Ukrainian soldiers often spend months in isolated areas of the front, where they hold their positions. To leave them, they have to walk for kilometers under swarms of drones in the sky above them.
Chani and his two comrades from the "Alcatraz" battalion of the 93rd Brigade endured 130 days in the basement of a destroyed house in eastern Ukraine, holding their ground. After a grueling two-day march and 17-18 kilometers under swarms of drones in the sky and mines in the ground, the three fighters managed to reach Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region unharmed, writes the German public media ARD.
"Getting to the positions or leaving them is very difficult", Chani tells ARD correspondent Rebecca Barth. The men had to be careful where they stepped so as not to stumble upon a mine. They also had to constantly listen for drones and quickly seek cover if necessary. They moved very cautiously, a few meters apart, across the kilometers of no-man's land on the front in Ukraine.
"No one is surprised anymore that a soldier spends up to six months at the front," says military expert Mykola Beleskov. In the so-called "death zone" - a strip of land several kilometers wide - the infantrymen are largely left to their own devices and can only rely on themselves. During this time, drones supply them with only the bare essentials - food, water and ammunition.
Attempts at rotation are not always successful
However, supplies do not always reach the soldiers. Recently, photos of severely emaciated soldiers caused a sensation in Ukraine. In response, the army chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, ordered soldiers to change positions after two months at the most.
In practice, however, this is unrealistic, soldiers and experts believe. "Attempts to carry out more frequent rotations could lead to the loss of more people," Beleskov warns. There have been two attempts to replace Chani and his comrades. "The first time, one of us was wounded by an attack drone, the second attempt also failed. Only the third was successful," Chani says.
"Sending soldiers to a given position is a very big challenge," Mykola Beleskov confirms. He specifies that this can take up to a week and is associated with significant risks for everyone involved in the operation, and especially for the soldiers themselves, writes ARD.
"Death Zone"
Last year, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced the creation of the so-called "death zone" with the aim of ensuring that no Russian soldier can advance unnoticed along the front. The result is a transparent battlefield where every movement on the ground can be monitored.
In the "death zone" The conditions are extremely harsh: the men wash themselves only with wet wipes or specially designed dry showers. If there is no basement to hide in, the soldiers have to dig small shelters with their hands. “To sit two people in such shelters for four months is catastrophic”, says Chani, who survived two such grueling missions.
And from the drones overhead, only bad weather actually protects them. Large battles involving many soldiers are practically no longer fought. Instead, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers move in small groups through the "death zone".
Corpses buried in the garbage
Both Chani and his comrades have been attacked several times in their positions. From the air, Ukrainian drones monitor the movements of Russian soldiers, and their pilots warn the soldiers on the ground. "I waited for him down at the position with a machine gun and shot him immediately", says Chani of one of these attacks.
The men take the documents, radio, weapon and ammunition of the killed Russian soldier before hiding his body - a few meters from the basement, under the bushes of a row of trees, where the bodies of other soldiers already lie. "We covered it with garbage and debris from destroyed houses so that the Russians wouldn't see where we were waiting for them", says Chani.
Conditions will not improve soon
Ukraine currently has almost no opportunity to improve the harsh conditions of soldiers at the front, believes military expert Mykola Beleskov. "What we are seeing now did not happen in either the First or the Second World War", he claims. Back then, no-man's land was several hundred meters wide, and behind it were defensive lines.
With constant surveillance and continuous shelling, it is impossible to build suitable fortified positions. There is also a lack of personnel to service and maintain such facilities. "Often only between 5 and 10 people are responsible for one kilometer of the front," Beleskov explains.
Experts believe it is safer for the soldiers to stay in their positions longer, and Sirsky's order is perceived more as a symbolic act. "Our withdrawal from the positions was very difficult", recalls Czańy. "We were surrounded, there were Russians everywhere. We moved slowly - from one row of trees to the next, trying to hide from the drones", he explains.
Without soldiers in the field is impossible
Their withdrawal lasted two days. On the first day, they covered only five kilometers. They moved only when they could not hear drones overhead.
“Technological developments will most likely lead to the fact that in the future we will have to deploy fewer and fewer soldiers in this area“, believes Mykola Bieleskov. But completely without people at the front is impossible. Their presence marks the front line and the territory under Ukrainian control, the military observer also told ARD.