Another video from foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine was shared online. The video shows the efforts of the Ukrainian and foreign fighters to resist Russian forces and artillery North of Kharkiv. Chaos in the retreating groups is seen on the video, as well as losses and injuries among the personnel.
The son of Helen Grant, a member of the British Parliament from the Tory Party, Ben Grant, a 30-year-old former Royal Marine, was seen on the video. He arrived in Ukraine in March. Ben Grant attempted to help his injured comrade, former Grenadier Guardsman Dean Arthur who was injured by a landmine during an intense firefight. The two Britons were with a team of around 15 foreign volunteers who have been supporting Ukrainian forces, The Telegraph reported.
Ben Grant also shared another video showing a Russian transporter vehicle hit with a NLAW anti-tank missile.
A longer version of the video posted separately shows the Russian BTG turning to fire on them after the missile strike, and the group is forced to make their hasty retreat. The main characters of the videos were interviewed by The Telegraph in an attempt to glorify their courage shown in the struggle on foreign territory for a foreign state.
Mr Grant, a veteran of Afghanistan, said the fighting was worse than any he had previously experienced.
He said: “I think we must have been spotted by drones beforehand and they had set up their lines… so as we went in the mass firefight broke out where you see [in the video] what we saw.
“We were walking in single file as the contact happened, Deano was at the end of my team, when he went to take a knee… we were shooting, getting our heads down and shooting them. I was terrified but driven to complete my most important goal, which at the time was getting him and my team out of the danger.
“What was so scary was being so limited by trying to carry someone, when I can’t pull my weapon up, while there are attack helicopters overhead and tanks firing through the woods. It was unreal – I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.”
He said the mine – thought to have been remote-controlled – went off near Mr Arthur, “which has blown half of his leg off”, adding: “Trying to do this [first aid] mid-firefight while there are Russians shooting over us and around us is just so difficult.”
The wounded Mr Arthur, 42, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said: “All I remember is we got contacted, we advanced at the contact. Let out an RPG [rocket propelled grenade] at the positions. A few seconds later I was on the ground.
“One of the guys came to me straight away, put a tourniquet on. It was excruciating pain, with rounds incoming. Mortars, artillery, all that was coming in. I remember the guys grabbing me, saying: ‘Let’s go, let’s go’. We met a medic, he patched me up. Shot of morphine.
“You’ve seen the footage, you can hear rounds coming. I don’t remember much, it’s in and out. I remember being put on a stretcher the last kilometre. They got me out, man, they got me out.
“This type of stuff, this type of camaraderie is only forged in these situations. If the coin was flipped, it was one of those guys, I would have got them out. I was a real lucky boy at the end of the day. So many guys didn’t come back that day.”
Despite media attempts to represent the adventures of foreign fighters on the Ukrainian front lines as an example of their courage and fighting spirit, the footage and their own comments clearly demonstrate that Ukrainian units and foreign mercenaries are retreating from their positions under pressure from Russian forces. The decision not to fight at close range with the forces led by Russia is rather a good option for foreign fighters, since if they are taken hostage, foreign mercenaries may face the death penalty in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
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