Marines reveal the struggle to defend Kharkiv

For months, Oleksiy has fought to hold a thin strip of land surrounded by Russian troops.

Now he is being sent to protect Moscow’s fierce offensive in the Kharkiv region, like many other soldiers who have fled from other areas on the Ukrainian front line.

It is a sign of the new focus of this war.

We caught up with Oleksiy over the past nine months. Now from northeastern Ukraine, he describes the difference in combat as “huge”.

Despite limited supplies, minimal profits, and growing losses, Kyiv asserts that its southern foothold on the occupied eastern bank of the Dnipro River remains significant.

That’s where Oleksiy has been fighting for the past eight months. We’ve agreed not to reveal his real name.

We last spoke to him six months ago.where he described the conditions on the swampy riverbank as “hellish”.

The situation has not improved.

“We tried to defend the bridgehead, but no equipment could get through and we never once penetrated the Russian defense system,” he said.

The marines told us the area had been turned into a “moonscape,” with the entire village leveled to its foundations.

The Ukrainians also suffered heavy losses there.

“We destroyed a lot of Russian equipment, and they also destroyed a lot of our personnel,” he said. “We left our best men on the riverbank.”

Despite minimal progress and mounting losses, the Ukrainian military says it is pursuing three objectives at this bridgehead:

• To attract invaders from elsewhere
• To limit Russian artillery attacks on the city of Kherson across the river
• Eventually overcame it in large enough numbers to liberate the territory.

Oleksiy said the military aid promised by the US was gradually arriving, but not all of it was reaching the front lines where he was stationed.

Despite partially repelling the Russian army, the Ukrainian army was still subjected to continuous Russian fire.

“Any movement was immediately covered by artillery or drones,” he explained. “The Russians didn’t seem to care about our presence there either; we became like a suitcase without a handle.

“The army there cannot leave and everyone understands it is useless.”

It is hoped the new mobilization law, which took effect last month, will give soldiers like those fighting on the east coast a break.

“It won’t change anything!” said Boston, a flamethrower unit commander still fighting on the east coast. Boston was his military code name.

He sent us a video of him patrolling Krynky by the river. At one point he fired a Russian anti-personnel mine hidden in the sand.

“Everyone should join the army at the age of 20,” he said. “But there is a problem, a lot of men have gone abroad [to escape the draft]. No one wants to go back, no one wants to fight, and no one wants to die.”

We passed their testimony to Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Self-Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine.

“Compared with Russia’s losses, our losses are significantly smaller,” he explained. “Second, we lost no more soldiers in this front-line area than in other areas.”

By definition, a conscript will never be as motivated as a volunteer. Inspiring troops is also easier when combat goes your way. Not so for Ukraine, and especially on the eastern bank.

Perhaps that is why Mr Pletenchuk struck a sympathetic tone when we told him about the allegations of military disobedience on the east bank.

“Those forced to defend their country are yesterday’s civilians,” Mr. Pletenchuk said, smiling. “Of course they will have a different perception of the military.”

With the arrival of additional Western military aid, Ukrainian generals believe that Russia is trying to expand the battlefield and further stretch their defense units.

The invaders have been conducting a ground offensive in the northeast for more than a month, and although Ukraine has slowed its progress, it shows no signs of stopping.

That is why Oleksiy is now hundreds of kilometers away from the Kherson region.

“Everything happened very quickly and without any preparation,” he said.

“Everyone is here: Marines, Air Assault, State Border Patrol, regular infantry, territorial defense and national police.”

“There are also more drones in the sky than on the east coast of Dnipro.”

Moscow is currently at the forefront of this industrialized conflict, with Kyiv struggling to counter with its manpower, weapons and tactics.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admits that time is running out for a diplomatic solution that would benefit Ukraine, which is why he recently hosted a peace summit in Switzerland.

It is about building global support for peace on his terms. While nearly 80 countries have signed an agreement, key regional powers in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have not.

Russia was not invited, but ahead of the meeting, Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukrainian troops withdraw from four regions that he partially occupies.

His terms are maximalist and unrealistic, but his dominance on the battlefield means a potential peace deal could be more on his terms than Kyiv’s.

President Zelensky admitted that his priority is only to maintain the front line. If his army could do it before fall came and fighting conditions became more difficult, it would be considered a success.

In addition, he also declared that there are still plans to counterattack in the future.

If Oleksiy survives defending the Kharkiv region, he could return to Ukraine’s “hellish” river crossing point in the south.

Additional reporting by Anastasiia Levchenko and Hanna Chornous