In the Ukrainian village of Storojevé, reconquered during the counter-offensive launched in June, the forces of kyiv discover the corpses of Russian soldiers, devastated streets and recover war trophies.
This locality located in the Donetsk region is part of the territories taken over by the Ukrainian army since the launch of its reconquest operation.
After this slight advance, however, the situation remains fragile and the Ukrainians are still exposed to Russian firepower.
The Kiev troops use many drones to know the enemy positions on the other side of the front, which is only a few kilometers away, while the Moscow army seeks to harass the enemy. .
In Storojevé, the 35th Ukrainian Naval Infantry Brigade operates.
As part of a visit organized by the Ukrainian army, AFP was able to go there and observe the situation on the front line.
At first, small arms fire is heard in the surroundings.
Then, suddenly, a very powerful “bang” shakes the ground: a Russian tank shell crashes a few meters away, spinning earth into the sky.
AFP journalists take shelter in a deep hole dug in the ground. A second shell falls nearby. Then the danger passes.
“With a tank, you do not hear the start of the shooting. In a second, you hear the shooting which arrives”, explains a Ukrainian soldier who answers under the pseudonym “Matioriï”.
“Fortunately, the Russians have two left hands,” he scoffs. His brothers in arms appear relatively relaxed.
“The situation is the same as usual: a little them (who are attacking) and a little us,” observes Valentin, a soldier from the Odessa region who took part in the fighting to retake Storojevé.
“We first covered our infantry so they could storm” the village, he said. “Then we moved on.”
Once we entered the village, “we saw buildings in ruins and dead (Russians),” he says. “We took a lot of prisoners and they (the Russians) left a lot of their dead,” adds Valentin.
“There were five or six on the road,” says the soldier. The Ukrainians were able to collect the bodies from the most secure areas, he said.
Then his unit was ordered to open fire with a 120mm mortar. “Shoot!” said a soldier before inserting a shell into the mortar.
The damage caused by the fighting is visible everywhere: almost no trace of the presence of civilians, houses with destroyed roofs, walls riddled with bullets.
Sixteen months of intense war have ravaged the Donetsk region already scarred since 2014 by clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists supported and armed by Moscow.
In another village, that of Neskutchne, reconquered on June 11, a large Ukrainian flag flies above a ruined building in the city center.
But the signs of the recent Russian presence remain visible everywhere.
The letter “Z”, a symbol of support for the war in Russia, was painted by the occupier on many houses and their gates.
On a road, a killed Russian soldier lies on his back. A strong smell of decomposing bodies emerges from the surroundings. Birds circle through the air in search of prey.
– an ice cream on “Red Square” –
Ukrainian soldiers proudly display their war prizes from Storojevé: a bulletproof vest, metal plates used in military jackets, a helmet with the name “Jackson” written in Cyrillic.
“When the Ukrainians chased them away, (the Russians) left a lot of equipment and ammunition,” said Ivan, the brigade’s press secretary, saying he wanted to donate the unit’s trophies to a museum.
Many of the brigade’s soldiers hail from the Donetsk region and say they soon wanted to join the army to fend off the Russians.
“They started hitting Sloviansk a lot, I was fed up,” said Matiori, a driver before the war, referring to his hometown, some 170 km away.
“We are at home”, abounds Valentin. For him, the current counter-offensive is not yet a success.
“It will be when I buy myself an ice cream with hryvnias (the Ukrainian currency) on Red Square”, in Moscow, he says, smiling.
22/06/2023 11:56:52 – Storojevé (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
