In a Ukrainian Hospital, Interviewing a Wounded Russian Soldier
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It wasn’t the first time we had met a Russian soldier in Ukraine. During the course of our eight-month investigation into potential war crimes committed by Russian forces in Bucha last year, we spoke to two Russian paratroopers in Ukrainian custody.
But this was the first time we had unfiltered access to a Russian soldier lying on a surgical bed, hours after he was injured and captured.
We met Mikhail, a soldier from western Russia, during our embed at a military field hospital in eastern Ukraine. We had arrived in the area at the end of March to document the lives of combat medics on the front lines. (For security reasons, we are not disclosing their location.) Every day, we filmed in and around the hospital as dozens of medics, surgeons and members of the support staff raced to save the lives of wounded soldiers streaming in from the battlefield.
We had developed a taxing but necessary routine to try to capture an authentic view of the war’s gruesome effects. That meant long, difficult days in bloody operating rooms, working under the sound of artillery shells landing just miles away. After spending hours with the medics, filming both lifesaving operations and deaths, we ultimately gained their trust to film their most sensitive, intimate experiences.
Source: The New York Times
