“There is too much silence, it is disconcerting, like the calm before the storm,” says Ukrainian soldier Botsman, 49, in the trenches of Marynka, on the edge of the city of Donetsk (east), in the hands of pro-Russian separatists .
Some 100km from the Russian border, soldiers stationed in Maryinka are experiencing a strange contradiction because as fears of a Russian invasion grow, pro-Russian separatists are firing fewer bullets and shells than a few months ago.
While the diplomatic offensive continues to defuse a possible armed conflict, with the visits of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, to Russia and Ukraine, the soldiers spend hours and days in full tension under the snow.
Western attention is focused on the more than 100,000 Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine, but Kiev is involved for almost eight years in a conflict with rebels supported by Moscow.
A Ukrainian soldier checks his weapon, in a trench near the combat zone with pro-Russian separatists. Photo: AFP
Violence on the eastern front line has declined in recent weeks and has been relatively low for some time and has fallen even more lately, explains Botsman, who goes by a single name as required by regulation.
However, on Monday his post was attacked by mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Occasional explosions were heard when AFP journalists visited the site.
“They know where we are and how many we are”
“The fall was busy. They kept us up at night, they messed up our meals, but now it’s quiet,” recalls Botsman.
“They know that we are here, where we are and how many we are,” he admits.
The tense wait in the trenches where the Ukrainian soldiers take refuge. Photo: REUTERS
Despite rising tensions, little has changed in practical terms for the soldiers in the snowy ruins of Maryinka.
“Our duties continue as usual,” he says, except that more mobile observation teams have been dispatched to monitor enemy movement.
But warnings from Ukraine’s Western allies about a possible conflict with Russia are nerve-wracking.
“In terms of morale, it’s difficult. The calls from home are alarming, I have to reassure my family,” he says.
Gymnastics to relieve tension
The soldiers do what they can to deal with the tension.
Sych, 39, built himself a makeshift gym with weights and rudimentary equipment on the farm where he is based.
Think of the warnings of a potential massive attack as part of a information warfare launched by Russia against Ukraine.
“We need to end this war, either alone or with the help of allies, by any means available,” Sych said.
He insists that the Ukrainian armed forces are better equipped and ready to fight in the event of a full-scale invasion.
“Perhaps Putin, like an old fool, thinks they can get to Kiev in two days. Let him try,” he says.
“We stopped it in 2014 when we were wearing sandals and had to find our own weapons. Now we are a very strong army,” he says.
A Ukrainian soldier, in the combat zone with separatists in the Donetsk region, this Tuesday. Photo: REUTERS
more weapons
Ukraine said on Monday that in recent months it received more than a thousand tons of weapons and military equipment valued at 1,500 million dollars sent by Western countries.
Botsman insists that more is needed, in space anti-tank missiles and guided missile systems.
“This help must come in all forms, moral and material, military and political,” he insists, recalling the inability of the West to stop the Russian landslide victory over Georgia in a blitzkrieg in 2008.
“If, as happened with Georgia, the West is only ‘concerned,’ then it will all end in tears,” he opined.
The author is a journalist for the AFP agency
CB
.
