To start off, I am a 23 year old Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier. I had just been posted onto the frontline 2 months after the attack on my country had began.
So anyways, there were 15 of us in a platoon(Many were not accounted for since the state of the AFU(Armed forces of Ukraine) Was in an absolute shit state at the time.).
I was an ordinary rifleman of the group at the time and our Lieutenant, Mikael, was ordered by someone from above to station themselves onto a random ass forest in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Mikael then ordered two scouts down the road to provide recon if there were to be a Russian convoy driving down the road.
To be honest, at the time it was very quiet as the war was still a very manouver-based war, so we just fucked around for abit while two of us would stand guard. Our 2IC got so fucking bored that he just walked back to the cars with two other soldiers for abit to grab their (and our) phones and shit like that.
Now its about 8 o clock, the sun had set and its really dark now, the four of them had come back with flashlights and our phones. And we sort of just hang around again.
About 10 minutes later we hear this really fucking loud sound, like an industrial generator.
Obviously being soldiers, we think its a tank or some shit so our anti tank-gunner grabs his RPG-18 and aims it down the road where we are stationed next to.
Now everybody is at battle positions in their foxhole or behind a tree, but then we smell this absolutely horrid fucking smell. It is so hard to describe but it is sort of like gasoline and a dead rat combined? Like I said, hard to describe.
Thats when the two scouts ran back to us, we clenched our rifles waiting to hear “Russians coming down the road!” Instead all we hear is a “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” While they quickly took their shit from their foxhole and absolutely gunned it out of the area.
The Lieutenant, being in an absolute state of confusion, gives the order to retreat back to the cars. We all pack our shit quickly and ditch for the cars. We had to run about four hundred metres since our leaders decided that parking the cars further away would give us better stealth.
At this point we were running our ass off and we all were just assuming the scouts saw the biggest convoy known to man and did not want to fight it. The scouts however seemed to be really fucking shaken up, they ran way ahead of us and were absolutely in shock. Tripping over small branches and shit but never failing to get up almost instantly and fucking sprint.
When we got to the cars, our Lieutenant and 2IC did a quick headcount while we were boarding onto the cars. All 16 of us were accounted for so we fucked off from the area.
This was when the smell finally stopped.
We drove for about 4 more kilometres, where we decided to stop and dig into the forest next to the road once again. (Take into account the forests in northern ukraine is fucking huge.)
So, the two scouts now stop panicking like shit and just sits down in their foxhole. Pieteri is still looking around like a madman as if someone is looking for him. Now were just looking around not knowing what to do, thinking the two scouts were just fucking with us because they didnt want to fight the russians.
The two scouts, Novisch and Pieteri goes on to tell us how they started to hear shit that did not sound human. Our Lieutenant, listening in also starts to say that he heard from other platoons that two days before we arrived, they spotted an entire convoy of vehicles torn up and shit with their crews missing.
The 2IC goes back to the cars since he keeps leaving shit behind, while we dug into our new positions.
This time, our Lieutenant decides not to send a scout and to hold security on the whole sector of the forest. While he finds out what the fuck to say to high command that he lost the previous positions. This is also when the 2IC gets back with his stupid phone.
It’s about 10 o’clock now and everyone is falling asleep and all the other foxholes so some guy volunteers to stand guard while we all slept.
After which, some of us woke up at around 3 o’clock, not much happening between the time we were sleeping to the time we woke up. Our Lieutenant was doing another head count, 15 soldiers.
So we naturally got super bored and just started playing cards with 4 other soldiers in my foxhole.
Thats when the smell came back again, this time being so fucking strong I almost puked. At this point I was absolutely sure the Russians were fucking with us with some chemical warfare, thats how bad it was.
Then we hear that fucking sound again on top of that, but now it was even worse. It sounded like fucking meat being torn? God I dont fucking know but the smell changed too with it being like a dried up nose bleed.
Now the Lieutenant is really concerned, he ran around the position to find out if somebody was doing some dumb shit, and then shouted “Where the fuck is Pieteri?” Me and the other soldiers peak out of my foxhole to see Novisch go batshit crazy after noticing Pieteri had been missing this whole time.
Now everybody is fucking shitting bricks, nobody knows what the fuck is going on. The Lieutenant getting even more concerned about why someone just disappeared. And why that fucking smell is getting worse.
The Lieutenant then just fucking orders us to get onto the road to search for the missing person, and on my life I swear to fucking god. There was an abandoned russian convoy just a few hundred metres away from us. It was all torn up and shit and I swear it was not there when we got here. We would have heard the gunshots if it had been ambushed as well.
Then Novisch starts fucking panicking and crying.
My Lieutenant then looks at the platoon, then at me. I looked back and my heart fucking dropped. There are 14 of us.
My Lieutenant gives the order to sprint back to our fucking positions immediately.
“I fucking swear on my life there were 15 of us.” Said our Lieutenant
Then my buddy joins in “Wait a minute, weren’t there 16 of us at the cars?”
Now were really fucked up, half of us packing their shit as fast as possible while the rest were gripping their rifles really tightly ready to shoot someone.
Suddenly our 2IC spots something about a hundred metres from our position, its an odd foxhole away from us. We ran towards it to find Pieteri huddled in a fucking fetus position crying.
Now two of our soldiers help him up and we decide to fuck off from the area once again as clearly some crazy shit is going on.
So once again, we start to dash for the cars when we all hear this scream. Its like a fucking cat dying and a women screaming while at the same time a soldier screaming with his guts pouring out.
We run so fast that half the platoon gets split off, my half making it to the cars. The other squad, carrying the heavy shit gets to their cars a lot slower.
Now back on the road everybody is shitting their pants. Everybody except the driver pointing guns out the windows.
Now this time, we decide to really fuck off back to Headquarters.
After about 15 minutes on the road everybody starts to calm down a little since we were all huddled in an iron tube with guns.
I want to remind you that this is still like 4 o clock in the morning so its still fucking pitch
black.
Anyways we get to Headquarters, at around 5 o clock, the high command questioning us about our early arrival back. After listening to the story, he just stared at us, then just tells us to rest in the tents nearby and get ready for the next posting tomorrow. So we just fucked off.
We put Pieteri in the medical aid tent as we really didnt know what the fuck to do with him.
Now I get comfortable and start to rest because were finally in a safe spot where we are guarded.
I enter the tent where the 2IC and the Lieutenant were talking about something.
Then the 2IC then leans to me and tells me that he had saw something crawling into Pieteri’s hole and just fell asleep next to them, sometimes standing up but then occasionally just going back down lying on the dirt. Then after awhile it just crawled out. The 2IC then said that he didn’t want to shoot at it and risk it killing everyone or friendly fire. So he just watched it.
And that on the run back to the cars, he had saw one of the soldiers at the rear suddenly stop and run towards their old positions, nobody had fucking noticed there were 16 of us running towards the car. Anyways the 2IC had wanted to call for him but he described that when he tried to, he would start feeling extremely anxious and uneasy. So he just continued running with the platoon.
Then the Lieutenant added that he had delayed behind the squad abit to make sure everybody got back to the cars safe when he saw a figure creeping up behind the platoon, he had aimed his rifle at the figure before it dashed into the woods.
Both the Lieutenant and the 2IC had decided to tell me after the ordeal since they didn’t want mass panic during the drive.
I’m guessing it was waiting all along. Thank fuck we got out quickly. It would disguise as one of our’s and wait for us to lose guard and slip in to chip away our numbers. Possibly being the fate of the abandoned convoys.
Perhaps this is why the Russians are pulling back. Destroyed Russian convoys aren’t from our doing. But whatever lurks in there.