Numerous propaganda outlets are publishing stories about a soldier who was able to escape when a Ukrainian drone bombarded him with grenades. The video of this episode, which originally appeared on the Telegram channel "Operation Z: Russian Spring Military Commissars", gained fame after it was published on the website of the British newspaper The Telegraph on November 7.
Two days later, RIA Novosti, RBC, NTV, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Tsargrad and many others published materials about a soldier lying in a trench and coldly throwing away two grenades that fell on him. RIA wrote :
“The Russian soldier who became famous after the video with the attack from the Ukrainian copter turned out to be an infantryman from the Leningrad region, the authorities of the region said.
“These shots under the heading 'The Russian soldier is invincible' have spread all over the world. We are proud of the courage and reaction of our fellow countryman – infantryman Alexei from the 138th separate motorized rifle brigade stationed in the village of Kamenka, Vyborgsky district of the Leningrad region. We thank the commanders for their training! To all the fighters of the brigade – great military luck, ”the press service said in a statement.”
Telegram-channel "SIGNAL" clarified :
“SIGNAL correspondents managed to find a legendary fighter who was able to escape from a deadly drone attack.
The shooting was carried out near the village of Malaya Rogan this spring. In the frame, Alexei S. is a fighter of the 138th separate guards motorized rifle brigade. He is alive and well."
Olga Skabeeva, in the 60 Minutes program, for added drama, stated that the soldier was wounded, but this, frankly, is doubtful, given how quickly he runs away from the scene of the drone attack at the end of the video.
It would seem that the plot can be put an end to. But on November 17, already familiar footage with a fighter throwing grenades reappeared in the Big Game program on Channel One, and presenter Vyacheslav Nikonov said :
“All TV channels of all countries of the world showed these shots when grenades fall down from a Ukrainian drone and our fighter calmly throws them away from him, not allowing them to explode. You know, all the TV channels were looking for who it was, what kind of fighter, what his name was, and now the “Big Game” found this hero. His name is Kirill Matyushin, he is from Nizhny Novgorod.”
These words are followed by a report in which Matyushin says:
“It so happened that I was left alone in the trench, everyone was in hiding there. I remember the buzzing, I lay down.
Correspondent Ekaterina Loginova says that the first two grenades fell almost exactly next to him, and thanks to this, he easily reached for them and threw them away. The third fell at a distance of several meters, he could not reach and was wounded in the arm and concussion. It sounds strange, because in the video the soldier does not react at the moment when the fragment was supposed to arrive, and then he stands in the trench, leaning on both hands, and runs. Matyushin continues:
“I had adrenaline, or a painful shock, but they already told me that they simply knocked me down, put a tourniquet on me and sent me to the doctors at the headquarters, that’s all.”
To prove his words, Matyushin shows a damaged left hand. The reporter comments:
“Kirill Matyushin himself is sure that he was lucky with the accuracy of the drone operator. Thanks to fate for the fact that the left hand was crippled, the right one remained in the ranks, which means that soon you can go back to the guys, to your own motorized rifle.”
But this is not the last episode in the history of a fighter who famously coped with grenades dropped from a drone. On November 21, Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article by Roman Lyalin and Anna Bezrukova under the heading “I wanted to pretend to be dead, but they got excited”: A Russian hero soldier told how the Armed Forces of Ukraine mercilessly threw NATO grenades at him. Yes, they again found that same soldier, but now his name is Rustam Khudaynurov, he is a native of Donetsk and serves not in the Russian Armed Forces, but in the “People's Militia of the DPR”. He also talks about this combat episode, and the number of grenades dropped on him increased markedly compared to the story of Kirill Matyushin:
“There were 8 ammunition in total: shells from a grenade launcher and a grenade. Basically, NATO ammunition was thrown at me. Many of them did not explode. I threw away three grenades … ”, the fighter told the publication.
He also added that he wanted to pretend to be dead, but the enemy continued to throw grenades at him. “They got excited,” said Rustam Khudaynurov.
“The main thing is not to panic, not to fall into a stupor, just take it and throw it away. It also helped me to think about my children. Well, and I think the guardian angel saved me, because it just can’t be lucky!”, he added.
Khudaynurov 's story was also told by Vesti, Moskovsky Komsomolets, Arguments and Facts, Gazeta.ru, REN and 360 TV channels. a video interview appeared on the network, where he says :
“A “bird” flew up, threw off the first grenade, I was finished off. Passed out a little, crawled a little. Well, he began to fly up constantly, threw off, threw off eight pieces like that. Of these, of these eight, about three nearby each time exploded and about four dropped on me. I took and … [gestures how he discarded grenades]. And then this grenade, when the last time it almost fell near the barrel, I took it, threw it away and it exploded near my feet. <…> He got up and went to his own, barely reached.
Khudaynurov tells this while lying in a hospital bed. One hand is healthy, the other is motionless, the hand is not visible in the frame. But unlike Matyushin, his right hand is damaged.