Ukrainian Man Removes Landmine From A Road With Bare Hands

A man in Ukraine was widely praised for removing a landmine from a road with his bare hands.

The viral footage, shared by the New Voice of Ukraine on Sunday, was viewed more than 2.5 million times for showing yet another instance of how Ukrainians are putting up a fight in the face of fierce aggression from their neighbor.

The steely-nerved man was seen with a cigarette in his mouth and puffing away as he carefully walked away from the roadway with the landmine in his hands, according to New York Post. The New Voice of Ukraine wrote on Twitter that the unidentified man took charge of the situation and did not wait for Ukrainian bomb disposal units to arrive. He risked “life and limb” to remove the explosive device and clear the way for the Ukrainian military, the tweet added.

The device did not detonate in the video, which captured the man walking with it into a nearby forest, Indiatimes reported.

Netizens on Twitter had plenty to say after seeing the footage.

“You may think you're tough, but are you a Ukrainian citizen removing a land mine while smoking a dart tough?” said one tweet.

Another tweet said, “I mean........idk what happens next but Ukrainians are showing the world they're built different.”

The video also caught the attention of Texas Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from southwest Houston.

Ukrainian diplomat Olexander Scherba, who has worked as Ambassador of Ukraine to Austria from 2014 to 2021, also shared the video on Twitter and wrote: “Another Braveheart moment in Ukraine. A civilian removes a mine with his bare hands.”

The viral video comes days after another Ukrainian man was captured trying to block a Russian military convoy from passing through, according to The Guardian.

“Ukrainian rushes under enemy equipment so that the occupiers do not pass,” Ukrainian new outlet HB wrote in its tweet.

The moment reminded some of the iconic “tank man” of Tiananmen Square, where a man stood in front of a column of tanks and became a symbol of defiance a day after the Chinese government violently clamped down on Tiananmen protests.