MAR 7, 2023
Editor’s note: The Kyiv Independent is not revealing the soldiers’ full names or the exact location of their deployment due to security concerns amid the ongoing war. DONETSK OBLAST – At a cottage-turned-base some two kilometers from the front lines in
kyivindependent.com
At a cottage-turned-base some two kilometers from the front lines in Donetsk Oblast, soldiers from Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade lay in sleeping bags or armchair sofa beds, hoping to get some rest in between rotations.
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When the soldiers return to their two-day shifts in the trenches, they are tasked with detecting Russian aerial targets, mostly drones, and downing them before they can hit Ukrainian infantry units.
The 24th Mechanized Brigade took part in the Kherson counteroffensive, battles in Luhansk Oblast, and spent over two months in Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, the hottest spot of Russia's war.
The platoon, part of the 24th, was deployed to Bakhmut with barely any break. The Kyiv Independent spent five days with the platoon after it was withdrawn from the city.
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Russian forces attacked in small groups again and again, composed of some 10 people, Ukrainian soldiers said, adding that their tactics have changed from attacking in larger groups twice or three times that size.
Oleh always thought something was off with the Russian soldiers assaulting the city. He said they stormed Ukrainian positions like "zombies," not afraid to die as if they had been drugged.
"It was very similar to what I saw in the Terminator," Oleh said, referring to an American film about a cyborg assassin sent on a mission to kill.
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The Russians had captured the nearby salt-mining town of Soledar, and "they began throwing more and more forces" and intensifying their attacks, Oleh said.
"I thought, just a little more, and that's it. I was already at my limit. By then, I was already morally and physically done," Oleh recalled. "When a person is in such a state, he stops caring."
Battling the Russians on the front line and fatigue in his head, Oleh had one mission: to ensure all 13 soldiers in his platoon got out of there alive.
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The most terrifying thing to hear on the battlefield is "the screams of your fellow soldiers," Vasyl, a 50-year-old soldier from the western Rivne Oblast, said.
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"I don't know what will happen tomorrow or in a week, but I think a person is always ready to defend their country," Oleh said. "I am satisfied with what I do. Let it be small, but be it good."
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