In a close to pitch-black residence set again from fierce combating in Donbas, Ukraine soldier Volodymyr relishes a number of moments of calm earlier than deploying once more to the entrance.
“We never know how long we’ll get,” the 29-year-old, who declined to provide his final identify for safety causes, advised AFP.
“We get called on the radio and then have one hour to get packing,” he stated, nonetheless sporting his mud-covered uniform.
He and several other different Ukrainian troopers — who had been on the frontline a day earlier — are discovering some reprieve within the war-battered city of Lyman — now about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from combating.
It was recaptured from Russian forces — who had held the city for 4 months — throughout a lightning counter-offensive in October.
But the buildings within the abandoned railway hub are nonetheless scarred by the fight.
Volodymyr has to seek for an open store to get meals for others in his unit ready within the residence’s kitchen.
They are warming themselves round a wood-burning range, napping, scrolling by their telephones or passing round canned meals or vodka “to relax and destress”.
“The fighting is hard. We are constantly moving from one place to another… always on the frontline. It’s physically demanding,” Volodymyr stated.
Hours by the mud
Since Ukraine captured the Black Sea southern coastal metropolis of Kherson final month, the main focus of Russia’s practically 10-month invasion has shifted once more to the jap industrial Donetsk area.
Kyiv stated this week that the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka — each south of Lyman — had been now the “epicenter” of the conflict.
Volodymyr stated he and his unit have to haul weapons and ammunition a number of kilometres (miles) by mud, which takes hours — earlier than the taking pictures even begins.
“We’re already tired by then,” Volodymyr stated.
“The Russians are strong. They make very good trenches and bunkers,” he added.
Petro, the top of the unit who additionally declined to provide his full identify, agreed.
“This is a tough enemy to beat,” the 35-year-old stated.
“Remaining on the frontline is very difficult. They sustain heavy losses but so do we,” Petro stated.
“It’s complicated but we’re doing our best to win,” he added.
Also underneath Petro’s command is an exhausted medic, who labored in a civilian hospital earlier than the conflict.
Now he is nervous about tanks — after they’re a secure distance, you may hear them fireplace, the whistle of the shell, then the explosion, he stated.
“But when they’re close, that’s when you’re in the shit. You’ll only hear the explosion.”
‘Covered in colleague’s blood’
“Before, I was just doing my job, I didn’t really care about a patient’s personal life,” he stated.
“Now, when I hear that a comrade has been shot over the radio, I drop everything… and I rush there.”
“It’s hard when my hands are covered in my colleague’s blood,” he added.
The injured are introduced from the frontline by ambulances chartered by an NGO, which additionally operates a medical facility in Lyman.
Lieutenant Oleksiy Nazarichyn, the chief physician of the 66th motorised brigade who additionally works on the facility, says practically everybody introduced in from the entrance has been injured by shelling and shrapnel.
Svitlana Druzenko, the top of the NGO that runs the medical centre, says they do their finest to deal with injured troopers earlier than they’re despatched to hospitals that may present complete care.
“We do everything we can to stabilise them so that they stay alive,” she advised AFP, as two Ukrainian Sukhoi fighter jets roar in direction of the frontline. —Agence France-Presse
