Winter has arrived along the 1,000 kilometer long front line. The cold is biting, snow and mud cover everything, the wind stings through your body. Twenty-two months after the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022, Ukraine was threatened with a long war. That fall, Le Monde visited officers and soldiers of combat units. During the course of the war they met several times, they spoke freely and without control from their command. Some must maintain their anonymity.
“WarWar”, a soldier from a special military intelligence unit, is fighting on the Zaporizhzhia front, where the Ukrainian army had hoped to make its most important breakthrough towards the south in June, but so far without success. “The situation is more tense than last year because of the Russian kamikaze drones. It's difficult because we can no longer drive freely. Now you have to walk for miles. » If he finds it “hard to admit this,” “WarWar” admits that “the Russians are improving faster than.”[’eux]and have more features than before.
Senior Sergeant Sergiy Vengerskiy “Zakhar”, a soldier in the 518th Infantry Battalion of the 1st Special Brigade, who returns to Kiev after eighteen very hard months of fighting on all fronts in Ukraine, also recognizes that “it was a very difficult summer” – especially in the Lyman- Area in the east of the country where he was last stationed. “We don’t have enough soldiers and not enough artillery. At the end of the summer there were only fourteen of us, compared to about one hundred and fifty Russian soldiers. Their shots destroyed the forest; not a single tree was left standing. » “Zakhar” describes “rolling waves of Russian attacks” on the Ukrainian lines. “Without more artillery to kill them all,” he said, “we will not succeed.” »
An observation shared by Sergeant “Dizel,” a soldier in the 49th Carpathian Sich Infantry Battalion: “The Russians are sending so many men to attack, it’s crazy.” And despite our artillery fire, those who survive continue to advance. I don't really understand why. I think it has to be cameras. »
Many injured
Colonel Oleh Uminskiy, who commands the 1st Special Brigade, now stationed on the Bakhmout (East) Front, again speaks about the difficulties that have arisen. “The fighting is very hard, with neither side succeeding in being superior to the other. One day she [les Russes] Move forward, one day we will be the ones moving forward. The front is like Nothing New in the West [roman d’Erich Maria Remarque, 1929], like in the First World War. However, we live and fight not in deep trenches; And we can't have electricity, fire or heat because otherwise we would be detected by the enemy's thermal imaging drones. To warm up and have a hot meal, you have to walk 5 to 10 kilometers. »
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