“When they light their stoves you can see the smoke,” Novitskyi – a senior lieutenant in the Ukrainian army – said, speaking from what is in effect Europe’s eastern front with Russia. He added: “Every day they shoot at us.”
The conflict between Kyiv and proRussian separatists has gone on for nearly eight long years. There are first world war echoes. Both sides face off along a fixed 400km “border ” or line of contact that snakes across Ukraine’s Donbas region.
There are muddy trenches, fortified command posts and buildings smashed up by shell fire. Novitskyi defends a former textiles factory. It is now a ghostly and roofless ruin. On a wall someone has scrawled a helpful reminder: “Fuck up and you die.”
All is quiet until it isn’t. Last Thursday morning Ukrainian soldiers were making their way towards a nearby frontline position overlooking the city of Donetsk. The separatists are based at its wrecked airport, along what was once the runway. Three shots rang out: sniper rounds.
The soldiers quickened their pace. A pheasant rose from a yellow field marked out with red signs warning of mines and unexploded ordnance. Old-fashioned metal wires connect the brigade’s forward post – an anthill-like embankment with bunkers and ladders – to its nearby village HQ.
This story is from the December 17, 2021 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the December 17, 2021 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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