“I hit the fuel truck and it exploded. I kept one grenade for myself”

He single-handedly stopped a convoy of russian military vehicles in Bucha. At the age of 64, Valentyn Didkovskyi took a grenade launcher, four hand grenades, and went to meet his death. The pensioner blew up a fuel truck, and this made the enemy’s entire military vehicle column come to a halt. He managed to shoot a video and communicate his coordinates to the Ukrainian troops, who finished the case then. Valentyn kept one grenade for himself, as he did not hope that he would get out of that hell alive.

I knew that behind the railway track, where the second part of Bucha town was, the russian invaders were located. I went into the house to tell my daughter and son-in-law to leave, and to tell them that all this was going to continue, apparently. That they [the enemy] would attempt to go to Kyiv. While the road we have in Bucha goes straight to Kyiv through Irpin and Romanivka, and leads directly to Kyiv. At that time (it was at around 07:20 – 07:30), I heard the roaring of some vehicles and armoured personnel carriers. I myself had served in the army, in the naval fleet in russia, in the past. By the way, it was in Leningrad. I knew how to use weapons. I had a grenade launcher. I got it from our guys in Bucha, and I wheedled out some grenades from our military, too. I saw that they left Bucha. They already passed by the school.

There was a high fence, and behind it, I saw four armoured personnel carriers going in the direction of Giraffe shopping mall, in the direction of Irpin town. Without hesitation, I got the grenade launcher ready, threw it over my shoulder, and took aim. I saw a fuel truck coming. A thought flashed across my mind, “If I hit it, I will bring other vehicles to a halt, and then I will let our guys know, those who were positioned near Giraffe, for them to finish them off.” And so it happened.

Four armoured personnel carriers drove by, and on the sides, on the sidewalks, russian invaders were walking. I jumped off the trailer. It was my luck that I jumped aside, about three or four metres away, and started throwing the grenades in their direction. However, I kept one grenade for myself, as there were a lot of them [russians], and I did not hope to stay alive. I held the pin of the grenade in the ready position, stuck my finger in, and crawled behind the house. I broke through the neighbours’ fence and hid in the summer toilet, which probably saved me. Then, I passed the information to our guys at Giraffe shopping mall... There were guys from the territorial defence unit standing there, as well as those from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I called our guys and gave them the coordinates. Vokzalna Street had a turn, and they couldn’t see where the vehicles were coming from. I gave them the coordinates and 5-10 minutes later, very heavy shelling started. It was at around… I can’t tell you at what time exactly it was, because time flew like one second. When I heard that the explosions stopped, there was only the roaring of the engines heard, but they were not moving. They were standing still. At that time, I didn’t have a submachine gun. We were not given weapons yet.

Then I slowly came out of the gate and saw that our locals were walking around there. I took out my phone and started filming. First of all, I addressed my son, “Dima, guys, this is what has happened near my house.”

I immediately turned on the video to him and said, “Dima, this is what has happened near our home.” I did not leave this [challenge] unanswered, and I saw that small result that I was able to make.

I continued, I am continuing, and I will continue until we get rid of them, because I also have children, a wife, and my relatives. A lot of my relatives died in Yablunka [town district], in Bucha. I must take revenge – this is first of all, and secondly, we must fight for Ukraine, we should rebuild all this, and should get rid of this evil, like from a tumour on the body. At first, I refused to do any interviews after what I did, but then I gave up on the decision and said I would. Why? Because my cousin-sister and my cousin-brother live in russia. When they saw this video, they called my brother and said, “Valentyn made this fake video.” They did not believe it, but I wanted to prove it – let the whole world see that not only the military, but also civilians stood up for resistance, so that they [the invaders] would not appear here again.