A pro-Russian Telegram channel has shared a video it says shows a Russian soldier successfully holding off a group of Ukrainian troops after capturing a trench.
The drone footage shared on the Readovka channel was accompanied by a post that described how it showed a soldier from Russia’s 8th motorized rifle company of the 37th brigade taking on “12 Ukrainian soldiers.”
“Our fighter heroically held the trench while they threw grenades at him,” said the post shared on Saturday. As of Monday it had received more than one million views.
Set to dramatic music, aerial footage, which has also been shared on Reddit, shows troops in trenches grouped on one side and a soldier, purportedly from Russia, on the other. Grenades are thrown and there are explosions, while at the end of the clip the Ukrainian troops scamper away to safety.
“The Ukrainian militants decided to escape from the stronghold and stop the firefight,” Readovka said in the post, claiming that a Russian soldier had “single-handedly taken the enemy’s position and proved that he was a true hero.”
“One warrior in the field,” it said describing how the footage was “worthy of a film adaptation.”
The video sparked a lively thread from social media users praising the purported actions of the Russian soldier and also asking why had he been left on his own.
Newsweek has been unable to verify the footage in which no location or date was given and has emailed the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.
The incident comes as Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky spoke about the slow pace of Kyiv’s counteroffensive, which started around June 4 and aims to retake Russian-occupied territory. Amid incremental Ukrainian gains, he revealed that both sides are exchanging heavy artillery fire.
In an interview that aired on Sunday, Zelensky told CBS News that even if the counteroffensive was slow “we must not give Putin a break.”
The head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, told The Economist that Kyiv aimed to deplete Russian air defenses and disable and damage military facilities with drone strikes within Russia.
This comes amid a spate of strikes on Russian territory that have increased in frequency and which Moscow has blamed Kyiv for without Ukraine directly taking responsibility. Budanov told the newspaper that drone strikes within Russia “will certainly facilitate operations to liberate our territories.”
Meanwhile, Russian troops attacked Kharkiv, Bohodukhiv, Chuhuiv, Kupiansk, and Izium districts across Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast over the weekend, according to local authorities.
The village of Podoly in the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv was shelled on Sunday and four Russian S-300 missiles hit civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv.
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