Russian Army Leaves Medic Bleeding In The Battlefield, Ukrainian Soldiers Save Her

A ritual worker picks up the body of a killed Russian soldier before loading them to a refrigerated rail car, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, at a compound of a morgue in Kharkiv, Ukraine May 22, 2022. Reuters / STRINGER

KEY POINTS

The paramedic volunteered to join the Russian army in the war in Ukraine
The injured paramedic survived after receiving first aid from Ukrainian forces
Russia has previously been accused of abandoning volunteer fighters while retreating from occupied territories

A Russian woman who volunteered to join Moscow's army in the war in Ukraine was abandoned by her comrades when she suffered an injury that left her bleeding in the battlefield, according to a Ukrainian intelligence report.

Members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine later found the paramedic, whose name was not revealed, unconscious from blood loss. The Ukrainian army provided the doctor with first aid.

"They promised that they would still take it... I kept asking them to at least somehow throw away the first-aid kit, because they ran out of first aid kits (first aid kits, note), and the bleeding didn't stop either in me or in the guys," the paramedic said during an interrogation with the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), per a translation via Google Translate. "We hoped that the evacuation would still happen. But we have already understood that they will not come for us."

This is not the first report of the Russian army abandoning their comrades. In early October, Russian troops who retreated from the strategic eastern town of Lyman left behind the bodies of at least 18 of their comrades, as per the Associated Press.

In mid-September, Ukraine also claimed that some Russian volunteer fighters were "left behind without any support or help" as the Russians retreated from occupied territories amid Ukraine's counteroffensive operations.

Ukraine also claimed that some Russian military hospitals have refused to treat volunteer fighters because they do not have regular armed forces classification.

Apart from abandoning comrades, the Russian army was also reported to have left military equipment, huge arsenals of ammunition and thousands of documents while retreating from occupied territories. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once jested that the Russian army is the "top supplier" of the Ukrainian military.

The reports come as the war between Russia and Ukraine stretches into its ninth month. Since the invasion began in February, Moscow is estimated to have lost 72,470 soldiers in combat. On top of the military death toll, Moscow has also lost 2,698 tanks, 5,501 combat armored vehicles, 1,730 artillery systems and 4,413 fuel tanks, according to estimates from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.