Ukraine’s counteroffensive, according to President Vladimir Putin, was a failure since its troops sustained significant losses.
Although it hasn’t been confirmed, he said that Kyiv’s losses were on the verge of being “catastrophic.”
In his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Zelensky also refuted the notion that the counteroffensive is failing and asserted, “There is progress.”
According to him, “every step and every metre of Ukrainian land that is being liberated from Russian evil” had been accomplished by Ukrainian troops.
This was echoed by Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, who wrote on Telegram there had been ‘some successes, we are implementing our plans, moving forward’.
Ukraine’s military declared on Wednesday that Russian losses in the past 24 hours had included 680 soldiers, eight tanks and an air defence system.
Kyiv’s counter-offensive is in its early stages, and modest gains have been made in the eastern Donetsk and south-eastern Zaporizhzhia regions.
Buildings, vehicles in flames after missile attack in central Ukraine
Last week Ukraine said it had liberated three villages – claiming they are the army’s first victories since its counter-offensive began.
Footage on social media shows Ukrainian troops celebrating in Blahodatne and Neskuchne – which is believed to mean that they have taken back control of the small villages.
Kyiv’s deputy defence minister, Hannah Maliar has said nearby Makarivka was also taken.
Yesterday top political scientist Professor Sergei Karaganov who is close to Putin called for Russia to use nuclear weapons to smash ‘the will of the west’.
He bizarrely claimed that using nuclear weapons will ‘save humanity’ – and could stop the west from continuing to support Ukraine in their ongoing war.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said that while it was still ‘early days’, progress was being made in repelling Russian troops.
‘What we do know is that the more land that Ukrainians are able to liberate, the stronger hand they will have at the negotiating table,’ he told US President Joe Biden at a White House meeting.
Without providing evidence, Mr Putin said the Ukrainians had lost over 160 tanks while Russia had lost 54. He also suggested Ukraine’s troop losses were ten times greater than Russia’s – insisting Kyiv had not succeeded ‘in any of the sectors’.
His comments were dismissed by a US official, who anonymously told the AP news agency they were ‘not accurate’ and warned against taking Moscow’s public assessments seriously.
Although most of Mr Putin’s statements during his meeting with war correspondents were typically self-congratulatory, he did acknowledge that authorities in Moscow could have better anticipated recent cross-border attacks into Russia from Ukraine.
He said he was considering whether ‘to create on Ukrainian territory a kind of sanitary zone at such a distance from which it would be impossible to get our territory’.
Yesterday Zelensky again called for tougher sanctions to halt the flow of weapon components, some of which he said were being manufactured by Ukraine’s partner countries.
He said that Russia was using such components to build the type of missiles that on Tuesday struck an apartment building and warehouses in Kryvyi Rih, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more.
On the same day, the US announced it would send a new military aid package to Ukraine worth $325 million.
Environmental scientists have warned that the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine will have long-term consequences akin to the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
Kyiv announced Friday night that about 20,000 people had been saved from flooding damage in Kherson, and an additional 40,000 people would need to be evacuated.
Following the dam’s collapse on Tuesday morning, rescue attempts are still ongoing, and Ukrainians are now attempting to determine the extent of the longer-term harm to the area’s economy and environment.
Officials and experts have warned that unique ecosystems might be lost, farmland turned into desert, and remaining water supplies contaminated.
‘I compare it with the Chernobyl disaster,’ said Maksym Soroka, an environmental safety expert at the Dovkola Network NGO.
‘Yes, the consequences are different, but the long-term effect on the population and the territory is the same,’ she told the Financial Times.
Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister also drew comparisons to the nuclear disaster site, writing on Twitter that the dam collapse was ‘The worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster.
‘Only this time Moscow deliberately used this weapon of mass destruction against the Ukrainians, he said. ‘Who else wants to negotiate with Putin?’
Prior to Russia’s invasion, Kherson was known as a popular nature spot, home to over 70 different species of animals and many endangered creatures.
But the region’s wildlife population, along with over 300 animals at the Kherson Zoo, has been wiped out after being flooded with 150 million tonnes of polluted floodwater.
For residents still in the city, evacuation efforts have been hampered by explosions from dislodged landmines and reports of Russian forces shelling Ukrainian emergency workers.
