‘In the space of one night at that stabilisation point, there were five dead. Two dead on arrival, three dead on the table. About ten lost their legs that night.'

An Irishman who has been documenting the fierce fighting in Ukraine has described how he narrowly avoided death when his team was targeted by a Russian drone strike.

Finn Boylan is back home in Ireland having survived seven months on the frontlines in Ukraine, where he witnessed "total war” that has not been seen since World War II.

A native of Bray in Co Wicklow, Boylan has traveling to and from the battlefields since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

"It's total war," Boylan told RTE Prime Time last night. "It's stuff we haven't seen since World War II."

Footage from Boylan's film

During his most recent trip to the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Boylan, the CEO and chairman of Finn House Films, spent time filming footage for his first full-length documentary ‘Forsaken Frontier’.

He was one of the first people to capture the aftermath of the devastating bombing of a pizzeria, popular among journalists and soldiers alike on June 27, which left at least 13 people dead.

Having captured the moment when a survivor was pulled from the rubble, he explained that “everything is a target in that town”.

"You don’t know when the next missile is going to hit you,” he said

"The next morning everyone is going into the shopping center next door. Going to work. Selling groceries. Getting their coffees. Now soldiers need to find a new place to drink their coffee, so there's another one down the road. It’s just how it is. Life goes on there," he said.

He also described the “brutal” reality of finding the bodies of dead Russian soldiers who had been abandoned on the side of a road.

"Unfortunately, the Russians are left on the battlefield. No one's picking them up. The Ukrainians collect their own dead and their own civilians. It's brutal."

Boylan also spent time filming at a medical stabilisation point where wounded soldiers are given treatment just behind the frontline before being moved on to hospital.

"In the space of one night at that stabilisation point, there were five dead. Two dead on arrival, three dead on the table. About ten lost their legs that night."

A casualty is treated after heavy fighting

"[It] is where wounded soldiers get their first bit of proper medical care where they'll see a doctor or somebody that will patch them up enough and stabilise them to make them able to survive the journey to a real hospital.

"They can only move the wounded in the night because it's too dangerous at the moment," Mr Boylan said.

In May 2022 Boylan experienced his own narrow brush with death when he was part of a group visiting an abandoned school in a recently-liberated Ukrainian village.

He said he had been in the building for just five minutes when it was targeted by a Russian drone strike.

Boylan and the group were able to flee the building when they realised that the Russians were readjusting their fire.

The Bray native said he believes that the fighting in Ukraine will go on for several years, adding that Irish people are "incredibly lucky."

"It's going to be a lot more casualties and a lot more young men dead," Boylan told RTÉ.

He also said he enjoys spending time with his family and dogs when he is back home as it helps when taking time to readjust after he returns from trips to Ukraine.