The couple, who were shot down by Russian fire on the front lines, were rescued by a Ukrainian drone carrying paper that read “Follow me.”

A Ukrainian couple from Bakhmut in the separatist region of Donetsk were wounded and trapped by enemy fire and were rescued by a drone of Ukrainian troops with a handwritten message on paper that read: “Follow me.” The operation was recorded on video and the images are part of the documentary “Follow Me” directed by Lubomir Levitsky.

Valeria Ponomarova and Andrey Bogomaz a decision was made to return to Bakhmut, which in recent months has been one of the main targets of Russian troops, in order to withdraw elderly and sick parents from the area of ​​fierce fighting. As a result of the sabotage, they got stuck in enemy territory and were hit by Russian artillery.

“We passed the checkpoint, they let us through, we went straight, and there was a destroyed bridge. We stopped abruptly and asked how to get there, where we want to go, where we need to go, and we were told that we should go straight, turn around, cross the field and immediately enter the highway, ”explains Valeria in the documentary.

A story that is true, but worthy of a movie, is told by multiple voices.

Senior Lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “Sid” says that on that day his team took off a drone because they heard movements. The situation looked calm, but the commander of another battalion informed them that a civilian vehicle was moving towards them.

“We turned the drone over there and saw that there was a crossroads where we knew the enemy was hiding, but we could not yet accurately identify him, because they alternated from place to place or just walked and came,” begins with the explanation “Sid “.

“When we saw that the car was trying to leave, we couldn’t understand who it was, but it could only be civilians, because the military knew that the enemy was there, and they didn’t go there,” says a senior lieutenant of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Realizing that these were civilians, the Ukrainian security forces saw that they had to try to stop them: “Something had to be done. Give them a signal that they’ve turned the wrong way.”.

The military followed the movement of the car with the drone and hoped that at the intersection the car would turn right, towards the positions of the Ukrainian troops, which did not happen.

The car in which Valeria Ponomarova and Andrey Bogomaz were traveling began to hit hard, while the Russian troops resorted to various types of heavy weapons, although they knew, however, that these were civilian targets.

“We saw a small bus stop, but it was also destroyed. At first we thought to run there, hide, but everything around us started to explode, there were several explosions, ”says Valeria.

The couple then returned to the car, which continued to be fired upon by Russian forces. They tried to start it to escape from the scene, but “something flew” in their direction, and they had to leave the car immediately. As they were leaving, Andrei was wounded..

All the steps of the couple were accompanied by “Sid”, who saw how Valeria gave her husband first aid and used everything that was in the car to stop the blood spilled on the pavement.

“We tried to send another drone to where they were and use that drone to indicate the direction they were supposed to go,” Sid explains in the documentary. The drone descended as low as possible, about 20 meters from the ground, so that Valeria realized that there was someone there, that she was not alone, and that she should follow the device.

Valeria waved her hand, but did not know if the drone belonged to Ukrainian troops or the enemy.

“We tried to point the way to a safe zone, a place dug for the storage of military equipment, where they could protect themselves from bombardments. But they did not understand our signals, we had to come up with something more accessible so that they could understand what was happening, what to do and where to go,” explains “Sid”.

This was a problem that added another one: the drone had only 10% battery power and had to be returned to the base to recharge the batteries.

While loading the drone, “Sid” remembered that the solution to communicate with Valeria could go through attach a piece of paper to the drone that says “follow me”.

The drone was sent back to the battlefield and dropped as close to Valeria as possible. The woman made a sign that her husband was wounded on the ground and that it was necessary to save him. But the Ukrainian military was unable to carry out this operation, as Russian troops were about 30 meters away.

The Sid Battalion moved the drone up and down, showing that he understood what Valeria was talking about, but the woman could not understand that she had to follow directions to get out of there to safety. The operators lowered the drone even more so that Valeria could read what was written on a piece of paper.

At that moment, Valeria was on the phone with her husband’s brother and explained to him what was happening. He just said, “Come on, this might be the only chance to save Andrey, because you can’t carry him yourself.”

Valeria began to follow the dronewhich indicated to him in various movements what he should do and where to go in order to avoid the mines laid along the way.

The onslaught of Russian troops continued. Valeria kept walking until a soldier approached her and said, “Come on, we’ll help you, but now we have to run because there’s a confrontation, and we’ll take you to safety first.”

The woman’s reaction was such that she would not leave her husband and turned to return, but she was stopped by a soldier who warned her: “Don’t you understand that if you return now, you will stay there with him and they will kill you both” .

At that moment, a Russian tactical group of five or six people approached the car, removed Andrei from the road and placed him in a trench, in a place usually reserved for military equipment.

In the documentary, the Ukrainian military admits that, given the injuries Andriy presented, they did not believe he would survive.

But Andrew survived.

He lay unconscious in a ditch for 30 hours until he woke up from the fact that the rain hit his face: “I heard the rain, I started to shake, I looked around and realized that I was in a trench. I had to somehow get out of there,” says the man, who has fragments all over his body, bruises and wounds.

When the woman woke up the next day, the Ukrainian military told her that her husband was no longer where they had left him. They didn’t know about him.

Andrey faced excruciating pain and went to the positions of the Ukrainian troops. A soldier from another battalion sent a photo of the man, saying that he had arrived at the checkpoint alone, and asked if they knew who he was. First Lieutenant Sid recognized him.

After some time, the military showed Valeria Andrey’s video: “Hello darling, I’m alive!”.