In Kherson, Ukraine’s deputy premier Oleksandr Kubrakov, said: ‘Infectious diseases and chemicals are getting into the water,’ and instructed local residents not to drink water drawn from wells and ground pumps, as is still common in rural Ukraine.
Ukraine’s farming minister said 94 per cent of agricultural irrigation systems in Kherson, 74 per cent in Zaporizhzhia and 30 per cent in Dnipropetrovsk would be left without a water source.
‘This was a huge irrigation system in which Ukrainian farmers had invested billions of dollars after the fall of the Soviet Union,’ said one executive at a large agricultural company. ‘It is all gone.’
Denys Marchuk, the deputy chair of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, a trade association, told Ukrainian television the dam’s destruction could cost the country up to 14 per cent of its grain exports.
‘We will not be able to grow anything in the Kherson region until the [dam] is restored,’ Marchuk said. Building a new dam could take several years even without an ongoing war.
Mayor Yevhen Ryschuk, who left the city after the Russians took control last year, reported three dead and said hundreds of residents need to be evacuated from their roofs.
He said 90 per cent of Oleshky is flooded and facing a humanitarian crisis without electricity, potable water and food, as well as possible groundwater contamination.
Meanwhile, Russian-appointed Mayor Vladimir Leontyev said that the flooding killed thousands of animals in a nature preserve. Hundreds of animals trapped in Oleshky require urgent rescue, volunteers helping a local shelter have claimed.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said it was impossible to predict how many people would die in Russian-occupied areas due to the flooding, urging a ‘clear and rapid reaction from the world’ to support victims.
He told the world to respond to the ‘environmental bomb of mass destruction’ unleashed by Vladimir Putin.
‘This crime carries enormous threats and will have dire consequences for people’s lives and the environment,’ he said.
‘We can only help on the territory controlled by Ukraine. On the part occupied by Russia, the occupiers are not even trying to help. This again demonstrates the cynicism with which Russia treats people whose land it has captured.’
Russia has continued to deny responsibility for the collapse. However, Western observers are convinced the Kremlin sabotaged the hydro-electric dam with mines put in place early last year.
Ukraine is poised to begin its big push into Russian-occupied territories and its commanders were not entirely surprised by the attack on the dam.
Washington think tank the Institute for the Study of War said Russia has ‘a greater and clearer interest in flooding the lower Dnieper despite the damage to their own prepared defensive positions.’
Following the shooting down of drones above central Kyiv, Ukrainians cheered, applauded, and fist-bumped.
At least two drones were seen flying over Maidan, the city’s main plaza, in footage that surfaced this evening.
In response to unconfirmed reports of Russian drones above, city officials had earlier issued an air alert for the area. The origin of the drone has not been addressed by authorities.
But the city’s defence system downed the drones, with huge cheers filling the city after locals had run for cover during the attack, journalists on the ground said.
‘Some Ukrainians ran for cover during the drone attack,’ tweeted Christopher Miller, a correspondent for the Financial Times.
The debris caused a fire in a nearby district, city officials said (Picture: Reuters)Witnesses say they heard the drone zipping over Kyiv while running into shelters (Picture: AFP)No one has been injured (Picture: Reuters)
Some people stood outside watching and filming the craft, Miller said.
‘Several videos filmed by Ukrainians look and sound like this, with celebrations as the drone is downed,’ he added.
Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukranian MP, said: ‘Explosions louder than ever this time in Kyiv. Drones getting shot down right in downtown.
‘Not a pleasant soundtrack and not one I heard in a while.’
‘Flew over right over my house, the metro station where people were sheltering, finally shot down over central shopping centre,’ she added.
The drone’s debris plummeted into the Solomianskyi district, igniting a fire in a non-residential building, The Kyiv Independent reported.
Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitschko said the blaze tore through a four-storey building by a railroad station but it has now been contained.
There have been no reports of any casualties.
The Kyiv City Military Administration chief Serhii Popko said on Telegram: ‘During the last air alert, an unmanned aerial vehicle was recorded over Kyiv.
‘The object was shot down by anti-aircraft defence forces and means.
Kyiv residents ran for cover as the drones flew overheard (Picture: Reuters)
‘There is no information about victims or destruction of the housing stock or infrastructure. The information is being clarified.’
