Two people. A destroyed home. 15 kilometres on foot under Russian drones.
The true story of a couple from a frontline village in the Donetsk region who refused to leave their home until the very last moment.
Their rescue was only possible thanks to the vigilance of the UAV pilots of the 3rd Mechanized Battalion of the 141st Separate Mechanized Brigade and the daring of the infantrymen who came to help.
Watch the video of the event.
Life under shelling: “We thought we would survive”
Before the full-scale invasion, people lived in this village, but the war took almost all of them. Of the 20 local residents who stayed there for a long time, only two survived. According to the rescued couple, the rest had to be buried right there.
The couple refused to leave. They had food supplies, grew vegetables in their garden, kept cows and hoped the war would pass them by. There had been no electricity since 2023 — generators and solar panels for charging phones kept them going.
Even when the village came under constant shelling, they hid in the cellar and tried to keep their smallholding going.
“We’re civilians. We thought we would survive. That we would get by on our own. We have no children, no relatives… We lived off the land, we worked hard. We just wanted to live in our own home”, says the rescued man.
But the war reached their home too. An enemy artillery shell completely destroyed the house and the yard.
With no mobile signal and under constant watch from enemy drones, they realised they could no longer get out on their own.
SOS from the air and the rescue operation
The area where the village is located lies within the area of responsibility of the 141st SMB and the 20th Army Corps.
During routine surveillance of the line of contact, UAV pilots of the 3rd Mechanized Battalion spotted two civilians signalling for help.
Command decided to evacuate them. Three of the brigade’s servicemen, who were just returning from combat positions for rotation, were assigned to the operation.
The way out was extremely difficult. The group had to cover about 15 kilometres across open ground, tree lines and water crossings under constant attacks by Russian FPV drones and artillery.
To keep up the pace, the civilians had to throw away almost all their belongings, keeping only the bare essentials.
“We walked for three days. Hungry as dogs. Under the trees, in short dashes… The sky there is literally crawling with drones. We listened to the lads and camouflaged ourselves as best we could. They’re good guys, well done, they helped us a lot”, the man recalls.
“Better to become homeless than to stay there”
The entire journey to safety took three days. Despite exhaustion and constant danger, 141st SMB soldiers successfully led the couple to a safe place.
The rescued couple are now in hospital, undergoing medical examinations and recovering from their ordeal. They lost all their property, their home and their smallholding, becoming, in their own words, “homeless”.
But life is the most precious thing of all!
Asked whether they would ever want to return home if they were offered a lot of money, the woman answers categorically:
“God save us! Shoot me now, but I would never go back there. If only people could see what is going on there… I just want to live in peace. I don’t want anything else.”
This story is yet another reminder that war spares no one. And human life is the highest value, for which Ukrainian soldiers are ready to risk themselves every day.
141st SMB — One for another! And for every Ukrainian.
