Maskym had been fighting for more than 200 hours almost without a break when a bullet fired by a Russian sniper killed him in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
“For eight days I hadn’t slept or eaten almost anything. He couldn’t close his eyes for five seconds because the sniper could shoot him”, recalls Lilia, his mother.
He has reason to call Bakhmut “hell.” It is the city where she lost a son and left another seriously injured.
His only scant consolation is that one brother died trying to save the other’s life.
Maksym and Ivan volunteered to fight in the war when Russia decided to invade Ukraine in early 2022.
At that time Maksym was 22 years old and Ivan was 18.
Ivan, whose injuries are still visible, points out that they were inseparable.
“He was always with me and I with him. He was the person I loved the most in the world.
Iván shows some photos and videos of the two of them together: in a trench, in a military vehicle, in the middle of a break.
As the photographs move forward in time, you can see the change in both young people. As if the war gradually took away her innocence.
Their last days together were spent locked in a brutal house fight by house in Bakhmut.
“It was impossible to sleep. They attacked us every day, at all hours. Without rest”, notes Iván.
Ivan and Maksym’s unit was trapped in a windowless room.
“I’m going to die”
The brothers and the other soldiers had to punch holes in the walls with their fists to be able to shoot from inside.
It was then that they received the order to withdraw.
Iván remembers the precise moment in which he was wounded.
“I remember I was trying to reload my gun and it felt like a flash, then I felt paralysis and I fell down,” he says.
He felt the warmth of blood flowing from the wounds and covering his face. He never believed that she would survive.
“I thought ‘this has been it’. I’m going to bleed to death and I’m going to die.”
But Maksym came to his aid, loaded him up, and carried him back to the building where they had been shortly before.
“He brought me back to life. He pulled out a chipped tooth and started giving me first aid.
Lhis brother’s help included making him a hole around his neck to prevent him from drowning.
Iván has saved a video of his brother cleaning up the blood shortly after the explosion.
Another video, which has been widely shared online, shows Ivan walking with great difficulty and with a head injury, but with the flag of Ukraine in his hand, which has been the symbol of bravery and resistance in the battle of Bakhmut. .
Iván is clear that he would have died if his brother did not come to his aid. “My brother did not let me die. He saved me”.
Maksym made an urgent radio call for help.
But the doctors who tried to reach them were killed after the vehicle they were traveling in was hit by a Russian missile.
It took nine hours to wait for help to arrive.
But instead of going with his brother, Maksym decided to stay, voluntarily, to lead his unit in the battle of Bakhmut.
And a week later, Maksym died. by the shot of a Russian sniper.
hero farewell
These days, in the Ukraine, the funerals of soldiers are as numerous as the rumbles of artillery on the front line of battle.
But not all are like Maksym’s. In addition to his family, all the inhabitants of Tomakivka, the town where both brothers lived, went to say goodbye to their hero.
Many of them knelt as the procession went by on its way to the cemetery. Others threw flowers and Ukrainian flags on the coffin.
Somehow, the parents of Iván and Maksym have vicariously experienced the war that their sons are fighting.
Lilia and Serhii have spent whole nights awake, waiting for any news about them.
Often they received a text message from someone: “We are fine, mom.”
But then came the bad news.
Lilia cries over Maksym’s coffin before it is finally lowered underground, as a farewell salute sounds.
“We still can’t believe it. My soul is broken, ”she notes after the funeral.
she adds that his only reason to continue living is his youngest son.
He says that Maksym had a chance to return to Ivan, but that he was never going to abandon his younger and less experienced comrades.
“He is a hero. He is an angel. He is the light of the sun. He would never leave his brother even though he knew he himself would die.”
Ukraine may not say how many lives have been lost in this war.
But one only has to look around the cemetery to realize that the whole country You are paying an extremely high price.
In this small cemetery, in this small town, there are rows and rows of recent graves surrounded by flowers.
Maksym’s was one of three soldiers’ funerals the local parish priest conducted this week.
for Romanwho was once a soldier before being ordained, this burial was more difficult than most.
He is a family friend and prayed with Maksym and Ivan’s parents for the safe return of the brothers, whom he knew personally.
“Soldiers often have to be buried, but not your friends,” says Roman.
At the funeral, Ivan still holds the Ukrainian flag he carried when he was wounded, signed by his companions, including his brother’s. Blood from his own wounds has stained the blue and yellow fabric.
I ask him if you now regret your decision to join the army. He answers:
“We understood that we might not be coming back, but it is an honor to fight for Ukraine. For this I do not regret it in any way, ”she says firmly.
And he concludes: “My brother gave his life for our freedom. Unfortunately, freedom comes with blood.”
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See original article on BBC