Barrages of Russian drones and missiles and the sound of explosions and antiaircraft gunfire shook Kyiv earlier today after both Russia and Ukraine blamed one another for explosions above the Kremlin.
The explosions, the Kremlin said, were an unsuccessful ‘attempt on the life of’ President Vladimir Putin in what would be an audacious move in the heart of Moscow a year into the bloody conflict.
Russia has not released any evidence to show Ukraine was behind the explosions that blared above Putin’s residence.
Kyiv has vehemently denied this, accusing Russia of fabricating the incident ahead of its imminent counteroffensive.
According to pictures of the miniature explosives strewn throughout a town, Russian forces appear to be using them to harm and kill Ukrainians.
Although they resemble toys, the explosives, which are prohibited by international law, have the potential to be fatal when used.
They typically fall in large numbers from rockets, mortars, or aircraft without exploding. When pressure is applied, they can explode with as little as 5 kg.
In photos provided to The Sun by the Halo Trust, a mine clearing organization originally supported by Princess Diana, several mines can be seen strewn over the Ukrainian town of Hrakove, which lies close to Kharkiv.
The bombs, officially called PFM-1 mines, can be spotted hidden in the grass, scattered on park benches and lying by the side of the road.
Because of their plastic shape and small size, it’s feared children will pick them up thinking they’re toys.
Members of the Halo Trust are now desperately working to clear the area, a process which will probably take years to complete.
Tape has been left around a rock to highlight a ‘butterfly mine’ lurking in the grass (Picture: Halo Trust)
Ukrainian authorities say a number of people, including five children, have already lost limbs to the explosives, also known as petal mines because of their shape.
It’s understood Russian forces dropped the mines in the area last year to cover their retreat.
Banderivka – not her real name – is a deminer from Lviv. She said: ‘Soldiers and civilians are still getting injured by these mines. The Russians sometimes cover them up as they retreat so we don’t even see them.’
‘When you see one, you know there around another 700 of them around you.’
Bomb disposal remove deadly banned ‘butterfly mines’ in Izyum and Balaklia
‘The worst thing about them is kids are drawn to them – they look like a plastic toy on the ground – and sometimes they pick them up.’
She said Ukrainian troops often use low-tech solutions to clear the mines, such as shooting them or throwing something at them.
Benderivka urged the West to put pressure on Russia to stop using devices like the butterfly mine.
Ukraine signed up to the Ottawa Treaty banning the mines and Russia declared war said it would scrap its stockpile – something Russia has been unwilling to do.
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of using the explosives in the breakaway region of Donetsk, something Kyiv has denied.
Most of the bombs, many decades old, were manufactured in the former Soviet Union making it hard to determine who dropped them.
A village in southern Ukraine called Mykolaiv that was once home to thousands of people had to be evacuated after the mines were left scattered around the area, according to the Halo Trust. Only 150 people remain.
Paul McCann, the Halo Trust’s communications director, said the butterfly mines remain explosive for a long time.
Live ones are still being found in Afghanistan, he explained, putting innocent civilians at risk years after the war ended.
He told the Sun his colleagues at the NGO often say: ‘One day of fighting amounts to a month of mine clearance.’
Clearing the explosives across Ukraine will cost about £30 billion, according to the World Bank.
But Paul said if the international community comes together to cover some of the costs, they can use drones and remote armoured vehicles to get the job done safely.
The majority of analysts predicted a swift win for the invaders when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine a year ago.
Early forecasts of Russian victory have not come to pass due to a number of variables, according to experts, including stronger morale and superior military strategy on the Ukrainian side as well as – importantly – the delivery of Western weapons.
While recent headlines have made much of the potential for Patriot air defence systems or Western battle tanks to alter the course of the war, these weapons have not yet been deployed in Ukraine.
But there are other weapons that have already helped to change the course of the war. Here are three key ones that the Ukrainians have used to devastating effect.
At the very beginning of the war, fighters on both sides were expecting Russian armored columns to begin rolling into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv within days.
The Ukrainians needed something that could blunt that attack – and found it in the form of the Javelin, a shoulder-fired, guided anti-tank missile that can be deployed by a single individual.
Part of its appeal lies in its ease of use, as manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which co-developed the missile with Raytheon, explains: “To fire, the gunner places a cursor over the selected target. The Javelin command launch unit then sends a lock-on-before-launch signal to the missile.”
