Bonkus Norwegicus

He spat his own tooth into the bolt of his AK-47 – and the rifle jammed. A russian soldier was already staring him straight in the eyes. Maxym Dzhalalov, call sign “Jaja,” a soldier of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, survived that day when he should have had no chance. A bullet to the face, a shattered jaw, 10 teeth knocked out, a liter and a half of blood lost – and somehow, he got back on his feet and continued fighting. This isn’t the plot of an action movie. This is his reality. The assault began at 5 a.m. The russians had captured a position that Jaja knew by heart. They had to take it back. Two assault groups of seven soldiers each, plus fire support. And one and a half kilometers of open field, completely exposed in daylight. Jaja took up a position at the second defensive point and began doing what he did best – taking down enemy soldiers one by one as they emerged from the trench. He fired calmly, as if at a shooting range. He used up all his ammunition, but took down everyone who came running out. Then it was his turn to storm the trench. And that’s when everything went wrong. Three russian soldiers appeared at the middle entrance and began shooting at his legs. He jumped into a crater where his comrades were taking cover. Then he stood up and shouted over the radio that he had come to kill them, not to die. The first two bullets struck his helmet and body armor. The third hit him in the face. He spat blood three times. There was so much of it that he felt as though he were standing knee-deep in blood. He thought these were the final seconds of his life. He lay down, placed his AK-47 on his chest, and closed his eyes. He recalls: “I walked through the gates of Valhalla, downed a mug of ale, and told Odin: Brother, not today.” He opened his eyes, grabbed his rifle, and crawled beneath a fallen tree directly in front of the trench, hoping for at least some cover. Then the russians began climbing out of the trench. One, two, three, four. He took them down calmly, without a second thought. He recalls: “I was shooting at the sixth one, already firing in bursts, when suddenly I started choking and coughing – and spat out a tooth. The tooth flew straight into the open bolt. And my AK jammed.” He lay there staring at the russian soldier. The russian stared back at him. Neither could fire. There were no grenades, no knife. For the second time that day, he accepted that he was a dead man. Someone else took down that russian soldier. Jaja lay there for a few more minutes before beginning to crawl away. Through ravines, on his back, repeatedly losing consciousness and struggling to breathe. A fellow soldier found him and helped him crawl to the stabilization point. There was “Baba Sonya” – a combat medic you definitely don’t want to make angry. She looked at him, laughed, and ran straight back into the assault to save others. The assault ended in victory. The position was completely recaptured, and not a single occupying soldier remained alive there. Three russians were taken prisoner – an officer, a sergeant, and a reconnaissance soldier who had been hiding among the bodies. It turned out there weren’t 20 russians, but more than 50. They belonged to “Black Mamba” – former Wagner mercenaries wearing uniforms almost identical to those of Ukrainian soldiers. At the hospital, doctors spent 8–10 hours figuring out how to remove the bullet. It was lodged in his carotid artery. They gave him almost no chance of survival. He typed a message to them on his phone: “Those bastards couldn’t finish me off – and neither will you.” He survived. The bullet had torn through his carotid artery, jugular vein, and internal carotid artery. Complete occlusion, lifelong medication, loss of bodily functions, and dangerous blood pressure fluctuations. He regrets nothing and still dreams of returning to the infantry. But he knows he cannot let his brothers-in-arms down. Source: translated from Oleh Bairak.