The defenders of the sky of Ukraine in Sumi stuck in a tireless battle

As the evening light turned off a handful of Ukrainian troops, it came out of the trace to face an uneven battle. Their mission is to bring down the drones of the 21st century with a weapon developed during the First World War.

In the northeastern region of Ukraine, Sumi, bordering Russia, is a night battle.

Immediately after we entered the troops, there was a danger in the sky, and the tension and adrenaline on the ground.

The commander-code Jeger-was glued to the screen, which shows a cluster of red dots, each of which points to an Iranian drone, one of the key weapons of Russia. By early evening there were already 30 in the sky over Sumy and the neighboring region of Chernihiv.

Two trucks with a plane were taken to a clearing – on the back of each heavy machine gun and a gunner who viewed the sky. The trucks were declared troops, light machine guns.

We could hear how the twisted shedding before we could see the drone – barely visible when it cut through the sky. The troops opened the fire – all the weapons that fell into unison – but the drone disappeared away. These inexpensive far -off weapons terrorize Ukraine.

How often there were outbreaks of humor in the war. “You will find out when the next drone comes when this short guy is nervous,” said Jagiera, pointing to one of his team.

When the darkness closed, the drones continued to come, and the troops continued to try – sending the fire on the highway, which passed through the sky. But how do they feel when these suicides pass?

“Well, that’s not very good,” said the Jagiera gloomily. “You feel a little sadness, but frankly, as you saw – you don’t have time for emotion. One comes and the other can come right away.

He and his people – a “mobile fire” from the 117 territorial defense brigade of Ukraine – all locals try to protect not only their hometown but also their country. Most of the Russian drones fly through this region and deeper into Ukraine.

“They come in massive waves, often flying at different altitudes,” says Jager. “If there is a heavy cloud cover, they fly over the clouds and we don’t see them. And it is very difficult to detect them when it rains.”

One hundred shells for the night is standard for SUMY.

It includes a peasant (“I do something else in the fields now,” he jokes) and the builder. Jagiera himself is a former forestry and a mixed martial arts.

Now he is fighting the enemy he barely sees.

“It’s the same as every day, again and again,” he says. “For us, it’s like Groundhog Day.”

“The worst thing is that the years go by,” adds Kurban, the builder, “and we have no idea how long it will last.”

Many drones in the sky over Sumy headed to the Kyiv capital that night. Jagiera and his people knew about it. So we are. The knowledge was cooled.

The air raid warned Kyiv residents about the input drones. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia has sent more than 300 to the capital, trying to overcome its air defense. Six seats were impressed by the morning and the victims were restored from rubble. In the following days The number of dead rose by 30.

In the fourth summer full -fledged war, the fields around the Sami are strewn with corn and sunflowers, not in the flowering, and the teeth of the dragon – triangles of concrete, which can stop the tanks in their footsteps.

The picture was quite different in the fall. Ukrainian troops turned tables with a cross -border attack on Russia, fixing the territory in the neighboring region of Kursk.

By March this year, the majority were forced, although the military chief of Ukraine recently stated that he still had some territory. By May, President Zelensky warned that 50,000 Russian troops were massively “towards the Sumi”.

By June, more than 200 villages and settlements were evacuated when the Kremlin men slowly fired a way forward.

President Putin wants the “buffer zone” along the border and talks about the threat to the city of Sami.

“The city … the next, regional center,” he said recently. “We don’t have a task to take Sumy, but I don’t rule it out.” He claims that his forces are up to 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in the region.

Warning: The following section contains unpleasant details

The head of the army of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Siri, claims that his troops stopped Russian progress, but the war has already closed in the 37th Margarita Husakov. She warned that her sister did not come because there were explosions.

“She still came,” says Margarita, “and everything was good for a month, quiet and calm until we got on this bus.”

On the morning of May 17, the sisters went with other relatives to travel to the city.

“I remember we came, they got on the bus, as we laughed, they were happy,” Margarita says. “Then we started leaving and it happened.”

The bus was torn off by Russian drone, As a result of the attack that killed nine people – all civilians – including her mother, uncle and her sister.

Margarita was extended from the fragments with a broken right hand – now he is kept together with steel rods.

She is tormented by what she lost and what she saw. Her description of the graphic.

“I opened my eyes and there was no bus,” she said, and her voice began to break. “I looked back and my sister’s head was thwarted. Mom also lay there, hit the temple. My uncle fell off the bus, his brain was exposed.”

We met at the Evacuated Sands in Sami. Margarita was sitting on the street on a wooden bench, looking for a cigarette comfort. She told me that she was planning to go to another relative, but she was afraid that her eight children could not be safe.

“We may have to run away even further,” she said, adding, ‘It is scary everywhere.

“I’m not horrified for myself, but for children. I have to save them. That’s what important.”

When we talked, the airing raid siren was crying over his head – the sound is so familiar that Margarita did not answer. No other around us did. “We only hurt the explosions,” the Ukrainian journalist explained “and only if they are loud and close.”

There is little to talk about the ceasefire in Sumy, and before the end of the biggest war in Europe since 1945.

US President Donald Trump no longer claims to deliver peace in Ukraine a day. He got involved in a new war, bombing Iranian nuclear monuments.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine only made the exchanges of prisoners and the return of bodies. President Putin looks enhanced and raises his requirements.

With the summer sun is still overhead, those who are trying to save Ukraine are waiting for more winter of the war. We followed the uneven route deep into the forest to meet the troops fresh from the front line. They received updating weapons skills at a remote training ground. Among the group, a 35-year-old girl with a shaved head and a full beard-sign “Students” was hardened.

“I think the war will not end next year – two,” he told me. “And even if it ends in six months with some ceasefire, it will start again in four or years. President Putin has imperialist ambitions.”

The war inflicts wounds – visible and invisible.

The “student” sent his family abroad for security shortly after a full -scale invasion of Russia in February 2022 and has not been able to see two daughters since.

Now he and his wife divorced. Other soldiers we met also talked about violated relationships and marriages.

The student sums up the results of the war as “blood, dirt and sweat” and does not try to hide the price. “We joined our battalion as a platoon of 30 neighbors,” he told me.

“Today, only four of us remain alive.”

Additional report Wietske Burema, Moose Campbell and VolodyMyr Lozhko