The Javelin is a “fire and forget” weapon. As soon as its operator takes the shot, they are able to run for cover while the missile finds its way to the target.
This was particularly important in the early days of the war as the Russians tended to stay in columns when trying to enter urban areas. A Javelin operator could fire from a building or behind a tree and be gone before the Russians could fire back.
The Javelin is also good at targeting the weak spot of the Russian tanks – their horizontal surfaces – because its trajectory after launch sees it curve upwards then fall on the target from above, according to Lockheed Martin.
‘Fire and forget’: See the US weapons being used in Ukraine
This could be seen in images early in the war of Russian tanks with their turrets blown off. Often, it was a Javelin that had done the damage.
Indeed, so great was the Javelins’ impact that two-and-a-half months into the war US President Joe Biden visited the Alabama plant where they are made to praise the workforce for their help in defending Ukraine.
“You’re making a gigantic difference for these poor sons of guns who are under such enormous, enormous pressure and firepower,” Biden said at the time.
There was one other advantage to the Javelins, particularly pertinent at the start of the war: they were politically acceptable.
“Their low cost and defensive usage make them politically easier for other countries to provide,” Michael Armstrong, an associate professor at Brock University in Ontario, wrote on the Conversation. “By contrast, governments disagree about sending more expensive offensive weapons like warplanes.”
The full US Army name is the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. It’s “a full-spectrum, combat-proven, all-weather, 24/7, lethal and responsive, wheeled precision strike weapons system,” the US Army says.
That’s a mouthful, but to put it more plainly, HIMARS is a 5-ton truck carrying a pod that can launch six rockets almost simultaneously, sending their explosive warheads well beyond the battlefield’s front lines, and then quickly change positions to avoid a counterstrike.
“If Javelin was the iconic weapon of the early phases of the war, HIMARS is the iconic weapon of the later phases,” Mark Cancian, senior adviser for the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International studies, wrote in January.
HIMARS fires munitions called the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) that have a range of 70 to 80 kilometers (about 50 miles). And their GPS guidance systems make them extremely accurate, within about 10 meters (33 feet) of their intended target.
Exclusive video shows Ukrainian drones targeting Russian positions
Last July, Russian reporter Roman Sapenkov said he witnessed a HIMARS strike on a Russian base at Kherson’s airport in territory Moscow’s forces had occupied at the time.
“I was struck by the fact that the whole packet, five or six rockets, landed practically on a penny,” he wrote.
HIMARS has had two key effects, Yagil Henkin, a professor at the Israel Defense Forces Command and Staff College, wrote for the US Marine Corps University Press.
The strikes have forced “the Russians to move their ammunition depots farther to the rear, thereby reducing the available firepower of Russian artillery near the front lines and making logistical support more difficult,” Henkin wrote.
And using the long-range rockets to hit targets such as bridges has disrupted Russian supply efforts, he said.
The HIMARS system is manufactured and patented in the United States by Lockheed Martin.
The Turkish-designed drone has become one of the world’s best-known unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) due to its use in the Ukraine war.
It’s relatively cheap, made with off-the-shelf parts, packs a lethal punch and records its kills on video.
Those videos have shown it taking out Russian armor, artillery and supply lines with the missiles, laser-guided rockets and smart bombs it carries.
“Viral videos of the TB2 are a perfect example of modern warfare in the TikTok era,” Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote on the Atlantic Council’s website.
The Bayraktar TB2 was not a “magic weapon,” but it was “good enough,” he wrote.
He cited as its weaknesses its lack of speed and vulnerability to air defenses. Battlefield statistics appear to bear that out. Seventeen of the 40 to 50 TB2s that Ukraine has received have been destroyed in combat, according to the Oryx open source intelligence website.
Turkish drone is so effective, Ukrainian troops are singing about it
But Stein says the number of losses are outweighed by the low cost of the drone, which means they can be relatively easily replaced.
Indeed, a plan to set up an assembly line for the drones in Ukraine was in the works even before the war. And using the drones potentially has saved the lives of Ukrainian pilots who would otherwise have had to carry out the missions.
Recent reports from Ukraine indicate the TB2 may be playing less of a role as Russian forces figure out how to combat it, yet its fans say it delivered when Ukraine’s position was most precarious.
