Serhiy Tyshchenko, a 46-year-old Ukrainian soldier, spent 471 days living in a tiny underground mud bunker near Bakhmut on the eastern front line. He endured constant Russian bombardment, suffocation, hunger, and extreme thirst, surviving multiple mud collapses. He emerged in October 2025 and continues to serve close to the front line.
Tyshchenko, callsign Viter (meaning 'wind'), and his team of initially five men dug an underground well for water and used homemade sandbags to plug breaches in their bunker day and night. Drones relentlessly hunted them, forcing them to stay hidden. The bunker was dug under an asphalt road, limiting its width but allowing expansion in length.
The ordeal began on 13 July 2023 when Tyshchenko and a comrade were spotted by a drone while collecting rations. They narrowly escaped into a ditch and then the bunker. In his first week, a Russian assault team attacked, killing three of his comrades. Tyshchenko survived when the enemy's gun jammed, and another Ukrainian killed the attacker.
Reinforcements never arrived due to the danger, leaving the group of four to hold the position for over a year. They lived among unburied Russian dead, throwing soil on them to reduce the stench. Tyshchenko missed two birthdays and all milestones in his five children's lives.
He described the experience as a feat of endurance, noting that in modern drone combat, survival is victory. He now speaks from a hospital basement in Sloviansk, less than 10km from his former bunker, where the thump of explosions is still audible.
