“But I see you have WiFi,” Oleksander said sarcastically to a young soldier who goes by the code name Vampire. Wood logs were sitting on the ground when they should have been reinforcing the dirt walls. There was trash throughout the trench’s pathway. New positions are needed to keep the enemy on edge and guessing at their location, he explained.īut Oleksander wasn’t happy with what he saw. Oleksander said this happens periodically. The battalion was digging a new trench position - a third line of defense. The GAZ-66 reached its destination, its tires deep in thick, black mud. Approximately 209,000 active-duty personnel are charged with defending the country in case Russia attacks. A medic bandages a soldier who cut himself. Ukrainian troops haul logs to shore up trenches' walls. military specialist Vanya met during drills in western Ukraine last year on how to use U.S.-made weapons, such as Javelin antitank missiles.Įnd of carousel A soldier and a village cat. The back of his helmet has an American flag patch, a gift from a U.S. Who, he said, carries weapons like that anymore? He couldn’t take the instructors seriously. He said he once attended a training session with Soviet-era commanders who carried old firearms that had bayonets fixed to the end. He animatedly launched into a story about another brush with the past. Vanya was unfazed after seven years’ worth of trips in the flatbed. The trip was a jostling and stomach-lurching experience, like a jaunt on a mechanical bull. The GAZ-66, used mostly for off-roading expeditions, dates back to the Soviet Union. “Hold on to everything and anything,” he warned. “You’re about to find out why,” said Vanya, a 29-year-old corporal in Oleksander’s battalion. One soldier described it as the most hated vehicle in the Ukrainian military. The third lineĪ visit to trench-line positions means a ride in the back of a GAZ-66 truck. Oleksander smiled in relief and moved on with his day. His comrade assured him it was soldiers from their battalion. He heard voices in the distance and halted in alarm. Any sound other than that of boots smacking against the mixture of mud and ice on the ground causes him to pause and scan the area for a potential threat. Okroshka, a kind of cold soup, was also on the menu, which Oleksander crinkled his nose at because “it’s Russian.” He stopped by the kitchen, which was cooking borscht, a traditional beet soup. Oleksander continued his check of the post.
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