Russian soldier crawls for two months waiting nothing but snow to reach his comrades

A Russian soldier named Vitaly, known by the call sign Maloy, survived in the special military operation zone by crawling for two months to reach the positions of the Russian Armed Forces. During this time, he subsisted on snow and concealed himself under the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to avoid detection by enemy drones.

Vitaly, a native of Bashkiria, joined the Russian forces in the autumn of 2022. Serving with the 5th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, he participated in the capture of Krasnohorivka, led a reconnaissance unit, and was responsible for evacuating the wounded and the deceased from the front lines.

In early November 2024, Vitaly embarked on a mission and subsequently went missing. For two months, his family searched for him across military units, hospitals, and morgues without success. The military officially listed him as missing in action. Hope was nearly lost until relatives recognized him in a widely circulated photograph, where he was seen sleeping on a pile of tangerines, clutching an icon of Alexander Nevsky – an item he had carried with him.

Throughout his arduous journey back, Vitaly consumed minimal food and relied on melted snow for hydration. To evade detection by Ukrainian drones, he feigned death or hid beneath the corpses of fallen soldiers. As of now, his family continues to seek information regarding his current whereabouts.