BAKHMUT, Ukraine — Forests burned and cities reduced to ashes. Colleagues with severed limbs. Shelling so incessant that the only option is to lie down in a trench, wait and pray.
Ukrainian soldiers returning from the front lines in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region – where Russia is waging a fierce offensive – describe life during what has turned into a grueling war of attrition as apocalyptic .
In interviews with The Associated Press, some complained of a chaotic organization, desertions and mental health problems caused by relentless shelling. Others spoke of high morale, the heroism of their colleagues and a commitment to keep fighting, even as the better-equipped Russians control more of the combat zone.
Lt. Volodymyr Nazarenko, 30, second-in-command of the Svoboda Battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard, was among the troops that withdrew from Sievierodonetsk under orders from military leaders. In a month-long battle, Russian tanks obliterated all potential defensive positions and turned a city with a pre-war population of 101,000 into “a scorched wasteland”, he said. .
“They were bombing us every day. I don’t want to lie about this. But it was barrages of ammunition on every building,” Nazarenko said. “The town was methodically razed.
At the time, Sievierodonetsk was one of two major cities under Ukrainian control in Lugansk province, where pro-Russian separatists declared an unrecognized republic eight years ago. By the time the order to withdraw came on June 24, the Ukrainians were surrounded on three sides and mounting a defense from a chemical plant also housing civilians.
“If there was a hell on earth anywhere, it was in Sievierodonetsk,” Artem Ruban, a soldier in Nazarenko’s battalion, said from the relative safety of Bakhmut, 64 kilometers (40 miles) to the southwest. of the city captured since. “The inner strength of our boys allowed them to hold the city until the last moment.”
“Those weren’t humane conditions they had to fight in. It’s hard to explain that to you here, how they feel now or what it was like there,” Ruban said, blinking at the Sun. “They fought until the end there. The task was to destroy the enemy no matter what.
Nazarenko, who also fought in Kyiv and elsewhere in the east after Russia invaded Ukraine, considers the Ukrainian operation in Sievierodonetsk “a victory” despite the outcome. He said the defenders managed to limit casualties while stalling the Russian advance much longer than expected, draining Russian resources.
“Their army suffered huge losses and their attack potential was wiped out,” he said.
Both the lieutenant and the soldier under his command expressed their confidence that Ukraine would take back all occupied territories and defeat Russia. They insisted that morale remained high. Other soldiers, most with no combat experience prior to the invasion, shared more pessimistic accounts while insisting on anonymity or using only their first names to discuss their experiences.
Oleksiy, a member of the Ukrainian army who began fighting against Moscow-backed separatists in 2016, had just returned from the front with a heavy limp. He said he was wounded on the battlefield of Zolote, a town the Russians have also since occupied.
“On TV they show beautiful images of the front lines, of solidarity, of the army, but the reality is very different,” he said, adding that he does not think the delivery of more Western weapons would change the course of the war.
His battalion ran out of ammunition within weeks, Oleksiy said. At one point, the incessant shelling left soldiers unable to stand in the trenches, he said, exhaustion visible on his wrinkled face.
A presidential aide reported last month that 100 to 200 Ukrainian soldiers were dying every day, but the country did not provide the total number of combat deaths. Oleksiy claimed his unit lost 150 men in its first three days of combat, many of them to blood loss.
Due to the constant shelling, wounded soldiers were only evacuated at night, and sometimes they had to wait up to two days, he said.
“Commanders don’t care if you’re psychologically broken. If you have a working heart, if you have arms and legs, you have to go back,” he added.
Mariia, a 41-year-old platoon commander who joined the Ukrainian army in 2018 after working as a lawyer and giving birth to a daughter, said the level of danger and discomfort can vary greatly depending on location. of a unit and access to supply lines. .
The frontlines that have existed since the start of the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in 2014 are more static and predictable, while the places that have become battlegrounds since Russia sent its troops to invade are “a world different,” she said.
Mariia, who declined to share her surname for security reasons, said her husband is currently fighting in such a “hot spot”. Everyone misses and worries about their loved ones, and although this causes distress, her subordinates have kept their spirits up, she said.
“We are the descendants of the Cossacks, we are free and brave. It’s in our blood,” she said. “We’re going to fight until the end.”
Two other soldiers interviewed by the AP – former office workers in Kyiv with no previous combat experience – said they were sent to the front lines in the east as soon as they completed their initial training. They said they observed “terrible organization” and “illogical decision-making”, and many members of their battalion refused to fight.
One of the soldiers said he smoked marijuana daily. “Otherwise, I would lose my mind, I would desert. It’s the only way I can cope,” he said.
A 28-year-old former teacher in Sloviansk who “never imagined” he would fight for his country described the Ukrainian battlefields as a completely different life, with a different value system and emotional ups and downs.
“There is joy, there is sorrow. Everything is connected,” he said.
The friendship with his colleagues provides the positive points. But he also saw fellow soldiers succumb to extreme fatigue, both physical and mental, and display symptoms of PTSD.
“It is difficult to live under constant stress, lack of sleep and malnutrition. See all these horrors with your own eyes – the dead, the limbs torn off. It’s unlikely anyone’s psyche could handle that,” he said.
Yet he too insisted that the motivation to defend their country remains.
“We are ready to endure and fight with gritted teeth. No matter how hard and difficult it is,” said the teacher, speaking from a fishing store that has been converted into a military distribution center. “Who will defend my house and my family, if not me?
The city center of Sloviansk provides local military units with equipment and provisions, and offers soldiers a place to go for brief respites from the physical stresses and horrors of battle.
Tetiana Khimion, a 43-year-old dance choreographer, created the center at the start of the war. All kinds of soldiers are moving, she says, from trained special forces and war-hardened veterans to civilian-turned-combatants who only recently enlisted.
“It can be like this: for the first time, he comes, smiles widely, he can even be shy. The next time he comes, and there’s a void in his eyes,” Khimion said. “He’s been through something, and he’s different.”
Behind her, a rotating group of young Ukrainian soldiers from the front lines sit sharing jokes and pizza. The thud of artillery can be heard a few miles away.
“Most of the time they hope for the best. Yes, sometimes they arrive a bit sad, but we hope to cheer them up here too,” Khimion said. “We kiss, we smile, then they go back to the fields.
On Sunday, Russian forces occupied the last Ukrainian stronghold in Luhansk province and stepped up rocket fire into Donetsk, the Donbass province where the center is located.
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Valerii Rezik contributed to this story.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian War at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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