A brave Ukrainian soldier on Thursday selflessly blown himself up to destroy a bridge and stop Russian forces from storming in from Crimea.

Ukraine’s armed forces confirmed that Vitaly Skakun Volodymyrovych died while trying to fend off a column of Russian tanks at the Henichesk bridge, Kherson region.

The explosion at Henichesk bridge ‘significantly slowed down the enemy,’ Ukraine’s military said

The brave trooper decided to blow up the bridge – which connects Russian-occupied Crimea with mainland Ukraine – after volunteering to carry out the dangerous mission of mining it with explosives, an Armed Forces official said.

“The bridge was mined, but he didn’t manage to get away from there,” they explained.

“According to his brothers in arms, Vitaly got in touch [with them] and said he was going to blow up the bridge. Immediately after an explosion rang out.”

Skakun, a military engineer, is being hailed by his comrades for “significantly slowing down the advancement of the enemy”.

It also allowed Ukrainian military units to regroup and redeploy its defences.

“Russian occupiers, know that the ground will burn under your feet!” the military official said.

Ukrainian commanders are now working to award Skakun with posthumous honours for his “heroic act”.

It comes as Ukraine claims it killed or captured 800 Russian troops, destroyed 30 tanks, and show dowt seven warplanes on Friday.

Kyiv’s defence ministry issued the bullish assessment of the first day’s fighting amid fears that the capital could fall within 96 hours.

Russian forces assaulted yesterday on all fronts as they attempted a lightning strike of Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces however fought fiercely – repelling a number of attacks as they pushed back against Putin’s forces.

Pictures showed destroyed Russian vehicles littering the roadside, dead Russian soldiers, and captured Russian troops.

And while there are question marks over the accuracy of Kyiv’s figures, UK intelligence agrees that Russia suffered heavy losses and made no meaningful gains on day one.

It comes as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Kremlin “hasn’t taken any of its major objectives” after facing much fiercer resistance than expected.

He said its forces are already “behind timetable” and have lost more than 450 men as well as tanks, armour, fighter jets and helicopters.

The former army captain said Putin had been given a “bloody nose” by Ukraine, which had showed his army is “not at all invincible”.

He also mocked the country’s Spetsnaz special forces, pointing out they failed to take a key airport outside the capital Kyiv. (UK Sun: Excludes headline)

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