In Marinka Ukrainian soldiers participating in the battle “hell” to recapture this eastern city they are getting closer to their Russian enemies.
Russia has made it a priority to capture the industrial region of Donetskwhere is Marinka.
Since the Russians invaded the country, artillery has dominated this conflict, which has become a war of attrition between long-range weapons.
But among the buildings of Marinka, which had some 10,000 inhabitants before the war and is now cut in half by the front line, Ukrainian soldiers have been suddenly encountering face to face with the enemy.
“They could appear behind a wall 10 or 20 meters from you, unexpectedly, climbing through the rubble,” said a member of the 79th Brigade, who declined to give his name.
Soldiers fending off Russian troops in Marinka told the news agency AFP who, with no buildings to take refuge in, fight from the basements, crouching behind the remains of walls or rubble.
“no trenches. There is nothing. I even had to hide behind a refrigerator,” said another soldier, Vitali, 34.
The press officer, Colonel Yaroslav Chepurny, said that the brigade suffered here his “highest number of losses.”
In a position near Krasnogorivkawhere AFP was able to speak to some of the soldiers, Volodimir, 26, points out where his Russian adversaries are, among the trees, about 500 meters away.
“They fire at us with machine guns. Then we answer them with rocket launchers and they remain silent, ”he says.
The members of the brigade, who have been fighting in Marinka five monthstake a breather at a nearby base to escape the cold and recover.
The young brigade commander, Dmytro, acknowledges that it is a burden to “decide the fate of the people”.
The 29-year-old lieutenant, who was a video game developer before joining the military in May, earned the “Good” badge for boosting morale. He then had to replace the squad leader, who was injured.
“You have to decide whether or not to pull out of a position the body of a dead soldierbecause you often have to do it under enemy fire,” he says.
They try to do everything possible to recover the wounded but always in the dark.
Valentin, a member of the squad, was one of those who managed to get out, after being wounded in the arm and leg.
Back with his platoon at the base, he displays aerial photos of the Marinka ruins and the collapsed walls of buildings, barely visible under a thin layer of snow.
(With information from AFP)
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Source-www.infobae.com