The Current - A Canadian’s brush with death on Ukraine's front lines

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

A Canadian soldier fighting in Ukraine had a recent brush with death after being badly wounded in an attack from Russian forces. The CBC’s David Common brings us a rare window into the war through the eyes of this Canadian fighter, known as Shadow.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Let's go guys! Move, move, guys! Move, move, move! The sounds of the front line of the war in Ukraine, of a unit of foreign fighters coming under fire from the Russians and making a hasty, desperate retreat. That unit includes a Canadian, a soldier known as Shadow.

Go, go! No, no, no! Shadow! No, go! No, no, no! For Shadow! No, boys! Let's go, Shadow! Move, move! The unit made it to safety, but for Shadow, it was a very close call. The CBC's David Common has been following Shadow's story. With access, we don't often get to the front lines of that war. David, good morning. Good morning. Tell us a little bit more about what we just heard.

It is that rare window, Rebecca, into the war from the eyes of a Canadian. So as you say, Shadow is his name. It's his nom de guerre. We're not identifying him by his actual name because all of these people who are over there are worried, what happens if the Russians capture me? There's all this stuff all over social media and traditional media. They worry about how that would be used against them. But this was an extremely close call. Just listen to how he describes it. We were fighting all summer long.

And on the last mission, I got hit. on the last mission, I got hit. Basically, it was a mortar round, 120 caliber mortar round, which fell right beside us, right? And yeah, it took me out right away. David, how is he now? Very seriously injured. We were speaking to him in a Ukrainian hospital where he's being treated. He's had a number of surgeries. You know, when he was on the battlefield, he was bleeding out. And it was the quick action of others that ultimately saved his life, even as they continued to be under sustained mortar and gunfire over that entire time. The way that we know about this is partly because of his account when we spoke to him. And there is this videotape that recorded the entire incident.

And that's some of the sounds that you're hearing in it. He is in this foxhole, dug into the forest ground in Ukrainian territory, very close to the Russians, and the recording is continuing, a recording on a body-worn camera from his battlefield commander. We'll talk more about what actually happened on the battlefield, but tell us more about who he is, why he's there. Right. So we first met him a couple of years ago, very early on in this chapter of the war. He's 34 years old now. He was a soldier with the Canadian Armed Forces. He's from Sherbrooke, Quebec, had all of the infantry training you would expect. And after his time with the Armed Forces was complete, this war in Ukraine kicks off. And he

says, you know what, there is a fight that I could be useful in. And he, like hundreds of others in this country, traveled to Ukraine to do what they could, to bring their skills to bear. When we first met him, he was a case study, frankly, in PTSD. He had just witnessed some of the most intense, most dangerous battles at the very beginning of the war. That's when those Russians were en masse trying to get into Kiev, taking those surrounding communities. There were bodies everywhere. There were mass graves. He saw action in places like Irpin. And we have stayed in touch with Shadow over the years. He sort of joined the International Legion officially. So he's no longer just some random fighter there. And he has had a number of rotations on the most front of front lines.

So where was he this last time? So he was in the Donbass. This is an area that Russia is putting a lot of resources and pressure on Ukrainian forces. Unfortunately for the Ukrainians, that Russian pressure is working. The Russians are making slow progress in what is a meat grinder of a war. You know, people on both sides are being killed in huge numbers. And I hate to say it like this. I am in some ways amazed Shadow is still alive, given the number of people who have been killed doing missions like he has done. This was a three-month combat rotation, meaning you're on the front lines

basically for three months. This was the last patrol of that rotation. He was supposed to take a break like the next day, maybe go back to Quebec, see his family. They're of course worried about him. And then five o'clock in the morning,

things go badly. The goal was to go into a forest full of Russians, set up defensive position, and then defend our position when the Russians try to assault. But maybe we started walking maybe 15 minutes, but now everyone became under mortar fire at that point. So me and my team, we were three total. We found a little like a foxhole. A foxhole is like just a hole in the ground. And we waited there. Everyone was under mortar for the whole morning. So during the whole morning, we could not move. Basically basically the forest is blowing up around them the trees are splintering and those splinters are going at explosively fast force

as well as metal from the mortar itself you cannot exist outside when these are landing you have to get as low as possible into the ground as much as you can. And remember, he is doing this while two other foreign fighters who were with him are severely concussed, trying to keep him alive in this tiny little hole. He's now got a traumatic brain injury. The shrapnel, he doesn't know this at this point, has gone into his lungs, into his liver, and just shattered his left arm somehow he remembers the details of this vividly my friend put one tourniquet on me and then after that the bleeding keep going so he put two tourniquet uh they bandage my hand and then they made it like a triangular bandage around my neck and stuff and um and i

at some point like i like i i know i i remember i wanted like to sleep like oh just like a little nap and they were like hey you you know like stay with us stay with us it must have been an incredible pain yeah unimaginable i mean you you talk you talk about when a tourniquet is put on properly, you know it's proper when the person starts screaming. That is the level of pain required to actually shut down the blood so that someone doesn't bleed out and die. And he's doing all of this with no morphine. There is morphine on the battlefield, but the medic who has it, he's in another foxhole, pinned down, can't get to him. You said there was also video of what happened in that foxhole.

