The beginning of the end? The first soldiers of Ukraine’s eye Russia talks with hope

The screen shows great advantages of smoke, which provides live karma from Ukrainian drones, hovering along the outskirts of the eastern city of Pokrovsk, one of the most intense advanced lines of Ukraine.

A few seconds earlier the Ukrainian artillery strike of Russian positions, where we saw Russian soldiers move when they try to move to the key road that goes to Pokrovsk.

At least one Russian soldier was injured, perhaps dead after the strike.

It’s cool to watch live frames. He leads home the bloody consequences of the war that Russia began, in which hundreds of thousands have been killed, “endless bloody bath”, as US President Donald Trump calls.

We are in a rural house, transformed into a 155th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army. This is a few miles from linear artillery positions.

The scale of the destruction we see on the screens, houses and buildings, fully flattened, much greater than what we saw six months ago.

This is a testament to the fierce battle that has been carried out over the past few months to protect Pokrovsk, the most important transport center in the Donetsk region.

This week there is cautious optimism, even among skeptical soldiers who witnessed the hope of ceasefire again and again, since diplomatic efforts from the US, Europe, Turkey and others pushed Russia and Ukraine for the first time in three years.

“I think something should happen, because Russia was the first to push for these conversations. I mean that since 2022 they refused to come into any contact,” says the officer who wants to apply with his Coat call sign.

“I want to believe that this will be the beginning of the end of the war.

“But now I see, we have succeeded in destroying their back positions and their nutrition line. Russia has no equal strength and strength, which is the beginning. So I think something will happen.”

37-year-old Yuri worked in a technology campaign before a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “They (Russia and Ukraine) have to start talking. US soldiers, we would like this war to end. But it is important to remember that we cannot stop it because they have not started it,” he says.

He looks at the screen and notice that the Russian soldiers are moving again. He and his colleagues expect the coordinates of their positions and pass them on their artillery units.

We go from the command center to the artillery position, in the mud, which pass through the wide space of open fields. Dirt lumps fly in the air, our car slides and slides when we move as soon as possible. Speed ​​is a softening of the effects on drones, which dramatically increase deaths for both Russia and Ukraine as they were deployed in large numbers in 2023.

And military technologies continue to develop. Now there is a new threat – drones, equipped with a real fiber -optic cable that is blurred when they fly. “We cannot discover or neutralize them, so now there are much more drones in the region than we know,” Yuri says.

When we go to an artillery position hidden under trees and bushes, soldiers are already loading a gun. It is a Frenchman who has undergone an artillery pistol called “Caesar”. Since the beginning of the war, the results have been deployed, and France has been trying to increase production.

“I am very impressed with its precision, and we can use a large range of ammunition. The most important thing is that it is very fast. This is much more effective than the old Soviet equipment I used,” Kozak says.

Ukrainian soldiers shoot four rounds, each of them emitted a deafening sound. We also hear the sound of entrance shells from us. The battle focuses on.

“As you can hear, there is a wave of enemy attacks, and we need a lot of ammunition to suppress it. We hope that our international partners can give us as many ammunition as possible, because when we need to start choosing priority and unauthorized goals, the enemy will be successful,” Kozak says.

We ask the soldiers how they relate to the opinions that Ukraine will have to make concessions, which may have to give up the earth to ensure peace.

“It hurts it. Even I want to go home to my family. There are eight daughter and I miss it. But we must be strong. I don’t believe that if we give up some territory, they will stop. In a couple of years they will return and start all over,” Yuri says.

“A person who did not come here who did not feel the consequences of Russian aggression, these stool commentators say that you can give up the land and all will end. They will never understand how many brothers and friends we have lost. We should not give up a single meter of our land,” Kozak says.

The cost of Ukraine paid for the protection of its land everywhere, most acutely in the photos of the smiling, young soldiers located on the side of highways, on memorial walls in the central city squares, as well as on the ranks and ranks of fresh graves in the country.

She is Stepanenko with love buys her favorite treats – a cup of hot chocolate and a chocolate roll.

Then she went to the cemetery in the southern city of Zaparichi and neatly places their grave 22-year-old Vladislav. She and her daughter, 13-year-old Nicole, wipe the grave with wet fabrics. Soon they are inconsistently destroyed by each other.

Vladislav was an operator of drones from the Ukrainian military. On February 21 this year he was killed in battles in a Russian strike.

For the Yana news about direct negotiations, they do not bring hope.

“It seems to me that this war is eternal. Of course, I hope they will find the decision. Because people die here and there (in Russia). But Putin is greedy. His hunger for our land is insatiable,” she says.

Parts of the Coalry region are currently occupying Russia, the front line is less than 40 miles from the city. But Russia has repeatedly demanded control over the complete regions of the festivities, Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson as part of any peaceful deal.

“By no means. I want to live in Ukraine and not in Russia. We saw that they were doing under the occupation, what they did in places such as Bucha – their cruelty and torture,” she says. “You imagine, they didn’t even deprive this cemetery,” she adds, pointing to a big crater near where a bomb exploded a few months ago.

Tears are rolling through her eyes, she adds.

“I hope my child will not die for anything. What will still be the victory and all Ukraine will become free.”

Additional Imogen Anderson report