"Neutralized Russian reconnaissance group, rest of military were evacuated with a garbage truck" - machine gunner recalls memorable moments of war on frontline

Ivan Nikonchuk, a machine gunner with the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, callsign Prapor, talks about the most memorable moments of the fighting on the frontline in eastern Ukraine

The 10th Mountain Assault Brigade shared the story, Espreso.West reports.

Mountain stormtroopers were tracked by drones and fired with mortars. The positions of our soldiers were surrendered by local mercenaries, and in the meantime, the soldiers of the 10th motorized infantry battalion held the defense for several days and inflicted serious losses on Russian forces. Ivan Nikonchuk (Prapor), a machine gunner of the Kolomyia 'Edelweiss', spoke about some moments of the battles in the east of Ukraine.

Prapor has five years of military experience. The man has been working as a sailor for the past two years. But from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he went to fight as a volunteer. A warrior has a lot of hot battles in his arsenal. But the brightest one is one of the extreme ones, on the frontline.

"For two days, we, our battalion, held the defense at the borders we had set. There were attempts to knock us out of there. The local DPR and LPR (as they say, 'disposable') were walking in front, and Russian soldiers were already moving behind them. Maybe there were also Kadyrovtsy. Since there were shouts of 'Allah Akbar'. I neutralized a reconnaissance group of 'disposables', only T-shirts and sneakers left out of them. They just went forward, straight and without bending. This group retreated with huge losses. Eventually  they already started to 'smoke us out'. It seems that local collaborators also helped in this… However, no matter how ironic it sounds, they evacuated the katsaps later on a green garbage truck," Prapor says.

At first, the Ukrainian military planned to occupy the lost positions.

"Drones began to fly above us, we lay down in the green. After 20 minutes, they started shelling us with mortars. That's why we joined the company.  Kombat began to gather people. The brothers had many shrapnel wounds. Several of our people were killed… ," recalls Prapor.

The military managed to collect all the wounded. Under fire, the flag provided assistance to as many as three three hundred and personally pulled one out of Severodonetsk. Then the military retreated across the fields and to the river. And then - to a safe territory - to prepare for the next battles, the brigade notes.

Reference: The 10th Detached Mountain Assault Brigade is a military unit of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, based in Kolomyia. The brigade was formed in the city of Bila Tserkva on October 1, 2015. The main purpose of the brigade is to conduct combat operations in mountainous and forested areas.