Ukrainian soldier spent two weeks in a Russian dugout with the enemy. And convinced him to surrender himself — Ukrainian

Vadym Letunov. Photo: ukrainewin / Facebook

Vadym Letunov has been on the front lines since the very beginning of Russia's aggression in February 2022. He served in an air defense platoon and participated in the liberation of Kherson. In February of this year, the positions of the 118th brigade, where the 34-year-old sergeant was located, came under massive shelling. It lasted six to seven hours every day. The Russians targeted the dugout where he was hiding with kamikaze drones and mortars. After each strike, Letunov and another Ukrainian soldier, Sasha, patched up the damage, extinguished fires with bottles of urine, and packed clay bags back into place.

In late February, the Russians began using a new tactic: drones dropped anti-tank mines. One of them exploded near the entrance to the shelter, concussing both. Some time later, another mine fell directly on the dugout and destroyed it. As a result of the explosion, Sasha's legs were torn off, and he quickly died. Letunov realized that the next strike would kill him too, so he decided to flee.

On adrenaline, remaining only in his socks, Letunov ran in the direction where he thought Ukrainian positions were. Soon he saw a fortification in the forest and an entrance covered with a blanket.

"I started screaming. I thought our guys were inside. Then I heard a rustle. I entered the dugout and saw an old man in uniform aiming an automatic rifle at me," he recounts. "I told him I was from such-and-such a brigade, that we'd been bombed. The old man said, 'Come in.' Well, I went in. And then I heard his accent. He was Russian. I asked, 'You're not one of us, are you? Please don't kill me.'"

Two weeks of coexistence

Thus began a surreal and strange story of survival that lasted two weeks in an underground shelter. A Ukrainian and a Russian soldier – which is very rare in this war – found themselves together and were forced to coexist.

The Russian soldier, named Nikita, did not shoot Letunov. He ordered him into a narrow underground room and said he wouldn't shoot because he was unarmed. The Russian showed a handmade cross with the inscription "Save and Protect." Initially, Nikita promised to release the captive in the morning but did not do so. Letunov himself recalls expecting to be killed every minute.

As Vadym recounts, he realized that his only chance of survival was to psychologically influence his captor. Even in his youth, he was interested in psychology, and this helped him assess the situation. He found out that Nikita was a drug addict and a petty criminal released from prison to fight. He had already fled the front, been caught, and returned. His commander was a Chechen who gave orders via radio.

Nikita ordered Letunov to undress and searched his clothes and belt, hoping to find drugs, believing Kremlin propaganda that Ukrainian soldiers were "drug addicts" equipped with secret GPS beacons. On the dugout walls were plastered letters from Russian schoolchildren. They were all identical.

The Russian himself was in a dire state: cold, hungry, and alone. Once a day, a drone dropped 250 grams of ration: a packet of porridge, jam, and a small bottle of water.

Nikita's mental state was unstable: he had fits of aggression. As Letunov recalls, the Russian could suddenly point his rifle at him and threaten to kill him, but moments later, he would calm down and change his mind. This unpredictability made the situation even more dangerous.

According to Vadym, to gain the enemy's trust, he decided to pretend to be a simpleton.

"I saw that Nikita was a bit dull, but I pretended to be even dumber. I could have run away, but I didn't, so he would trust me more," he says.

Over time, Vadym's condition worsened: one of his toes began to die from gangrene. He even asked Nikita to take him out and shoot him so that his body could be seen and returned to his family. But he refused, fearing to leave the shelter.

Meanwhile, in the 118th brigade, they were convinced that Letunov had died. The commander informed his mother that there was a 95% chance her son would not return, and she fainted. However, the soldier's wife, Olesia, continued to believe he was alive and messaged him on Telegram. They have a five-year-old son.

In the shelter, Nikita gave the prisoner minimal food – a piece of chocolate and a little water. He himself complained about the conditions: lack of food, having to collect rainwater, and even drinking urine.

"One morning he told me: 'Maybe I should surrender to you?'" Letunov recounts. "I replied: 'There's no need.' But I added that the conditions were good: three meals a day, cigarettes, the Geneva Convention." This conversation, according to the Ukrainian, repeated five times.

Rescue

One day they ran out of water, and the Russian decided to go get some, claiming he knew a spot.

"We went out into the fog and heard the hum of a drone overhead. It was a Ukrainian drone. We hung a sign near a tree. It had my call sign – Cartman (from the cartoon series 'South Park') – and the brigade number. I fell to my knees, pointed at the sign, and shouted that I was Ukrainian," Vadym says.

But his brigade thought both were Russians and sent a drone to destroy them, but it crashed. A second attack drone was already preparing to strike, but it was stopped only after the commander checked Letunov's social media accounts and realized that the exhausted man was their missing comrade.

As Vadym recalls, a radio was delivered to them by drone, and he was able to explain the situation.

"I told them about Nikita, and they started asking questions. I tried to carefully hint that I was the one in captivity here, not him, and that my life depended on his mood. We immediately asked them to drop us food and water," the soldier recounts.

When four packets of dry rations were delivered to them by drone, Letunov, citing his inability to swallow, refused his share. "Was that manipulation again? Yes. He used to tell me that when he's full, he's good," Vadym explains.

Meanwhile, the Russians tried to use Nikita. They delivered a trap by drone – a log with hidden TNT inside. They ordered their soldier to place it in the forest. According to Letunov, he was not sure until the last moment whether Nikita would surrender or blow them both up.

One day, a Ukrainian armored vehicle drove up to them in the fog. Both men jumped inside, Letunov still without boots.

"I didn't believe I would get out of there until the very last moment," he says, explaining that Nikita had previously expressed the idea that he could try to capture a Ukrainian vehicle and drive it to his base. In the end, the Russian submissively surrendered and destroyed his phone.

At the brigade base, Letunov was met as a hero. He himself asked the commander to treat the prisoner well, as he had promised him this. Nikita was handed over to the SBU a couple of hours later, and most likely, he will be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Letunov himself lost a toe and is now undergoing rehabilitation after reuniting with his family in Odesa. He says he was incredibly lucky to survive:

"It's a miracle. One in a million chance, as they tell me. I was a prisoner. But in the end, it turned out the opposite: I came out of captivity already with a captive. That rarely happens."

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