Soldier blew himself up on bridge to halt Russian advance: Ukraine military

NEW DELHI: A Ukrainian soldier is being hailed as a hero for blowing himself up to destroy a bridge in an effort to stop Russian tanks from advancing further into his country.

Marine battalion engineer Vitaly Skakun Volodymyrovych was deployed to the Henichesk bridge in the southern province of Kherson when the Russian tanks advanced, the Ukrainian military said on its Facebook page.
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“On this difficult day for our country, when the Ukrainian people give way to the Russian occupiers in all directions, one of the hardest places on the map of

Ukraine

was the Crimean intersection, where one of the first enemies met a separate marine battalion,” according to the post.

When the battalion decided that the only way to block the armored column was by blowing up the bridge, Volodymyrovych volunteered to place mines on the span, the General Staff of the Armed Forces said.

By the time the bridge was rigged with explosives, Volodymyrovych realised he had no time to get to safety. The brave soldier made the ultimate sacrifice on the bridge, which connected Russian-occupied Crimea and mainland Ukraine.

“According to his brothers in arms, Vitaly got in touch [with them] and said he was going to blow up the bridge. Immediately after an explosion rang out,” the military said, adding: "Our brother died. His heroic deed significantly slowed the advance of the enemy, which allowed the unit to redeploy and organise the defence."

Military commanders said they are planning to give Volodymyrovych a posthumous award for his “heroic act”.