Ukrainian troopers led NPR’s group into the forest within the “grey zone” the place they dug one of many defensive trenches used to stall Russia’s advance.
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Ukrainian troopers led NPR’s group into the forest within the “grey zone” the place they dug one of many defensive trenches used to stall Russia’s advance.
Brian Mann/NPR
NEAR KHERSON, Ukraine — On a scorching summer season afternoon, NPR was interviewing troopers close to the entrance traces northeast of Kherson, when one thing occurred that reveals how perilous this sprawling fight zone could be.
Two Ukrainian fighters, who recognized themselves solely by their first names, Viktor and Serhiy, mentioned they’d detected a Russian drone overhead.
We had been in a dense stand of forest, sheltered by the tree cover. However the drone was apparently watching our location, probably sharing our place with Russian artillery or different items.
“It is hovering above us as we communicate,” Viktor mentioned. “It is close by, whereas we’re right here. It is gonna fly away after which we are able to return.”
It was a terrifying second. For the primary time, we felt some a part of the concern skilled day-after-day by hundreds of Ukrainian troopers since Russia’s invasion.
We’d quickly be taught that on this lethal place, which some Ukrainians name “the grey zone,” hazard can are available many types.
The hassle to retake Kherson is Ukraine’s first main counter-offensive in opposition to Russia
That morning, NPR’s group set out from Kryvyi Rih, a fortified Ukrainian metropolis within the east that usually comes underneath Russian missile hearth.
Our purpose was to fulfill and speak to troopers participating within the first main counter-offensive in opposition to Russia: an effort to retake the strategic transport hub of Kherson.
Our first cease was an deserted manufacturing unit the place a burly man with a dense black beard waited behind a Ukrainian military ambulance. Calling himself “Doc,” he thumped the medical provides strapped to his physique armor. “I carry every thing I want on me,” he mentioned.
Like many Ukrainian troopers, Doc agreed to be interviewed provided that NPR would use a nickname.
A Ukrainian discipline medic who recognized himself as “Doc” waited to look after troopers injured on the entrance traces. Quickly after this picture was taken, Doc would assist look after NPR’s group.
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A Ukrainian discipline medic who recognized himself as “Doc” waited to look after troopers injured on the entrance traces. Quickly after this picture was taken, Doc would assist look after NPR’s group.
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On today, he was ready. There have been no sufferers at this hour, solely the distant rumble of Russian tank hearth. Doc mentioned when wounded troopers do come to this rendezvous level, they’re typically in “a really unhealthy state,” injured by the enemy’s fearsome artillery.
“We have to rapidly give them injections, stabilize them,” he mentioned.
From this distant outpost, the wounded are then rushed in his ambulance or different automobiles to army hospitals for additional care.
In keeping with British and U.S. intelligence studies, preventing on the Kherson entrance in southern Ukraine alongside the Dnipro River is already intense and brutal. For the primary time, the Ukrainian military is making an attempt to retake a serious metropolis, one occupied by Russia because the early days of the invasion.
A lot of the preventing is being carried out by troopers who had been civilians not too way back.
Requested what he expects to occur as Ukraine’s first main counteroffensive pushes towards Kherson, Doc shrugged and gestured on the ready stretchers.
“Positively there might be extra casualties,” he mentioned.
Why Kherson issues
A victory right here might change the trajectory of the warfare.
It might exhibit Ukraine’s capability to wield high-tech Western artillery successfully, whereas utilizing floor troops to take and maintain key territory.
Dropping Kherson, a key bridge crossing and regional authorities middle on the Dnipro River, would additionally strike a serious blow to Moscow’s official narrative that the warfare is a “restricted” army operation, which Russia nonetheless claims to be profitable.
A brief drive from the ambulance station introduced us nearer to energetic preventing. The thump of Russian tank hearth sounded extra typically, like a distant summer season thunderstorm.
Even Ukrainian troopers who’ve been preventing right here for months say the “grey zone” is an unlimited, complicated place. It stretches in a tough arc from war-torn villages on the outskirts of Kryvyi Rih, roughly 100 miles north of Kherson, to Mykolaiv, a metropolis close to the Black Sea.
The road of energetic fight between Ukrainian and Russian items shifts every day, as troops transfer by outdated industrial websites, half-abandoned villages, farm fields, winding rivers and dense forests.
A Ukrainian officer described the terrain north of Kherson as “very onerous, it is open floor…the enemy can detect you very effectively, so it is tough.”
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A Ukrainian officer described the terrain north of Kherson as “very onerous, it is open floor…the enemy can detect you very effectively, so it is tough.”
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Russian items are nonetheless punching again
Our subsequent cease was a closely broken bunker and remark submit that needed to be deserted lately due to incoming Russian artillery and missile hearth.
