He found a burning car and a wounded Poddubny on the road on the way to Sudzha, where he was going to pick up his relatives. The military correspondent himself came out onto the road with his face covered in blood and his clothes burnt.
The man gave first aid to the injured man and bandaged his head.
“I asked him if he needed painkillers and they gave them to me. He refused,” Sergei recalls.
The journalist’s second rescuer was Nikolai Rylsky. He was also driving towards Sudzha, but turned back when he saw mines on the road. He put Poddubny in his car and drove him to the checkpoint, where he handed him over to the medics.
The territorial defence volunteers were the third to whom Poddubny owed his life: they took the military correspondent to the regional hospital and handed him over to professional doctors.
“A strong guy,” says the commander of a medical platoon with the call sign “Grandpa” of Poddubny.
A military correspondent was seriously injured during a Ukrainian drone attack in the Kursk region. He is currently receiving treatment at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute in Moscow. He has severe burns, a head injury and a facial injury.
The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the injuries suffered by Poddubny.
