Tom Mutch reports:

We can see the rockets landing in the field in front of us, around a mile away from the frontline barracks we are holed up in. A shell whistles over our head only to smash into the forest next to us, but the birds don’t even wait for the smoke to clear before you can hear their melodic singing waft from the trees along with the plumes of white smoke. With a bright blue twilight sky and the yellow of the endless wheat fields around us, this part of the Donbas is an eerily beautiful arena for the carnage of the worst battle of the war in Ukraine so far. The artillery shelling is “constant,” a soldier tells us. So constant that he’s bored by it. Throughout the night, we hear dozens of explosions, some of which are close enough to shake the foundations of the base. This base is a handful of miles from Russian positions near the city of Izyum, and it is supposedly the quietest part of the Donbas front line.

The mostly volunteer soldiers at this base have an extraordinary mix of talents. There are Stanislav and Oksana, a young couple who are both lawyers studying for their doctorates in Kyiv. There are “Akademic” and “Okson,” who both have doctorate degrees in arts and philosophy but now serve in the trenches as snipers. One young soldier here was a member of the team that hunted down the Russian assassination squads sent to kill Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv in the opening days of the war. All the soldiers serving are fiercely patriotic and committed to their country’s freedom. They are Ukraine’s best and brightest. And every day, men and women like them are getting torn to pieces by Russian artillery in the fields of the Donbas. What we witnessed was similar to scenes we could see throughout the region.

The day before, we watched a dark blue van limp its way down the cracked road to Soledar toward a Ukrainian checkpoint. The front tires were burst, and the windshield was riddled with bullet holes. It was a mystery how it was still roadworthy or how anyone inside was still alive. Behind the van was a civilian car with the owner’s possessions strapped to its roof. The driver was in tears and looked like he was having a panic attack. The previous night, we had seen reports of a rapid Russian breakout from the town of Popasna, where they had been building up for a major assault for days. “They are 5 kilometers [3 miles] away from Soledar,” a Ukrainian press officer said when we asked them whether it was possible to visit the town to assess the situation. This was an extraordinary stride of 12 miles from their previous positions. When we arrived at the closest checkpoint, the Ukrainian soldiers stationed gave us a quizzical look and said, “You can go, I suppose, but we cannot guarantee your safety.” [Continue reading…]