Published on : 03/07/2022 – 15:54
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New York, Ukraine. This city of about 10,000 inhabitants, in the Donetsk region, has been opposite the front line since 2014. It is now in the line of sight of pro-Russian forces in Donbass with a first trench taken from the Ukrainians.
From our special correspondent in Gorlovka,
Nose and eyes that sting, an acrid smell in the throat, then blackened, charred wood that still glows. The earth has turned over several meters… End of the course. We can no longer progress with rapid steps under the crushing heat. The day before, this trench in the front line was shelled for half an hour, it is still smoking.
Back in a buried hut: inside, there are a few furnished beds and a handful of soldiers seated in front of a tiny television screen of ten by five centimeters, which broadcasts the news bulletin of state television. In the dark doorway, the sentry appears. ” The Ukrainians were in the same place as yesterday, and then they moved. They change places all the time. There, they showed themselves standing, just in front of us; they provoke us. And their drones are there too “, he reports.
Four months of daily battles
Eight years since the conflict began, four months that they fight each day with drones, cannons or mortar fire. A soldier holds in his hands a khaki object of about ten centimeters. ” It is a Polish 60 caliber mortar, easy to transport, very maneuverable due to the small caliber, he explains. The sound of the shot is very hard to hear and the fragments scatter wildly. It really is a very lethal weapon. »
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Trenches on the plain, forests on the edge to progress under cover and fields as far as the eye can see. In the middle of this combat zone, as if nothing had happened, we come across trucks loaded to the brim with green bales. Forage grass for cattle next winter.
► To read also: Sievierodonetsk, a week after the fall
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