A Russian soldier took “tough as nails” to a whole new level after fighting for an entire week with a rifle bullet lodged in his brain.
The unnamed marine, reportedly from Russia’s 155th Pacific Fleet Brigade, was battling Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region when he got shot. The impact knocked his helmet clean off, but he figured the round had just grazed him. His right eye swelled shut, but he shrugged it off, assuming it would heal on its own.
A week passed. He kept fighting. No one—himself included—realized he had a bullet in his skull.
It wasn’t until he took some shrapnel from a separate incident and landed in a hospital that doctors gave him an X-ray. That’s when they found the real surprise—a large rifle bullet embedded in his brain.
Russian media is calling it a miracle. The soldier is being hailed as a hero, with some even saying he deserves a medal. And, frankly, it’s hard to argue. The man literally fought a war with an extra piece of lead in his head and didn’t even flinch.
Photos of the soldier show his damaged helmet and swollen eye. What they don’t show is how not a single person—doctors, fellow troops, or the man himself—failed to notice a bullet wound for seven straight days.
This story joins a long legacy of iron-willed warriors who refused to go down. American Civil War soldier Jacob Miller took a musket ball to the forehead and lived another 50 years with the metal still in his skull. His photos, complete with a visible hole in his head, are still circulating today.
Apparently, some men are just built different.
Five Fast Facts
- Russia’s 155th Marine Brigade, to which the soldier reportedly belongs, has been active since the Soviet era and specializes in amphibious assaults.
- The Kursk region, where the soldier was fighting, was also the site of the largest tank battle in history during World War II.
- Jacob Miller, the Civil War soldier with a musket ball in his head, had to remove bone fragments from his wound himself over the years.
- Survival with a bullet in the brain is rare but not unheard of—some cases have resulted in minimal lasting damage.
- The human brain has no pain receptors, which may explain why the Russian soldier never realized he had a bullet lodged in it.
