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For the past two weeks, satellite images have shown that Russian troops have been massing on the borders of Ukraine, as they did a year ago. For kyiv, there is no doubt that Vladimir Putin is preparing a new offensive. The France Télévisions teams went to the east of the country to follow the elite units of the Ukrainian army, which are preparing for the big fight.
It is an elite unit of the Ukrainian army. We are on a hotly contested front line. As soon as the journalists from France 2 arrived, the position of the gunners was under enemy fire, white smoke at the point of impact. The soldiers retaliate, but it is necessary to fall back quickly. “We have to change our plans, the Russians have detected the location of our guns”, says a soldier. The fighting is fierce to gain only a few meters and the human losses are very heavy. A commander, specialist in the infiltration in enemy zone to locate targets, indicates that it is one of them that his men will now aim. Adjustment of the shooting, but nothing happens as expected. Deadly projectiles, called “cluster munitions” fall nearby.
Among the soldiers of the battalion, there is a French-speaking Ukrainian. “They try to attack us now“, he says. No casualties that day, but it illustrates the current difficulties of the Ukrainian army, harassed by the Russians. The Russian soldiers far outnumbered the Ukrainians during the assaults. “Their commanders have no mercy, they send the soldiers in waves to be killed. They are on amphetamines. We kill a lot of them but they end up advancing”says a Ukrainian soldier.
The elite unit is always on the front line. In this secret place, the soldiers refine their assault techniques in the trenches. The only big question, for these soldiers as for the civilians, is to know when the great offensive prepared by the Russians will take place. Will it be this spring or in the days to come?
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