Surgeons miraculously managed to save the life of the soldier (Picture: East2West)

A team of armour-clad Russian surgeons saved the life of a soldier who was turned into a ‘walking bomb’ after a live grenade became embedded in his chest.

Junior Sergeant Nikolay Pasenko, 41, was seriously wounded last week when his unit was ambushed by Ukrainian forces.

The Russian soldier went to return fire when there was suddenly a huge explosion and he felt a sharp pain in his chest.

Nikolay soon realised he had been hit with an unexploded projectile from a Ukrainian grenade launcher, which shattered his ribs and became embedded next to his heart.

The 41-year-old was rushed to an emergency hospital in Belgorod, 40 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine.

X-rays revealed the explosive had torn through his lung and had become lodged near his spine between the aorta and the inferior vena cava- the largest vein in the body.

After seeing the bomb lodged in his chest, Pasenko initially refused surgery due to his unwillingness to put surgeons at risk.

‘I was against it. I did not want the doctors to suffer as the munitions could have exploded,’ he said.

‘So we’ll blow up together,’ replied head military surgeon Lt-Colonel Dmitry Kim, who told his medics to don body armour.

Nikolay Pasenko, 41, a junior sergeant, says he was struck in the chest (Picture: East2West)

Medical experts said the chances of an explosion were ‘extremely high’, but failure to operate would have left the Russian trooper at risk of fatal bleeding.

‘Despite this, the military doctors together with their civilian counterparts donned body armour under their medical gowns and proceeded with this utmost intricate surgery,’ said a statement from the Russian defence ministry.

Against all odds the operation was a success, and Pasenko later thanked the medics and said they were ‘the real heroes’.

‘We were warned there was a risk of ammunition detonation, but no one refused,’ said Lt-Col Kim, based at the Mandryk Central Military Hospital in Moscow whose team moved to Belgorod to conduct the surgery.

The soldier begged doctors not to put themselves at risk by performing surgery on him (Picture: East2West)

‘It’s not every day that you take an [explosive] out of a person, and in a place where moving to the right or left can lead to the death of the patient.’

Throughout the operation, a second surgery team was on standby in case the explosive detonated midway through the procedure.

‘My thanks to surgeon Dmitry Kim and I will be grateful to him for the rest of my life’, Pasenko had said following the operation.

The soldier’s miraculous recovery was perhaps the only good news the Kremlin was able to celebrate this week following the Russian military’s humiliating retreat from Kherson.

The region was one of four illegally-annexed territories and a major stronghold in the area.

‘Kherson is returning to Ukrainian control and units from the Armed Forces of Ukraine are entering the city’, the Ukrainian defence ministry announced on social media.

‘The retreat routes of the Russian invaders are under fire control of the Ukrainian army. Any attempts to oppose the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be stopped.’

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The explosive had torn through his lung and had become lodged between his aorta and inferior vena cava – the largest vein in the body.