A heroic chapter in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine arose on Thursday when a Ukrainian Marine decided to sacrifice himself by immolating himself to hinder the advance of Russian troops in Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia.
The soldier named Vitaly Shakun controlled the Henishesk Bridge in the Kherson region when the Russian troops began to advance, and the battalion decided that the only way to stop the advance of the Kremlin army was to blow up the bridge, which would allow it to Ukrainians to regroup and redeploy, according to a post on the Facebook page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It was at that moment that Shakun sent a message to the troops informing them that he was going to blow up the bridge, even though he didn’t have time to get out of the blast zone. Seconds later, the rumble was heard on the bridge where the deceased infant was.
Shakun’s heroic action made it possible to stop the Russian advance to a great extent, which helped to have a greater capacity for organization of the Ukrainian army.
“On this difficult day for our country, when the Ukrainian people are repelling the Russian occupiers in all directions, one of the most difficult places on the map of Ukraine was the Crimean isthmus, where a separate battalion of Marines met one of the first enemies”, says the publication of the component of the Ukrainian Army.
“In order to stop the advance of the attack column, it was decided blow up the Genichesky highway bridge, and Vitaliy Volodymyrovych Shakun, an engineer from a separate battalion, volunteered to perform this task. The bridge was mined, but he did not have time to leave, “the statement continued.
The action that has been highlighted by the army as heroic, will allow him to be awarded posthumous prizes for the brave decision of the.
Meanwhile, Russian forces announced they took control of a key canal that supplies drinking water to Crimea, which since 2014 suffers from a shortage of the vital liquid.
“Thanks to the use of ground regiments and airborne troops (…), Russian forces were able to reach the city of Kherson, which allowed the unblocking of the North Crimean canal and the restoration of water supply to the Crimean peninsula,” the Russian military said in a statement on Thursday.
With information from AFP