"Four of them couldn't walk": how a Special Operations Forces company commander evacuated a wounded soldier on foot, then went back for his comrade's body
Company commanders don't usually evacuate their soldiers personally. Their primary task is to direct their unit's actions from the command and observation post. But modern warfare has produced a rare breed of soldiers who are exceptions to the rule.
A few weeks ago, for instance, the whole of Ukraine witnessed how Vladyslav Polskyi, a company commander with the 475th Separate Assault Regiment (Code 9.2), personally evacuated two wounded soldiers.
When a video was released of Polskyi running over to them with no helmet or body armour, dragging them off a broken-down unmanned ground vehicle and loading them onto a pickup truck, it drew thousands of admiring comments. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later awarded the courageous company commander the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Gold Star.
"It was brave," Eighteen says of Polskyi's actions. Eighteen, a company commander in the 3rd Detachment of the 4th Special Operations Forces Regiment, says it is extremely rare for a company commander to take part in an evacuation personally.
Interestingly, however, at almost the same time as Vladyslav Polskyi was evacuating the two wounded soldiers, Eighteen also found himself in a situation where he could no longer stand back and direct the rescue of his men from afar.
Eighteen is 26 and has been at war since he was 19. He started out as a machine gunner with the 3rd Special Operations Forces Regiment, later serving as a marksman, sniper, squad commander and deputy group commander. He now commands a company in the 3rd Detachment of the 4th Special Operations Forces Ranger Regiment.
Recently one of his groups was on their way back from a mission when one soldier sustained a gunshot wound. Later, almost the whole group was hit by an improvised explosive device.
Four special forces soldiers were unable to walk independently, but ultimately all of them were evacuated.
Eighteen was, of course, far from the only hero in this successful rescue. The entire unit was involved in rescuing the group over the course of five days. The company commander is full of praise for the heroism and professionalism shown by all his comrades, from drone operators and medics to logistics personnel.
Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia (Life) has decided to tell the story from the perspective of Eighteen – a commander who would normally have been directing the evacuation, but this time went in himself to bring his men out.
"If the company commander himself turns up, things are about to get interesting"
It all happened in August, when a group of special forces soldiers led by a commander with the alias Santa, serving with the 4th Special Operations Forces Ranger Regiment, was tasked with ambushing Russian troops along one of their routes.
The group infiltrated about 15 km into the area, where they succeeded in killing four Russians – they offered them the chance to surrender, but they refused. When the group received the order to withdraw, they moved into a forest to get some rest. But unbeknownst to them, danger was approaching.
"We were doing reconnaissance and spotted one of the enemy going into the forest where the guys were," Eighteen says. "He approached stealthily, and we didn't spot him until almost afterwards. We ordered the guys to clear the sector the enemy soldier had entered.
Just then one of our brothers-in-arms was shot and wounded. The group opened fire on the enemy and wounded him as well. We don't know what happened to him after that because the group was focused on evacuating our wounded brother-in-arms."
The bullets had hit a special forces soldier who goes by the alias Malyi (Little One): he had been shot in the abdomen and arm and several of his fingers had been blown off. He was given first aid. But then, as the group was leaving the wooded area, they triggered one of the improvised explosive devices that the grey zone is littered with.
By some miracle, Malyi wasn't hit by the blast – but now he wasn't the group's only casualty. Four other soldiers sustained severe leg injuries. One of them, Sava, died almost immediately after being dragged into cover.
Suddenly the group that had been evacuating one wounded soldier found itself having to evacuate almost half its members.
"The guys all had leg wounds," the company commander recalls. "There were two uninjured operators left in the group, plus one medic. They pulled everyone off the open ground and into the bushes so they could give them first aid, and they were treating the wounded, all of whom were now in a serious condition.
That was when I realised I had to go into the area and get my people out. Nobody could have imagined that out of a group of eight we'd end up with four seriously wounded men and one slightly wounded. Four of them couldn't walk."
Eighteen remained in contact with the group commander and watched everything unfold live. Heavyshot drones dropped everything that Santa's group would need for the rescue: additional stretchers and medical supplies.
"We understood that we couldn't leave the guys there. And time wasn't on their side – they'd already been in the area for about six days, and there were still around 13-14 km to cover during the evacuation. Everyone realised they wouldn't be able to get out on their own," he says.
Another group of special forces soldiers, which was on its way to a mission, was redirected to help the wounded. They evacuated one soldier, but the most seriously wounded man was still in the area.
Eighteen asked his commanding officer for permission to go in and retrieve him himself. He took a medic and two soldiers from his company with him. They managed to drive part of the way, but there was still around 15 km to walk.
They had to get to Malyi and carry him out without being spotted by Russian drones – and they did it.
"The most important things here are physical fitness and your knowledge. We got there as fast as we could," Eighteen recalls. "We picked up the most seriously wounded soldier. The medic immediately treated him, and since we had additional medication with us, we patched him up…
The main thing was that they realised we were now in the same situation as them. The group commander said when he heard over the radio that we were in the area, he said: 'If the company commander himself turns up, things are about to get interesting.'"
