You're reading: Two wounded Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners blow themselves up together with 12 Russian paratroopers (UPDATED)

Officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Majors Oleksandr Kandesiuk and Oleksiy Shepeliuk of the 51st brigade, after having been encircled, blew themselves up together with 12 Russian paratroopers, Ukraine's defense ministry has said.

The incident happened on the evening of Aug. 25.

“Eyewitnesses say that they saw how wounded Ukrainian troops were surrounded by 12 Russia paratroopers, the latter threatened them and attempted to take them prisoner. When the enemies, creating a ring, approached to a distance of several meters, the injured Ukrainian officers stood up with their hands up. Notably, they held things in their hands, and a moment later there were several powerful blasts like grenade explosions. Evidently, the officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Majors Kandesiuk and Shepeliuk, didn’t want to surrender, and blew themselves up with a number of the enemy,” the Defense Ministry’s Web site said in a posting on Friday, Aug. 29.

The Ukrainian officers had been fighting Russian paratroopers of the 331 landing regiment, garrisoned in the city of Kostroma, the ministry said.

The ministry didn’t name the location where the battle took place. It’s said that there was an order to form and send reinforcements – two MANPAD detachments headed by commander of air defense missile battalion Major Kandesiuk, who together with his staff came to the specified location.

At the same time, Russian troopers with combat equipment broke through Ukrainian border. As the result of their incursion onto Ukrainian territory, the 51st brigade and the reinforcements were surrounded. The Russian soldiers immediately opened fire with all the weapons they had, according to the Defense Ministry.

“As of the night of Aug. 25, the majority of the battalion of tactical group was forced out of action. Its chances to survive in such a hell were next to nothing, a decision was made to try to break through the blockade. Majors Kandesiuk together with Major Shepeliuk, the commander of an antiaircraft missile battery, led the vanguard breakthrough force together with their detachment – a sergeant and two soldiers, reads the statement.

They fell into an ambush. During the battle, Kandesiuk was injured by enemy machine gun fire. Shepeliuk urged for the officer to be taken away from the firing and in doing so was seriously injured himself. The rest of the breakthrough force was fired at with machine guns, mortar launchers and by a “Shilka” (self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system]. All of the personnel were seriously injured. The rest of the soldiers couldn’t come to help because of intense fire. They retreated to the base camp and defended the perimeter.

The command center of the anti-terrorist operation is preparing a submission for the Ukrainian president, the Supreme Commander of Ukrainian Armed Forces, to give the deceased Majors Kandesiuk and Shepeliuk posthumous titles of Heroes of Ukraine.