosion. artillery fire. that's two russian shells that have just come in. i think it's tank fire. the safest place for these men is in the trenches. and quentin sommerville is with us now. quentin, we got a flavour of it there in that clip. what is life like down at trench level? well, frank, it's very muddy and very dangerous. we've just moved from winter into spring, so there was this thick mud all over every battlefront
i mean, i've covered a lot of wars, but not wars where you have that force of artillery, of tank fire. just beyond this position, there's only open country. and russians. they've tried to punch through here again and again and again, and they've failed. the ukrainian armed forces are keeping them at bay. everything was being thrown towards kharkiv and to civilians and to the people there. explosion. and russia was saying it was only targeting military installations. that was a lie — it was very clear that was a lie. and we knew these were lies because i covered syria for many years and russia helped bashar al—assad defeat the revolution in syria, and did that with absolute brutality, without care for civilians — that russian playbook we were seeing played out again in ukraine.