This is the incredible moment a wounded Ukrainian soldier and his Russian foe emotionally paid their respects to each other as the fighter took his final breaths after being slashed by Putin's serviceman in a knife fight. 

Bodycam footage filmed by a Ukrainian fighter shows the two men opening fire at each other near the ruins of a blitzed building.

The Ukrainian manages to reach his opponent and grabs the Russian's automatic rifle, leading to a struggle which results in the Putin fighter pulling his knife and viciously slashing his rival in the thigh.

The two fighters can be heard hurling insults at each other, with the Ukrainian warrior angrily telling his enemy: 'You came to [invade] my homeland'. 

The Russian soldier wins the bloody blade combat and the Ukrainian fighter falls to the ground after being slashed. 

The unidentified defeated fighter, losing blood, sends a message to his mother as he takes his final breaths. 

'That's it, Mum. Goodbye'. 

The Russian soldier then comes to the wounded fighter and kneels beside him.

'You cut my whole body open', the Ukrainian fighter cries out. 

As he lies wounded, the Ukrainian pleads for the Russian to let him die alone and salutes his foe, saying: 'I want to die myself. Thank you. You were the best fighter in the world. 

'Goodbye, you were better.'

The Russian fighter - also wounded in the fight - backs off and tells him: 'Goodbye.'

The Russian's knife is clearly visible as he backs off, with blood seen on his face. 

The defeated Ukrainian then pulls the pin on his grenade in an attempt to take his own life.

Russian accounts of the incident claim the grenade explosion left the Ukrainian even more wounded, with his hand blown off, but still alive.

He then told the Russian to 'finish me off'.

The footage is reported to be from Trudove, in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, believed to have been filmed in autumn but only released now.

There have been calls from Russian war channels for the soldier - named Tuta - to be decorated for his bravery.

The sequence, which started with close range shooting and rapidly turned into a fierce knife fight, is a stark contrast from many scenes of a hi-tech war which has featured deadly hypersonic and precision missiles.