"There were moments when he lost heart. He said: 'You don't need to carry me anywhere'"
Early in the morning, the group led by Eighteen set off. The wounded soldier remained conscious throughout. The soldiers made their way through forests, over hummocks and through wooded areas torn apart by guided aerial bombs, and every time they had to make a dash for it, it was agony for Malyi.
"He was, shall we say, a bit cranky because of his wound. He'd been hit in the abdomen, so he was in a lot of pain, and it wasn't always easy to move him. Sometimes we had to run with him, carry him, or drag him," Eighteen recalls.
Drones dropped water, food and medicine for the soldiers. Time was another enemy, as Malyi was in urgent need of medical attention. The group would only allow the wounded man to rest occasionally, letting him sleep for an hour or two after taking painkillers.
"There were moments when he couldn't take it any more and lost heart. He'd say: 'I don't want to. You don't need to carry me anywhere.' But painkillers make all the difference. Obviously he was in a lot of pain. But he did well and held on.
Towards the end, when he realised there were only two or three kilometres to go, his attitude changed completely. We'd give him a cigarette and a swig of water from the bottle cap. And he started urging us on: 'Come on, let's get through here faster, let's not stop.' We were really surprised. We were exhausted by then and wanted to rest, and he was like: 'No, no, keep going,'" Eighteen says, smiling.
The journey with the wounded soldier took 15 hours. It wasn't until midnight that Malyi was handed over to the medics.
"It was a good thing we did the exfiltration so fast, because at the hospital we found out he didn't have much time left: his liver had been punctured," Eighteen says.
By this time, another group led by one of the battalion's senior sergeants was halfway there. Santa's group, whose members had been wounded, had also managed to make some progress, but they couldn't move very fast because the soldiers were exhausted. The wounded were moved out gradually: the tourniquets gave them a little leeway in terms of time.
"His family were very grateful that we brought his body back"
Eighteen's work wasn't over yet. As soon as Malyi had been handed over to the medics, the company commander decided they had to retrieve the body of the fallen soldier, Sava.
"He hadn't been with me all that long. He was a calm person – a really motivated, determined guy who wanted to get things done. He didn't have a wife or children, but he had a mother and a sister," the commander recalls.
To bring their brother-in-arms' body back, Eighteen, his two fellow soldiers and the medic set off once again into the area they had struggled so hard to get out of. In the course of rescuing the wounded and retrieving the fallen soldier's body, the group covered more than 50 km in total.
Sava was laid to rest in the city of Kryvyi Rih. He was 35.
"We've already buried him. His family were very grateful that we brought his body back," Eighteen says.
The rescue operation took five days. Everyone except Sava made it. Despite the severe injury to Malyi's arm, doctors managed to save it.
"The legs feed the wolf, as the saying goes. And in the Special Operations Forces, the wolf is us"
"We try to evacuate all our wounded," Eighteen says. Photo: 3rd Detachment of the 4th Special Operations Forces Ranger Regiment
During his seven years of service, Eighteen has fought on many of the hottest fronts: in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
He had to personally evacuate a comrade in 2023, when FPV drones were in use, but before enemy drones had begun to dominate the skies the way they do now.
A 23-year-old soldier in the group was seriously wounded: both his arms had been blown off and his legs were injured. Eighteen and the group quickly gave him first aid and handed him over for evacuation. Compared with the recent operation, it was a piece of cake. Evacuating soldiers is much more difficult now.
"Now the sky is completely controlled by drones – both ours and the enemy's. The hardest part is getting into an area and getting back out. When you're operating in the area, there's less chance of being wounded. We used to drive in, but now we have to go in on foot, carrying a huge amount of weight.
If you have a casualty, the entire mission comes to a halt. Everyone switches to getting the wounded soldier out. And if, as in our case, you have four people who can't walk, you have to deploy every resource you have.
That's what happened this time: everyone was involved. The UAV component was working, unmanned ground vehicles were delivering supplies, and the battalion- and regiment-level electronic warfare units were operating too, providing cover across the exposed areas we had to run through," the company commander recalls.
Although unmanned ground vehicles have come a long way, rescuing wounded soldiers from the most dangerous areas is still mostly up to their comrades, Eighteen explains.
Unmanned ground vehicles take on a significant share of the logistics, but where machines cannot cope, the human factor remains decisive.
"A person can squeeze through a narrow gap, make their way through bushes, or wait things out in the ruins of a building," Eighteen says. "An unmanned ground vehicle is much more vulnerable in those conditions: it can get stuck or simply be unable to get through. And the enemy usually monitors roads and bridges.
So when there's a wounded soldier in the area, you have to take the risk and carry him out yourself, because the enemy can just destroy an unmanned ground vehicle on difficult terrain. As the saying goes, the legs feed the wolf. And in the Special Operations Forces, the wolf is us. Our work depends on our legs."
When we ask Eighteen about the most memorable operations he has taken part in, he recalls Sievierodonetsk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Velyka Novosilka. But he says the recent mission to rescue the group was particularly special to him. In his view, the most important thing for a commander is to value his people.
"We try to evacuate all our wounded. Of course there are some situations where the circumstances make that impossible," he says.
"We try to retrieve the fallen, too. Because people are our greatest asset now."
Olena Barsukova, Ukrainska Pravda.Life (Zhyttia)
Translated by Myroslava Zavadska
Edited by Teresa Pearce