Its videos of Russian kills were “a great morale booster,” Samuel Bendett, adjunct senior fellow at the Center of Naval Analyses Russia Studies (CNAS), told CNN early in the war.
“It’s a public relations victory.”
The TB2 even had a music video made about it. That’s the status it has attained among Ukrainians.
After the greatest fighting to break out on European soil since World War II a year ago, an estimated 6,900 people have died and another 18,000 have been injured.
Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed as Russian tanks invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and a startling 5.9 million people were forced to flee their homes due to shelling.
More than 18 million Ukrainians now require humanitarian aid, and there are no signs that the violence will abate.
Up to 50% of the country’s power has been affected, and vast swathes of the population have been left with limited heating or running water.
The International Rescue Committee has been working in Ukraine for the past year, distributing essential items, medical services, cash and legal support to those in need.
‘Our field teams are reminded each day of the strength and resilience of Ukrainian people, both inside the country and those who have been forced to cross borders in search of safety,’ Marysia Zapasnik, Ukraine Country Director of the IRC tells Metro.co.uk.
Despite their families and lives being torn apart, for many Ukrainians there is no other option than to try and carry on as best they can, as they learn to balance the brutality of conflict with every day life.
Lyuba and her dog, Lucky, in Kherson. The city continues to be shelled. Russian forces recently targeted a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank and residential buildings, according to the Kherson regional military administration (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Yulia with her kids Anastasiia and Kyrylo have received winter kits from the IRC containing blankets and sleeping bags. The charity has equipped 500 homes with fuel stoves, provided materials for almost 4,500 homes requiring emergency repairs and supplied 1,400 individuals with warm clothes (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Svietlana holds her cat in her home, which was heavily damaged in the missile attack in September. She and her husband, Sergii, were both injured that night, but they survived, and have since been slowly rebuilding their house. Their neighbours – two children, their mother and their grandmother – were killed in the attack (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Annika is originally from a village in Donetsk, which she left in April due to the conflict. She and her 77-year-old mother, Anna, now share a small studio apartment in Dnipro (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Kherson citizen Nikolay shows the broken window in his kitchen. His apartment was heavily damaged by explosions in January and he’s waiting to install boards in place of glass (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Sergiy Fyodorovych, 64, shows a picture of his cat on his phone. ‘My wife went abroad with our son. And I have a cat, Michelle; she’s so beautiful! It’s my only happiness. I lay down next to the cat and shestarts meowing. I hear explosions in the background, but I don’t care. I’m used to it.’ (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)The power, electricity, heating and water outages caused by ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure are continuing to impact millions of people across Ukraine and severely impede humanitarian activities on the ground (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Maryna, Serhii and their son stand in front of their home that was destroyed in a missile strike in Dnipro. They have since been rebuilding it with limited access to supplies and power (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A woman and child walk through a residential building complex that was heavily damaged during a missile attack in Mykolaiv in October. Ukrainians have had to show real strength and resilience as they struggle daily to access food, water and power (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)57-year-old Olga is battling cancer while volunteering by cooking and distributing bread to people in need. Olga has spent IRC financial support on much needed medication, and continues to help her community even as the war takes its toll on her physical and mental health (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Olga takes out jars of pickled vegetables from her cellar. When the Russians occupied her neighbourhood, she and her neighbours spent entire days and nights in the small space, using it as a bomb shelter and surviving from her supplies of vegetables (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Denys, from Malynivka, has been given a winter kit and his family have registered for financial aid. More than 25% of internally displaced people lack access to sufficient heating and more than 60% of houses have been damaged, IRC analysis shows (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)When the invasion began on February 24th, missiles flew over Nataliya’s home in Kramatorsk. She left with her two children, aged 3 and 11, and took refuge in Dnipro, further away from the border with Russia. Her husband stayed behind (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)This theatre used to entertain locals in Dnipro. Now it is used for legal advice as the IRC provides free consultations to residents. Many lost vital documents when their homes were damaged or destroyed by the war (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Residential buildings in Mykolaiv were heavily damaged during a missile attack on 1 October last year. Repeated waves of