on the front, the soldiers have a daily fear of dying

In Kharkiv (Ukraine), soldiers are hiding in the woods, on the front line. Tuesday, August 23, after six months of war, the front freezes, with no progress or retreat. “We use drones to flush out the positions of the Russians. When they are spotted, we take out our tanks (…) and we shoot”explains Oleksandr Sarychev, commander within the 3^e brigade. Tankers do not participate in large-scale attacks, but harass their enemy.

This day, they leave to target a Russian radar station. Among the crew, a 21-year-old soldier who, six months earlier, drove a tractor on the family farm. The man films himself and publishes his daily life on social networks. But he lives in fear. “Every time I go into battle, I wonder if I’m going to die. I know it’s the real war, I know it“Says Yaroslav Shvetz. Like him, the young soldiers note the losses. In six months, 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers died according to the authorities.