“We installed an antitank system, a 30mm machine gun and smoke grenade launchers. With this machine from war We’ll send the Russians all home. Battlefront east of Kharkivwe are ten kilometers from the city center and less than two fromrussian army. The alarm is constant, like the bombings. We’ve been fighting here day and night for over a month. A Russian helicopter tries to approach, the antiaircraft guns fail and he retreats. After an hour, two approach Tanks with the “Z”, The symbol of the invasion teams coming from the east: machine gun shots, some cannon fire and we go back. The risks are all calculated. And should an armored vehicle manage to cross the line, American spears are always ready to strike.
UNDER THE FIRE
A missile launches from the east, the antiaircraft defenses respond by intercepting the attack. A few hundred meters away, dozens of mortar shells shot into the area, leaving craters 5 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep. It’s everyday life at the front. The last checkpoint, the first fortress defending the city, is located in a small pine forest in front of the expanse of the steppe. “Please do not photograph anything the nameless sergeant is categorical any detail, even the most insignificant to you, can become very valuable information for our enemy.” We leave the car on the side of the road and follow the soldiers towards the adjacent camp. A course between craters and unexploded mortar shells: “Follow me, I’ll show you our little one.” The sergeant seems electrified, raised like a child who wants to show his friends his new toy only to make them die of envy. In this case, however, it is not really a video game, but an armored vehicle for transporting BTR7 troops.
ON TANKS
Hidden in a ditch specially dug for him and covered in spotted military tents handsewn by women from half of Ukraine, the eightwheeler looks almost harmless. “It’s not the basic model the sergeant starts immediately we modified it by adding some surprises for the Russians.” The Btr is a historic wartime vehicle used in Soviet countries since the 1960s, it has become famous as a “wheeled boat” for its amphibious capabilities, and it is no coincidence that the Nemyshlya River is just a few hundred meters from here flows. . “The vehicle is always ready to drive continues the sergeant It has two Iveco engines of 150 hp, Italian stuff and therefore of quality”. We return to the trench, three soldiers grouped around a heavy machine gun: one communicates with the rest of the battalion, one observes the situation with binoculars, while the third, trigger in hand, stands ready to fire. However, the situation is not always tense, after 37 days we speak of a “normalization of the war”.
LIFE IN THE TRENCH
The soldiers don’t even seem to notice the explosions and gunfire that break the silence of the forest every five minutes. While a group is ready to take over the machine gun, they invite us to go down into the bunker built underground. Walk a few meters through the ditch and enter this room, which has been dug into the earth a little over a meter high. The ceiling is made of long logs, while the walls are padded with sandbags, essential to dampen the blasts. A supply of weapons and helmets is provided, a supply of water and food with the ability to heat something, a stove essential in the endless Ukrainian winter and mattresses to rest on. The commander of this outpost is Sergeant Ihor, a young 31yearold veteran of Donbass, who, in a moment of pause, is carried away with confessions and allows himself to betray a little emotion: “I saw my daughter for the first time when she was three years old . The second time when he was already five. Ihor had only returned home for half a year and had resumed his medical studies: “I want to save lives, instead I am forced to kill. He well remembers the damned February 24, the first day of the invasion: “At 5 in the morning we were woken up by the bombing raids, I understood that the war had started. I knew exactly what to do, I took the rifle and the backpack and went to volunteer again ».
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