shelling have severely impacted energy infrastructure and knocked out power in major cities across Ukraine, plunging vast parts of the country into darkness (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A child’s shoe rests in the rubble of the Saltivka residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The UN is investigating claims that children are being sent from Ukraine and forcibly deported to Russia where they are offered up for adoption (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A damaged car lies unused outside flats with boarded-up windows in Mykolaiv. Such scenes of destruction are common across Ukraine, where blackouts and dwindling resources leave local people vulnerable. Marysia Zapasnik, IRC Country Director, says: ‘Over 18 million people in Ukraine are in need of humanitarian assistance, and millions of lives are facing ever-increasing risk.’ (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)A crater from a missile impact that obliterated a house in Karolino-Buhaz in Odesa Oblast, Ukraine. Here, Russian missiles landed on local homes, killing civilians and hurting local tourism, the seaside community’s main source of income (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Milana, 10, Natasha, 10 and Danil, 13, take refuge in an IRC Safe Healing Learning Space. During conflict, children are exposed to multiple and severe adversities, such as violence, abuse and displacement. Spaces like this provide social and emotional learning, as well as traditional academic lessons (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)An abandoned toy sits in the rubble at the Saltivka residential area in Kharkiv. Houses were severely damaged in shelling and the local school was bombed (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)Svitlana fetches drinkable water from a tap in her Mykolaiv neighborhood and carries it back to her home. The city has been without drinking water for months (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)The Saltivka residential area lies in ruins. This neighbourhood, once home to around 300,000, was Kharkiv’s largest residential area prior to the invasion. Russian artillery, mortars and rockets have left many high-rises dangerous, and they are now being dismantled by local rescue workers (Picture: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/ International Rescue Committee)
Ukraine’sprogress in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia has been far more limited than its successes in the north-east.
Front line positions come under regular fire as both Russia and Ukraine attempt to push forward. The BBC’s Abdujalil Abdurasulov gained rare access to the front line in Kherson, a region where Ukrainian men have been told they could be drafted to fight for the Russian army.
An old Soviet self-propelled howitzer called Gvozdika or “Carnation” is rolled out in an open field and put into position. Its barrel tilts up. “Fire!” comes the command.
The gunners hastily move away after the last shot, acting quickly.
Although the advance of Ukrainian forces in the south is very slow, their artillery units remain busy.
Stus, commander of the gunners, explains that the Russianstarget his infantry and they respond in order to silence them.
Their job is very much felt at the front line. Soldiers walk across the vast field under the cover of a line of trees. They pay no attention to the sound of missiles flying above their head nor the thud of explosions. The fighters say a Russian observation post is 500m away and they might be within the range of small arms.
The Ukrainians move quickly to reach a destroyed farm building that they took back just a week ago. Now, they are digging trenches and carrying sandbags in order to fortify their new position.
Image caption,
Stus, commander of the gunners, says troops “shouldn’t underestimate our enemy”
But Ukraine’s advancement in the south is moving slowly.
All talk about counter-offensive here helps to deceive Russians and achieve gains in the East, laughs Vasyl, a deputy commander of the regiment.
“But we have some success here as well. We continue liberating villages with small steps but it’s very difficult – every victory we have is covered with blood,” he adds.
Many Ukrainians who remain behind the Russian front line, in the occupied territories, are anxiously waiting for this counter-offensive.
“We’re euphoric when Ukraine hits the occupied territories,” says Iryna, a resident of Melitopol in the south. “It means that Ukraine has not forgotten us. We all know that living near military infrastructure and buildings is not safe, so most civilians have moved out from those locations.”
But for people in the occupied territories, the longer they wait, the harder it is to survive. Many believed that the counter-offensive would happen in August. But when that didn’t happen, people started to flee towards Ukrainian controlled territories and areas further to the West.
Among them was Tatyana Kumok from Melitopol. The Israeli citizen was visiting her hometown when the Russian invasion started in February. She stayed in the city and distributed aid to residents but in September, she and her family decided to leave. One of the main reasons for leaving was Russia’s promise to hold a so-called referendum.
“As soon as it’s done, the Russians will introduce new bans according to their laws and try to legitimise the occupation,” she says.
With the city turned into a giant military base, she says it is clear that Russian troops won’t abandon the city easily.
“It was obvious the city won’t be liberated this fall,” she adds.
Image source, Tatyana Kumok
Image caption,
Tatyana Kumok and her family fled Melitopol just before Russia decided to hold a so-called referendum
Even a silent resistance to Russian occupation is getting dangerous now.