“They began off by hitting us with BM-27 Uragan,” Maj. Oleksandr Lytvynov mentioned, referring to a robust Soviet-era rocket launcher generally known as a “Hurricane.”
“Then a missile hit this wall from the opposite aspect. Once they hit us the second time, we made the choice to relocate.”
Climbing down into to a bomb crater a dozen yards throughout, he laughed and mentioned he was fortunate to have survived. The Russians’ intention was just a bit off.
Earlier than the warfare, Lytvynov – a person in his mid-50s – labored outdoors Ukraine as a chauffeur however like many Ukrainian males he returned residence to struggle. He informed us he volunteered to escort us nearer to the preventing as a result of it was essential for individuals to know what life is like for Ukrainian troopers.
A Ukrainian ambulance drives to a rendezvous level close to an deserted manufacturing unit within the “grey zone,” the place it’ll look forward to wounded troopers being evacuated from the entrance traces.
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A Ukrainian ambulance drives to a rendezvous level close to an deserted manufacturing unit within the “grey zone,” the place it’ll look forward to wounded troopers being evacuated from the entrance traces.
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“Subsequent location,” he mentioned, holding open the door to a battered SUV.
From this level ahead, Ukraine’s army required NPR’s group to journey of their automobiles as a part of a two-car convoy.
Mile by mile, the countryside appeared ever extra eerily empty – farm buildings pocked by artillery, fields and roads torn by bomb craters. Because the automobiles bounced and jarred down rutted nation lanes, Lytvynov informed us by an interpreter it is simple to get misplaced right here.
Troopers within the grey zone face fixed nervousness due to Russian spotter drones, snipers and artillery.
Lytvynov pointed to farm fields the place the bronze-yellow wheat will go unharvested this 12 months due to the ever-present hazard.
A trench the place Ukrainians held out in opposition to Russian tanks
After a 20-minute drive, the automobiles become a camouflaged parking space in a line of timber. Ukrainian troopers manned this space throughout a number of the fiercest weeks of preventing.
“Our firm held and fought right here, our grunts lived right here, and that is nonetheless our fallback place,” mentioned a Ukrainian soldier who recognized himself by his first title Viktor.
“There was a number of incoming. We had been hit by tanks and mortars.”
On foot, Viktor led the way in which deeper into the timber, the place his fellow troopers had dug their trench roughly 10 ft deep into the uncooked earth, roofing it with logs lower from the close by forest. It was a slim house, cramped and claustrophobic.
He mentioned troops had been typically stationed right here for a month at a time.
“After all it’s scary when you’re underneath hearth,” mentioned one other soldier, who recognized himself as Serhiy. “These emotions differ from individual to individual. There are people who find themselves scared, however we even have males in a position to overcome this sense.”
In current weeks, Ukraine’s military pushed the Russians again from this level. It has been a grudging, bitter struggle. One officer interviewed by NPR in contrast the preventing right here to what the U.S. encountered throughout a number of the hardest battles of Vietnam.
A Ukrainian soldier who identifies himself as Viktor factors to the ditch the place he and fellow troopers confronted incoming Russian mortar and tank hearth.
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Regardless of the danger and the hardship, these troopers appeared assured Ukraine’s counteroffensive to retake Kherson will succeed.
“We’re transferring ahead and planning to maneuver ahead extra,” Viktor mentioned. “Like that, little by little, we transfer.”
A Russian drone and a dying within the grey zone
However it was at this second, because the troopers spoke confidently of Ukraine’s progress pushing Russia again, that the enemy drone appeared overhead. After a couple of minutes’ anxious wait, the troopers led NPR’s group rapidly again by the forest to the automobiles.
We scrambled into the automobiles and left in a rush. Lytvynov, the previous chauffeur who volunteered to struggle and function our escort, drove quick over the rutted street, gripping the SUV’s steering wheel.
Then he instantly misplaced management. The army SUV slewed right into a wheat discipline after which over-corrected, veering into the woods and slamming in opposition to a tree. Two members of NPR’s group had been injured within the crash. Lytvynov was pronounced lifeless on the scene by the Ukrainian army.
Ukrainian troopers and medics — together with Doc, the sector medic we met earlier within the day — would assist evacuate us from the gray zone to a army hospital a protected distance away.
Later, Ukrainian authorities investigating the incident mentioned they believed the accident occurred after the SUV got here underneath assault by Russian mortars or artillery.
NPR’s group did not hear or see hostile hearth. What we did observe firsthand is how swiftly issues change on this complicated, typically horrifying fight zone. On a summer season afternoon, a stretch of forest or farm discipline or a village street can flip lethal nearly with out warning.
We additionally noticed the horrible worth Ukrainian troopers, like Oleksandr Lytvynov, are paying as they wrestle to push Russia’s military out of their territory.
