As bitter fighting raged around the eastern city of Bakhmut on Jan. 25, 2023, Dziubynskyi said their unit, the 95th Air Assault Brigade, were surrounded by Russian forces who bombarded them with tank and mortar fire.
He said they dived into adjoining trenches, adding that as he came out of a daze he realized he was bleeding from his nose and his ears.
Then he heard screaming from the other trench.
Eventually he was able to make his way over, “I immediately saw Vova,” Dziubynskyi said, using a shortened version of their shared name.
“They are shooting at you, and you just don’t care. You just stand there, look down and see that he is no longer alive,” he added. “At that moment, tears rolled down my cheeks.”
His survival instincts quickly kicked in when he realized he was in a sniper’s crosshairs.
“One of my armor plates got hit,” he said. “I screamed at the top of my lungs because it hurt like hell. So I pulled Vova over to my other side, and he became my shield at that point.”
“There was no saving him, but he could still save me,” he added.
Draping his friend’s body over his back, Dziubynskyi said the shots kept coming.
It was the second time his friend had proved his guardian angel, Dziubynskyi said, adding that Androshchuk had already saved him from a Russian soldier when in Dec. 2022 they came face to face in a trench, shooting him from behind his back.
Sporting bond
Although it was fighting that brought them together, it was their love of sport that cemented their friendship after they met at military training in Nov. 2022, nine months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.
Dziubynskyi, a rower who had competed for Ukraine at the World Championships said he immediately got along with Androshchuk, who had been a national youth champion in decathlon in which athletes compete in 10 track and field events.
“We were very alike in terms of stubbornness and strength,” Dziubynskyi said. “I was sharing my bullets with him, I taught him how to shoot, how to move through the forest, and how to storm a position.”