A Belsat TV journalist visited the ATO zone in eastern Ukraine.
“I got to Debaltseve together with volunteers who raise and deliver humanitarian supplies for the Ukrainian army. But for day-to-day effort of thousands of people who literally feed, dress and arm combatants Ukraine would never be able to pursue this war. Having joined humanitarian supplies deliverers one stands a chance of coming to more advanced positions. The volunteers receive passwords, which enables them to pass through a plenty of checkpoints. Hardly had we left Kharkiv when we came across an impressive checkpoint. We found out that its defenders – internal troops – had bought their combat uniforms including armour vests themselves. The state provided them only with old sub-machine guns. “Take me to the airport. I need adrenaline,” one of them asks. He means Donetsk Airport that has been stripped away from main forces for months. Serving at a checkpoint is awfully boring.
Living in the eye of the storm
Debaltseve and its outskirts is a piece of land denting into the area controlled by separatists, which makes it a perfect departure point when assumed penetration starts. But Debaltseve is also easy to be cut off from main Ukrainian forces. The only ‘road to life’ – to Sloviansk – is full of Ukrainian checkpoints and military vehicles under yellow-blue flags are racing along it. Its drivers know they could become an easy target for snipers if they slow down to less than 60 km per hour. Cars, in particular, offroaders, is another story. Lots of them are re-modelled civil cars: they were rough and ready dazzle-painted, stands for machine guns being installed as well. In theory, civil cars may leave the Debaltseve trap and enter the so-called Luhansk People Republic if separatists let them pass at their checkpoints.
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“Our defenders”
It does not seem that any war is in the air of Debaltseve. Shops are open, kids and adults are walking the streets. The National Guard Battalion named after Kulchytsky, manned mainly by Maidan protesters, are quartered in a former hostel. The residents of the town are not exactly mad about their presence: for example, several cleaning women keep making insinuations against Ukrainian troops. “They still call us ‘fascists’,” said the fighter under nom-de-guerre Fanat [Fan]. His brother-in-arms Zmey [Snake] asks me to report that there are no fascists. He is one of the youngest guardsmen and is famous for carrying a Kalashnikov, a sniper rifle, a RPG and two combat knives in the course of all intelligence operations. According to Fanat, a lot of ‘separs’ [separatists] come to Debaltseve to rest. Once they even sneaked in the town park and fired some mortar volleys.
At a crossing not far from Debaltseve there is a Ukrainian operations centre having a field dressing station and a shower. Volunteer Lena who does dressings is one of few women working here, in the Debaltseve trap. She cannot beat admirers away – at war most have forgotten what a woman looks like.
At a former cafe soldiers can find accomodation for a night. There are several tanks and armoured vehicles nearby, we hear their tracks rattling.
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Then we head for the frontline. After covering some kilometres one can come across separatists’ positions. Our convoy visits guys from a howitzer battery located in the village of V. We opted out of driving along a main road because it was perilously close to the enemy’s positions. Using a field one we mired down. If it had not been for a crawler we would have spent hours there. At last, however, we reached the village where only a few residents – except for soldiers – remained. Servicemen entered empty houses and dug up undeground shelters there.
Soviet Union’s last war
This war in Donbas is often considered as a war of a new type – a hybrid war. But looking at the military equipment used by both Ukraine’s army and separatists one can name it the last war of the USSR. Weapons, munition, vehicles – everything reminds of the bygone days. Only soldiers are not Soviet. During my stay in the ATO zone I never met soldiers wearing uniform of the same kind. Their diversity was overwhelming! There are Polish, German, Canadian field jackets, snowboard sweatshirts, cotton-wadded jackets, even brand-name winter clothes. Soldiers have felt boots, rainwear, ski boots and combat boots made in different countries of the world. When the temperature falls to -1, one may get their toes frostbitten if they wear combat boots made in Ukraine. But this year the temperature has already fallen to -20. The situation with cold-weather caps and gloves is the same. To be different, soldiers attach ribbons to their sleeves and arms. Earlier such ribbons were yellow, now they are red. A number of soldiers do not have any insignia at all and it is easy to mistake them for their enemies. When artillerists and us appeared, they became nervous and held us up at gunpoint. Then they found out that we were friendly.
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Visiting the zone
The war in Donbas bears a strong resemblance to the shooter game ‘Stalker’ the scene of which is laid in a dangerous area near Chernobyl. Here we see the same depressive landscape ‘decorated’ with waste piles, mine towers and dolly tracks. Tons of metal scrap, concrete fences and demolished buildings are everywhere. There are checkpoints and soldiers warming near bonfires as far as the eye can see. Some of fighters seem to have similar associations. I see the inscription ‘Stalker’ on a howitzer. “Such book, movie and game exist. The Major told us to give this name,” an artilleryman explains.
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Goddess of war
The platoon located in the village of V. consists of four howitzers 2S1 Gvozdika (‘Carnation’). They are at least 20 years old. One of them was part of a monument to Soviet soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. It was taken away, fixed and … sent to the field.
Battles in eastern Ukraine, especially in the course of trench warfare are mainly attacks of artillery which soldiers in V. call ‘a goddess of war’. Now the task of foot troops is to defend artillery batteries because they represent a very tempting target.
The battery’s position is a huge field scattered with rocket fragments, wreckage and cartridge cases. Not to be shelled in response, the machines reposition soon after a number of rounds. Serving as an artilleryman is not just shelling the enemies who are up to 15 km away; there is a person directing fire in each unit. Their job is the most dangerous because they have to crawl close to the enemy’s position and adjust fire his comrades deliver. In the village of V. this is up to Malysh [Baby], a 26-year-old psychologist from Kyiv, and Batya [Father], 60, a security guard from Kherson. Interestingly, there are a lot of aged fighters in Donbas. “We have already known our better days,” they say.
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Cigarettes, vodka and swearings
War is tired dirty men, cigarettes, vodka, foul language and absurdist jokes. Every unit has soldiers from different corners of Ukraine, languages mix – these people speak Ukrainian, another group speaks Russian, some use Surzhik (a mixture of the both). ‘Bl*adz’ [f*ck, shit, literally – slut] is the most popular word. Some say Polish ‘k*rwa’. A lot of fresh-baked soldiers worked as builders in Poland.
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“Return alive!”
Soldiers like to give souvenirs as if they feared that these are the only things to survive: a small trident, a doll that children sent them, a bottle opener made of a cartridge, a piece of a rocket… They feel neglected and forgotten. When a general visited them on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day he even failed to shake their hands. Priests never come to those who fight at the front, they say. In fact, their only joy is volunteers’ visits, letters from families and pictures drawn by schoolchildren and sent to them. The representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora also try to support the soldiers. “Dear defenders! Return alive and intact and build a strong Ukraine!” a Ukrainian woman from Los Angeles wrote.”
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Jakub Biernat/MS
Photos: fond mir i co