What else can you piece together from that? Right. So it is quite something just to see the constant frenzy of activity. And it's all captured by this camera on the unit commander's body. I can describe it to you. Better just to listen to it. Right now, Shadow, you have some small problem with your finger. That's not good.

I love you, bro. Yes, I love you too. I love you too. I mean, just think about that in that moment. I love you is coming because Shadow thinks he's dying. And the medic who is there is doing everything he can to make the situation seem normal and calm and reassuring. Yeah, hearing how calm the medic is, it speaks to the training, I assume. Who exactly was there in that foxhole of shadow? Yeah, so, you know, the voices may sound funny, and that's because they're intentionally distorted, again, in order to protect their identities, but it is the medic telling somebody else to bandage him. The key though is he has got to get quickly to high level care.

And you start to hear the medic talking about that. We need to prepare him for evacuation. Hurry up. Shadow, you need to sit. I know this is difficult, my friend. You need to sit. I know it's painful. I know. How do you feel? You can continue or not? Say honest. I don't know. He says he doesn't know, but they're trying to keep Shadow alive.

And you can hear in the background, you can hear those booms. How close were the Russians? So the mortars are landing. The tape almost doesn't do it justice. You know, within tens of meters of them, and you're feeling the explosive force. This attack is ongoing. Timing, though, critical. He has to be evacuated.

He has to be extracted.. He has to be extracted. They got to get him to a hospital. And after an hour, this armored vehicle shows up and they pick him up and just run him to this vehicle. But the danger doesn't stop there, as Shadow explained. They were firing rocket at the armored vehicle. For me, I was too much in pain, rocket at the armored vehicle. For me, I was too much in pain, like in the armored vehicle, I could not see. But that's the crew of the armored vehicle after they told me, yeah, like we were extracting you and like you can see all like the bombs like falling around the armored vehicle. So and I'm glad that they didn't hit, you know. Yeah, I bet he's glad. I mean, he's lucky to be alive, it sounds like.

Absolutely. Yeah, there's no question. And frankly, if it wasn't for the quick action of those other foreign fighters, his buddies on the battlefield, he would not be alive. And although he is seriously hurt, he took time out to speak with us and he's trying to stay busy there. What's he doing? So he has this group, a fundraising operation called Doves of Freedom. They raise money to buy drones.

For not that much money, you can buy a drone, outfit it with weaponry, which is what he does, and put it at something that costs way more money, like $850,000 of Kremlin-controlled weapons. That is how much Shadow says his drones have destroyed so far, and he's trying to create more of them. And he says some of them have actually been used in Kursk. That's Russian territory, that border region where Ukrainian forces invaded

and still currently occupy. So, David, what is the situation with the war now in that area in western Ukraine where Shadow was fighting? It is a very difficult situation for the Ukrainians. In many ways, you know, not much land is being taken one way or the other. Everybody's waiting to see what happens with the U.S. election. Frankly, you know, one outcome means Ukraine likely continues to get American support for the long term. Another outcome means something quite different.

For Shadow, he says the Ukrainian soldiers he's met, though, are still very determined. I'm at the hospital here and I see a lot of injured Ukrainians and they are all like me. They want to heal and get back to the fight as soon as possible, you know, because what Russians have been doing here since the last 2.5 years, someone's got to stop them, you know, and those people are us. No one is going to fight them for us. Yeah, and also the Ukrainians, you know, like they don't have the choice. It's their own.

Yeah, he says Ukrainians don't have the choice. They have to fight or they feel compelled to fight. It's their home. But what about him? I mean, he is Canadian from Quebec. Why is he so compelled? You know, he talks about purpose. He feels like this is what he is supposed to do in his life. He really wants to go back to fighting even after this very close brush with death. It's not clear whether that can ever happen. He's got a lot of rehab ahead of him, but he wants to do what he can for as long as he can for Ukraine. The most important thing for me is like, I really want to make a difference, you know, in this world. And if I go back home, like I'm not going to be making any difference or impact anywhere. Like it's not in Sherbro, Quebec, that I will be able to do that.

Here, I'm right in the center of this conflict, so it allows me to fulfill my need to help. It's the best job I've ever had. Even if it's dangerous and stuff, I am still alive, so that's a plus. It was expected on my part to get either wounded or killed. Luckily, I have only been wounded. What's good is it will be healing, so I will be able to join back the fight again in a few months.

It's quite something to hear that, you know, there is the addictiveness of battle that you hear from some soldiers. And there's also just the idea that he doesn't think there's anything else that's happened in his life or will happen in his life that is as consequential as what he has been doing and can do. And he wants nothing more than to be able to continue doing it. Okay, David, an incredible story. Thank you so much for this. Thank you.

You can watch David Common's conversation with Shadow tonight and see that chilling video from the foxhole. Wounded on Ukraine's battlefield, the Canadian soldier's story of survival airs on The National at 10 p.m., 9.30 in Newfoundland and Labrador on CBC Television and on CBC Gem. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.