The American newspaper New York Times publishes a detailed report by its correspondents about what is currently happening on the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Ukrainian troops previously conducted a counteroffensive, but are now forced to defend themselves.
According to the observations of the authors of the publication , the Armed Forces went on the defensive almost along the entire length of the front. In only one area on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian military maintains a small bridgehead and is trying to advance.
The village of Robotyne in the south-east of the Zaporizhia region is the most distant point where the Ukrainian troops managed to advance during the counteroffensive. There was no breakthrough.
Now the trenches around Robotyn are attacked daily by Russian units. Ukrainian troops try to counterattack immediately if they lose positions, commanders say.
One of the interlocutors of the publication, a Ukrainian military officer with the call sign "Tablet", described the situation as "a game of ping-pong."
"There is a 100-200 meter stretch of land that is constantly changing hands," he said.
Interlocutors of NYT journalists write that the morale of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine remains high, but they are tired and their ranks have thinned significantly due to constant losses.
According to military personnel interviewed by reporters, Russian attacks have increased so much in recent weeks that any action near the front line has become more dangerous than ever.
Russian airstrikes, during which guided aerial bombs carrying 500 kg of explosives are used, remain particularly destructive.
"They drop them in pairs, eight in an hour," a 27-year-old Ukrainian soldier nicknamed "Kit" told the NYT. He says that the sound at the same time is as if "a fighter jet is falling on you", as if "the gates of hell are opening".
As the newspaper writes, the consequences of guided aerial bomb attacks are clearly visible in towns and villages near the front line.
The Ukrainian city of Orihiv, located next to the front line, recently served as the command center for the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but now it is practically empty. Streets are covered with craters from powerful explosions, buildings are destroyed.
Like other Western journalists, the NYT reporters talk about Russia's extensive use of drones, which made it impossible for the military to move in open terrain during the day.
"Driving a car is extremely dangerous," a Ukrainian National Guardsman with the nickname "Barbarian" told reporters. The fighters of his unit said that since September they left their armored vehicles and walked almost ten kilometers to the positions.
Such hikes take place in the dark through rain and mud, say the military. Difficult delivery of ammunition and food and evacuation of the wounded is one of the reasons why Ukraine was unable to carry out its counteroffensive.
The Ukrainian military also uses drones, but often because artillery shells are increasingly in short supply. And drones are a cheap and fast weapon for attacks on Russian equipment and infantry nearby.
At the same time, the Russian military uses drones not only for strikes on the Armed Forces, but also for sabotage, the authors continue.
According to "Planshet", the Russians sometimes reproduce the sounds of gunfire from drones so that the Ukrainian military thinks they are being attacked and reveals their positions.
Some UDF soldiers also say that Russia uses drones to drop tear gas grenades.
"It causes severe pain in the eyes and burning, like a piece of coal in the throat, you can't breathe," said one fighter.
Part of the Ukrainian military during one of the attacks had gas masks, but others ran out of the trenches to escape from the gas, and died as a result of the strikes of other Russian drones that were above the trenches, says one of the eyewitnesses.
Losses in all units along the front are high, say NYT interlocutors.
According to the soldiers, almost all of them were injured or barely escaped in recent months.
"We don't have enough people," said one of the commanders with the call sign "Banderas". "We have weapons, but not enough people."
But, despite all the difficulties, the Ukrainian military remains optimistic and continues to hunt Russian equipment and soldiers with its own drones and other means.