In September many families were forced to send their children to Russian-administered schools even though their children would be exposed to the Kremlin’s propaganda.
“If you don’t send your child to school, it’s a litmus test for you – it means you have pro-Ukrainian views,” explains Ms Kumok. “I know parents who had to tell their seven-year-old child not to talk about things discussed at home with anyone at school. Otherwise the child could be taken away. That was really awful.”
Image source, EPA
Image caption,
Children at a newly opened nursery in Russian occupied Berdyansk of Zaporizhia region
The crackdown on people who do not support Russian rule is rising.
“There is a sharp increase of arrests since August following the successful Ukrainian air strikes,” says Bohdan who is still living in Kherson. He spoke with the BBC via a messenger app and his real name is not being revealed for his safety.
Bohdan says that earlier detentions were based on a list of names that the Russian military had. But now anyone can be arrested and thrown into a basement for interrogation.
Russian soldiers recently came to the house of Hanna (not her real name) in Nova-Kakhovka, a city in Kherson region, to check who was living there.
“They didn’t go inside the house but it was still scary. I don’t even walk with my phone now,” she said via a messenger app.
Image source, EPA
Image caption,
A woman in Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia casts her ballot during voting in a so-called referendum
The self-styled referendum is bringing a new threat to the local population – mobilisation. Many men could be drafted to fight for the Russian army.
Russian soldiers are already going house to house in some villages and writing down the names of male residents, local residents say. They claim soldiers have told them to be ready for a call-up after the referendum.
Men aged 18-35 are reportedly not allowed to leave the occupied territories any more.
Iryna left on 23 September, the first day of the so-called referendum, with her husband and two children. They wanted to stay in order to look after her paralysed 92-year-old grandmother.
“But when Putin announced the call-up, and we already knew about the referendum, it was clear there would be a mass mobilization and men would be detained right on the street irrespective of their age,” she says.
“We could survive without gas and electricity, we could find solutions for that. But not for this. That was our red line,” says Iryna.
Image caption,
Vasyl, a deputy commander in the Ukrainian army says “every victory we have is covered with blood”
The Russian call-up will pose more challenges for the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
It will certainly escalate the war and more people will die, Ukrainian soldiers say.
“We shouldn’t underestimate our enemy,” says Stus, commander of the gunners. “Those new recruited Russian soldiers will have guns and grenades, so they will pose a threat, which we will have to eliminate”.
As the gunners wait for new tasks with their howitzer hidden in the bushes, Russian troops hit a nearby Ukrainian village with Grad missiles. The gunners are silent as they listen to the series of explosions.
That terrifying sound was just another reminder that the success of the Ukrainian troops will depend on how quickly they can make Russian artillery and rocket launchers go silent.
On a sweltering summer day in July, hundreds of Ukrainians try to rest on metal beds lined up in a basketball court-turned-shelter. Their tales of horror and hardship along with a few belongings are all they have left.
But with this safe haven being inside Russia, they are hesitant to share those stories.
Alexey Nechipurenko, 45, was maimed as Russian forces entered the southern port city of Mariupol. His foot was shot to pieces and his wife was killed before his eyes, he tells CNN.
But, as a Russian doctor tends his wounds, he insists Ukraine, not Russia, is to blame for his suffering.
“The Russians were just beginning to enter the city. Therefore, they just couldn’t actually have been on the side where we were,” he told CNN.
The basketball court shelter is in Taganrog, southern Russia, just 69 miles from Mariupol where Ukrainian soldiers and civilians held out for weeks in the Azovstal steel plant before Russia took full control of the city.
CNN was given exclusive access to the center set up to process some of the more than 2 million refugees estimated to have poured onto Russian soil since the invasion began on Feb. 24.
Human rights groups say Ukrainians are being “filtered” before being taken to the temporary shelters in Russia and any suspected of posing a threat are not allowed through.
And those who passed Russia’s first test and made it to Taganrog are reluctant to say too much.
“Now I’m here [in Russia] so please don’t press me, said a 30-year-old man from Mariupol who asked not to be identified and only wanted to be recorded talking to CNN with his back to the camera.
“I didn’t see who killed my relatives,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re just a casualty of this conflict.”
