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Evgeniy Maloletka
@evgenymaloletka

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Under the shade of trees, the Ukrainian soldiers wait by a trench as artillery fire booms in the distance in the volatile front near the salt-mining city of Bakhmut where fierce battles have been raging in the northern and southern flanks. The Associated Press visited a unit fighting in the direction on Wednesday and spoke to soldiers about the tireless monotony of frontline life. Soldiers said after 15 months of fighting they are used to the sounds and routines of war. Drones buzzed overhead all the time. They were tired, they said, but they kept up the fight. A Ukrainian soldier with the call sign Borysovych, 49, languidly rested a hand on his helmet as the explosions echoed nearby. He did not flinch. Ukrainian soldiers are currently advancing along the southern and northern flanks around the city, in an attempt to encircle Russian troops and further grind down Russian offensive capabilities. At a secret operations centre for the 30th Mechanized Brigade, Colonel Volodymyr Silenko sets strategy and tactics with intelligence fed from soldiers on the ground and flying drones. The Associated Press was granted rare access to the secure site where the colonel showed off a downed Russia drone that was armed with a bomb containing metal nuts. The colonel spoke about the Russian military’s recruitment of prisoners, the struggle for Bakhmut and the direction of the counter-offensive, and how much the war has become a battle of wits as well as raw power. #ukraine #russia #war #invasion #frontline