Nicolai Haugsted
Hero of Ukraine recalls the unimaginable cost of surviving 346 days at war.
Almost a full year passed beneath the earth before Serhii Krinitski finally emerged from the front line. By then, the Ukrainian soldier had watched his closest companion bleed to death, survived relentless drone attacks, and spent hundreds of days trapped inside a bunker that he half-jokingly described as either a shelter or a grave.
Reuters has now pieced together his extraordinary account using dozens of video diaries recorded during his deployment, offering a rare look inside a war where drones have transformed not only combat, but the daily existence of the soldiers fighting it.
A battlefield rewritten by drones
Krinitski served near the eastern Ukrainian city of Chasiv Yar from April 20, 2025, until March 31, 2026, according to both the soldier and his brigade.
Rather than operating alongside large formations, he and a handful of fellow infantrymen occupied a cramped underground position measuring roughly three by four meters. Modern drone warfare has forced both Ukrainian and Russian forces to abandon traditional troop concentrations in favor of tiny teams scattered across what soldiers now call the “kill zone”—a vast stretch of contested ground constantly watched from above.
Rotating troops has become so dangerous that many remain trapped in the same positions for months at a time.
“In the morning you joke together…”
Throughout his deployment, Krinitski documented life underground using a mobile phone, sometimes powered by batteries recovered from destroyed Russian drones.
One of the final recordings captured the aftermath of the moment that would haunt him most.
After a drone strike severed an artery in his comrade’s leg, Krinitski dragged the wounded soldier back into their bunker and desperately applied a tourniquet. It was too late.
Filming beside his friend’s body, he quietly reflected on how quickly life disappears at the front.
“In the morning you joke together. And in the evening, heaven’s gates are calling for you.”
Later that night, orders came over the radio instructing him to abandon the position as Russian forces closed in.
Nearly a year underground
Before the war, Krinitski had worked in agriculture and construction before later making a living breeding rabbits.
After being mobilized in late 2024, he received rapid military training before joining Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade and deploying to one of the fiercest sectors of the eastern front.
Daily life revolved around survival. Supply drones often took several days to break through enemy fire. Cold air seeped through damaged bunker walls. Food sometimes came from Russian soldiers killed during failed assaults, while cigarettes and abandoned weapons became unlikely reminders of the battlefield surrounding them.
According to his brigade, Krinitski reported killing 23 Russian soldiers during his deployment, often during repeated small-unit assaults launched every couple of days.
Recalling one encounter with a wounded Russian soldier who appeared to surrender before raising his weapon, Krinitski said:
“Well, I reacted. He stopped aiming at me.”
Reuters noted that it could not independently verify every aspect of his account.
The scars remain long after the fighting
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Krinitski the title of Hero of Ukraine after his return from the front.
Recognition, however, has done little to erase the psychological impact of spending 346 days almost entirely beneath the battlefield.
Speaking after returning to Kramatorsk, Krinitski described the emotional toll carried by many of the men who served alongside him.
“Many boys lost their minds.”
Visiting schools near his hometown has helped him find meaning in what he endured.
Addressing children who continue to attend classes despite the war, he said those moments reminded him why the sacrifice mattered and why protecting future generations remained worth the unimaginable cost.
